Pork shoulder steaks braised in root beer and porter

I'm braising half dozen 1" thick pork shoulder steaks in a mixture of 3 parts root beer to 1 part local porter.

I seasoned the meat liberally with a mix of salts, pepper and some powder from a can of ghost pepper peanuts. I poured in the braising liquid, covered with foil and let it braise for an hour at 375. Then pulled the foil and upped the heat to 425 to evaporate the liquid and get the meat frying in own fat.

Man the aroma is amazing and this pork is so tender and delicious. This is a killer recipe for Carnitas!!!

Pics or it didn't happen. :biggrin:

Rootbeer! Have to admit you've made me hungry, but why not go for natural ingredients?

The poor pig. Well, I don't like rootbeer... Other than that it sounds delicious if we can believe you. But that's tough without pictures.

Stefan

You can use cola too, but I opted for root beer for that nice sassafras flavor. You can get natural root beer, but this was a quick decision made at the store today. All I have left is a pile of lovely pig wrapped in foil. It'll be great left over for the wife this week. I'm working doubles all week + saturday night and sunday afternoon. Gotta love show biz OT.

Is there a more traditional way to get the sasafras flavour? Shouldn't softdrinks be a last resort?

Cutty Sharp said:

Is there a more traditional way to get the sasafras flavour? Shouldn't softdrinks be a last resort?

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You could buy sassfras root, but I don't see why softdrinks should be a last resort.

Sounds great, Mike, but where are the pics?!

Dr. Pepper

Andrew H said:

I don't see why softdrinks should be a last resort.

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Well, we cook stuff ourselves to avoid eating artifical stuff, don't we? Sorry, but cooking with Dr Pepper & rootbeer just sounds off. :scratchhead:

I do a similar one at work. Rub with salt, smoked paprika, coffee brown sugar, cayenne, some other stuff. Then braise with coffee cola and oatmeal stout or Guinness. Garlic, thyme and juniper in the liquid as well. Comes out nice. I would rather use root beer but we have cola on the gun and root beer in bottles so cola it is.

Cutty Sharp said:

Well, we cook stuff ourselves to avoid eating artifical stuff, don't we? Sorry, but cooking with Dr Pepper & rootbeer just sounds off. :scratchhead:

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Getting more and more off topic, but we don't all cook for the same reasons. Eating all natural is nice, but braising your pork with some soda isn't going to hurt anyone and it's damn tasty.

Andrew H said:

Getting more and more off topic

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Nothing off topic!

Carl said:

Dr. Pepper

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+1. Try to get the Dublin Dr. Pepper. Made with cane sugar rather than corn syrup. How's that for natural. :thumbsup:

Braising with soda (to me) is kinda like stir fry sauces with ketchup. If it works, why not!

ecchef said:

+1. Try to get the Dublin Dr. Pepper. Made with cane sugar rather than corn syrup. How's that for natural. :thumbsup:

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Sounds a bit better, but still a bit bizarre. Reminds me of some of the recipes my mom'd pick up from her old women's magazines - the kind designed to boost sales of a particular product, such as 'Hellman's Mayonnaise Cake'

JasonD said:

Braising with soda (to me) is kinda like stir fry sauces with ketchup. If it works, why not!

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Agree, but I don't like that either. For example, you can find recipes for pad thai with ketchup, but much better to make a traditional sauce with tamarind.

Sounds really interesting. I've had a cola-based bbq before that was good. Root beer sounds better.

At some point "authentic" changes from "how it was done in 1800" to "how it was done in 1950." Some folks grow up with pork and apples, be is apple sauce, apple cider or apple slices. I grew up with pork and Dr Pepper, my grandmothers recipe. It has more to do with memories of home, family and growing up than any high-minded notions of correctness, such as my refusal to use ketchup as a base for my sauces. As much as I love root beer, I don't like strong licorace-y flavors which get emphasized as you reduce it down, so I don't cook with it like that, but I know plenty of folks who do. Of course there's the cola crowd, which I also love with chocolate in place of coffee flavors.

They're just flavorings. Maybe if I could get them affordably in natural form I'd use them that way, maybe not.

Carl said:

At some point "authentic" changes from "how it was done in 1800" to "how it was done in 1950."

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This is among the reasons why I avoid the word "authentic"...not only does it change, but it implies that other approaches are wrong instead of just different. I try to say, "traditional" and provide some context for what that means in the given scenario.

