What Are the Best Tips for Making Pork Shoulder Pot Roast?

Some of the best tips for making pork shoulder pot roast are to brown the meat, avoid rushing the process, and cook the vegetables along with the roast. Browning the meat is a step that adds flavor and a different texture to the dish; plus, it can enhance the quality of the liquid the meat will simmer in. A pot roast is a slow cooked dish, and there is no way to fast cook it, so taking one’s time is the best way to get a good outcome. In addition, cooking the vegetables along with the meat gives the veggies a chance to absorb flavor they would not otherwise, improving the dish all around.

An important step in making pork shoulder pot roast is browning the meat before slow cooking it. The meat should be spiced and then browned in a hot pan to develop a caramelized crust. It is possible to get a better sear by first drying the meat before placing it in the pan. A cook can do this by gently patting the pork shoulder with paper towels until it seems dry enough. These steps can be skipped altogether, but the texture and flavor of the dish will not be the same.

It is best to not rush the cooking of a pork shoulder pot roast, especially because pot roasting is a slow cooking technique. Generally, it takes at least four hours to cook completely, to the point that it is easily chewable. In fact, slow cooking a pork shoulder can take up to 10 hours, depending on its size and the temperature of the slow cooker. If a cook is in a rush to make something for dinner, a pot roast is not the ideal meal.

Pork shoulder pot roasts are rarely cooked alone; vegetables of all kinds can be placed into the pot to cook with the meat. There are two ways to add vegetables to a pork shoulder pot roast dish: wait until the dish is almost done before adding them or add large pieces of vegetables at the beginning. Waiting until the dish is nearly done to add vegetables is a sure way to get perfectly done vegetables, but the veggies will not have the best flavor. On the other hand, a cook can make certain to add large pieces of vegetables that take hours to cook, such as whole carrots, to ensure nothing is overdone once the meat is finished.