Confit Pork - Full Recipe

Time for the full recipe. The pork was finally served on Friday night to, may I just add, our most health conscious friends. My appologies guys, but the consensus at the end of the evening was that it was worth it. After all, you're not eating all that lard, it was just cooked in it ;-)

As long as you have the space and time, this is not a particularly difficult dish to make. Make sure you have a large enough dish or pot to brine the pork shoulder in, enough room in the fridge to store it while it's curing, and enough fat to submerge it in.

Rendering The Fat:

The rendered fat

Lard is melted, rendered pork fat. Freshly rendered lard is not the same thing as commercial lard, which is hydrogenated. There is a smokiness, toastiness and richness to freshly rendered lard.

1. Ask the butcher for 6kg (for this recipe) of Pork Fat ("spek"). It's Ok if there are still bits of meat on it. It adds to the toasty flavour of the rendered lard.


2. Oil a cast iron or other heavy oven-proof pot or pan with olive oil. (If you don't have something that big to go in the oven, that's fine, just find a big pot, you'll transfer into the ovenproof dish later). Pour in 2 cups of water per 1kf of fat.


3. Place the fat in the pot with the water. Cover with a lid and boil for about 5 - 6 hours (for this quantity of fat. You can check the time, most of the fat dissolves after a few hours. Stir every once in a while. I find that when it REALLY starts sticking to the bottom of the pot, it's had enough boiling.


4. You can now strain some of this, because there will be alot of liquid, or just pour all of it into your oven-proof dish, with all the bits of fat**. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.


5. With the lid on, roast all of this for about 2 hours. Remove from oven, and let it stand for a few minutes.


6. Pour the fat through a wire mesh sieve, placed over a heat-proof container. When cool enough, transfer into a container with a lid.


7. Store in the fridge, where it will keep up to a month. Or freeze up to 6 months.
   
   **Before transferring into the oven proof dish, remove all the bits of meat, and follow the instructions in the previous post to make rillettes.

The Pork:

Ask the butcher for 1 deboned Pork Shoulder. This should be enough for about 4 people, with a bit left over for you to make a pasta sauce or something.

¼ cup Juniper berries
¼ cup Allspice berries
¼ cup Dried Dill
½ cup Sugar
½ cup Salt
1 Onion, in chunks
1 cup Celery, cut into chunks
1 Carrot, in chunks
½ cup Parsley, torn
½ cup Thyme, torn
3 Cloves
2 Bay leaves
2 tsp dried Chili flakes
Boneless Pork shoulder
2 ½ - 3 litres rendered Pork Fat

1. Crush the Juniper, Allspice and Dill in a mortar and pestle, or in a bag with the pack of a heavy pan or a rolling pin. If you use a spice grinder, make sure to keep it coarse. Dissolve the sugar and salt in 2 cups of hot water in a container large enough to keep the pork shoulder. Add 2 cups of cold water, stir in the onion, celery, carrot, thyme, parsley, cloves, bay leaves and chili. Add the pork shoulder, and enough water to cover the meat. Brine the pork in the fridge for 48 hours.

2. Remove the pork from the brine, pat it dry and clean with paper towels, and let it sit while you heat the lard; discard the brine. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius. Warm the fat gently in a large, deep, oven-proof pot over low to medium heat until it liquefies. Submerge the pork shoulder in the fat and put the pot in the oven. Cook 2 hours uncovered. Cover, and cook another 3 hours.

3. Cool the pork in the fat for 1 hour. (At this point you could transfer the shoulder, submerged in fat, to the fridge for up to 5 days. Before you grill the shoulder, remove the pot from the fridge into an oven at about 120 degrees Celsius to re-liquefy the fat, then proceed.) Remove the shoulder from the fat and put it on a cutting board (strain the fat and refrigerate or freeze it until the next time you make confit)

4. Heat up a pan or griddle pan, heat should be moderate.

5. Slice the pork into 2 – 3cm slabs across the grain of the meat (save scraps to make awesome sandwiches or to put into scrambled eggs). Brush the slabs with a bit of melted fat and grill or fry for 2 – 3 minutes. You should have a crisp, deep, golden crust.

The Gravy:

4 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 Onions, sliced
2 lrg Carrots, chunks
3 ribs Celery, chunks
Handful Thyme
Handful Parsley
4 Tbsp Rillettes
2 cloves of Garlic, sliced
Clementine preserve

1.Fry all the above ingredients in a large pot, about 10 minutes, or until it gets a nice brown colour.
2. Add 1 bottle of red wine, boil about 15 – 20 minutes.
3. Add 2 litres Beef Stock (the cubes are fine).
4. Boil until reduced by about ½.
5. Strain into a smaller pot, add about ½ cup of chopped Clementine preserve and a little of the syrup and boil again until reduced by ½.
6. Make a paste with 2 Tbsp butter and 3 Tbsp flour, stir into the sauce until thickened.

I just served the meat and gravy with mash and green beans. You must keep it simple, the flavours of the pork and the gravy are so rich, you don't want it to compete with a whole lot more flavours.