Carl said:

They're just flavorings. Maybe if I could get them affordably in natural form I'd use them that way, maybe not.

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I agree with this sentiment, but I do like to have control over what else comes along for the ride. For example, if you used supermarket root beer, you get the flavoring, but you also get artificial flavorings, sucrose, high fructose corn syrup, sodium benzoate, phosphoric acid, caramel coloring and red #40.

A better example comes from my childhood when my mother would make 'chicken tetrazzini' using a recipe straight out of a 50's Junior League cookbook. Instead of a roux or bechamel, she used cans of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup. She didn't know she was also using MSG and all the other junk they put in it.

I have no axe to grind against any of these products, and would happily enjoy a root beer float at a soda shop, but I wouldn't be dying to cook with them.

ecchef said:

+1. Try to get the Dublin Dr. Pepper. Made with cane sugar rather than corn syrup. How's that for natural. :thumbsup:

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Snapple yanked Dr. Pepper away from Dublin. It was a big stink down here, but they own the rights to Dr. Pepper and decided they did not want one plant making better Dr. Pepper than everybody else. They were also coming out with there own "beet" sugar version labeling it as real sugar.

We have some locally made rootbeers that are actually very,very good. They would probably be excellent to cook with.

I have had a few home-brew beers of the root variety as well...could probably source something like that from a local home-brew club...

Definitely. Those options sound much better in my book than 'supermarket' root beer, as someone described it before. Also, to me adding rootbeer, natural or otherwise, isn't 'just flavouring' as someone has said. I mean, we all like food and cooking here and must think about what we consume, and so presumably we consider the ingredients we deal with carefully, as difficult as that can be. It's not about having 'high-minded notions of correctness'. For me it's about health and making the food appetising, and Dr Pepper braised meat may taste good - don't know, never tried it - but it's not something I'd want to cook or eat. I definitely wouldn't cook it for my daughter, too. Would you? (Well, for your kid, I mean. )

I totally get why some folks prefer some ingredients in their cooking vs others. But I'm not certain a can of Dr pepper on 8 lbs of pork is terribly unhealthy, when given the variety of other foods we consume. Still, the pork shoulders braised in root beer that Mike mentioned at the top of this thread do sounds extremely tasty.

But if cooking with craft brewed root beers is similar to brewing with craft brewed beers I would probably enjoy the subtleties of the pure ingredient better. In this instance, the "normal" and perhaps milder flavors of the commercial product suits my pallet better when cooked with.

How about wine, port or cider

All are good variations. Normally I use salted water only, and find that I prefer the flavor of the simpler brine, allowing me to be more aggressive with the smoke, especially with stronger flavors like hickory or mesquite which would overwhelm many of the subtle flavors of a more complicated brine/marinade. My 2 cents.

Keeping track of what you're eating in regards to ones health is a noble goal to be sure, but considering the fact that what is or isn't good for you( in terms of carcinogens, catalysts for heart disease, etc), changes faster than internet meme trends... There's nothing wrong with enjoying yourself once in awhile is what I'm saying. Constantly obsessing over you diet is going to take joy away from eating, and reduce it to strictly a means of sustenance. Moderation anyone?

brainsausage said:

Keeping track of what you're eating in regards to ones health is a noble goal to be sure, but considering the fact that what is or isn't good for you( in terms of carcinogens, catalysts for heart disease, etc), changes faster than internet meme trends... There's nothing wrong with enjoying yourself once in awhile is what I'm saying. Constantly obsessing over you diet is going to take joy away from eating, and reduce it to strictly a means of sustenance. Moderation anyone?

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Well said.

brainsausage said:

Keeping track of what you're eating in regards to ones health is a noble goal to be sure, but considering the fact that what is or isn't good for you( in terms of carcinogens, catalysts for heart disease, etc), changes faster than internet meme trends... There's nothing wrong with enjoying yourself once in awhile is what I'm saying. Constantly obsessing over you diet is going to take joy away from eating, and reduce it to strictly a means of sustenance. Moderation anyone?

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+1 My goal is modest portions and wide variety. I also have a goal of at least 1 meat-free meal per week, but like to make it 2--if nothing else, it helps force some variety, but I'm also trying to be more concious of my meat consumption.

Namaxy said:

Well said.

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Thank you Sir