Slow Cooked Shoulder of Pork with an Apple Gravy

In nearly 20 years of married life with Sunday Lunch/Dinner every week without fail. I've never been very successful at cooking roast pork. It always too dry and the crackling becomes leathery with no crackle.

I've tried every recipe and obeyed all of the rules - "unwrap the pork and leave in the fridge to dry for 24 hours", "don't put any fat near the crackling" etc. but I have finally found the perfect way of cooking, that for me, produces consistently good results with crisp crackling and succulent meat.

Let's not kid ourselves this is not a meal for people on a medically restricted low fat diet or for the keen dieter. However for everyone else, even those on a diet are suggested to take the odd day off, it's a once a month treat!

I cook mine in the AGA and haven't tested it in a conventional oven. However I have measured the temperatures. The top oven of my AGA is about 230-240 degrees C and the bottom oven 130 degrees C. If you are cooking in a conventional oven then it's probably a good idea to make a foil tent over the meat and pan for the slow cooking bit. That's not necessary in the AGA.


Ingredients

A rolled shoulder of pork
2-3 apples - any variety sliced - no need to peel or core
2 large onions sliced thinly
several sprigs of thyme ( you could use sage leave as the traditional pork accompaniment but I don't like it! )
Olive oil
Sea Salt
A glass of apple juice or white wine or cider
plain flour
maderia, cider, white wine, sherry,calvados - whatever you have to hand

Put the apples, herbs and onions into the bottom of a roasting pan. I use the small AGA roasting dish if the pork isn't too big.

Dry the pork with some kitchen towel - be don't be too obssessive. Make sure the skin is well scored - the thiner the strips the better. Your butcher will do this for you or use a sharp knife and be careful!

Put the pork on top of the apples, onions and herbs, the pour a generous amount of oil onto the skin ( sorry Delia - but this works for me! ) and rub in well. The sprinkle generously with the salt and rub that in as well.

Pour the apple juice, wine or cider around the base of the meat. You then want to give the meat a good blast of heat until the skin has crackled. I normally put it at the top of the top oven of the AGA for 45 minutes to an hour. This will depend on the heat of your oven so keep an eye on it.

Once the crackling is done to your liking move the tin to the bottom oven of the AGA ( or reduce the heat and cover with foil for conventional oven ) and leave for at least 5 hours. At the end of the cooking time you will need to put the pork back in the top oven to crisp it up a bit.

The pork will be falling apart by now so it's not necessary to rest it but I put to one side and keep warm whilst I make the gravy.

For the gravy take a large jug and sieve and put the contents of the pan into the sieve. You then want to push as much of the caramalised onion and apple through the sieve as possible. I then take the liquid in the jug and put it into one of those fat skimming jugs - you could just leave it for a few minutes and skim the fat off.

Put the roasting pan on a high heat and add one tablespoon of the fat and a tablespoon of flour. Stir round and cook for about a minute. Then take a wineglass full of cider ( or whatever booze you have chosen - maderia and sherry will give you quite a sweet sauce so be warned ) and pur it unto the roux stirring all the time. Then gradually add the juices in the jug, again stirring all the time. I then add boiling water until I have the consistency of gravy that we like. Cook this over a medium heat for a few minutes.

Slice the pork and serve with the gravy. This is perfect served with mashed potato mixed with shredded savoy cabbage.