Try pulled pork for a delicious, simple supper

This weekend my neighbor Melissa Olson taught me how to make pulled pork, an ideal way to use a fresh pork shoulder. It strikes me as a good supper for busy people to make: It cooks for a long time but you can ignore it for hours.

Melissa has a large-capacity crockpot, and she put the shoulder in it, slapped the lid on it, set it at high, and left it for five or six hours. She added nothing. The shoulder cooked until it was very tender, and at that point she took it out and removed the bones, picked the meat out, separating it from the fat, and shredded the meat with her fingers, pulling the tender strands apart. Then she added the barbecue sauce and reheated it a bit.

You can make your own barbecue sauce or help yourself to one of the dozens of good ones concocted by various makers large and small. Melissa and her husband, Craig, were introduced to their favorite commercial sort when a summer resident left them with a part bottle of it. (I imagine quite a few of us have been the beneficiaries of summer refrigerators, with samples of all sorts of good stuff.)

My crockpot is small, so Melissa and her husband Craig suggested that I put a shoulder in a covered roasting pan in a 250-degree oven for several hours. I bet I could even drop the temperature to 200 and let it go all day. Come to think of it, one could use almost any larger cut of pork for this, even a fresh ham or a picnic roast. Obviously not a tenderloin.

We had supper with the Olsons when Melissa made the pulled pork and she served it on hamburger buns. It was so good. We had some discussion about whether or not it needed more sauce. Melissa used one 18-ounce bottle. Perhaps another half bottle would have been in order, but it is definitely one of those “to your taste” things. We had baked beans and coleslaw to go with it and apple crisp for dessert.

It occurred to me that the pork would be very good on soft corn or flour tortillas, too, and, of course, it would work as a filling for burritos or tacos. One shoulder makes quite a lot of pulled pork, and I though I haven’t tried this yet, I think this is a good item to freeze in meal-sized portions in freezer bags flattened to squeeze the air out. Instant supper some night when you come home hungry.

Pulled Pork

Yields 10 to 12 servings

A fresh pork shoulder, picnic roast, or fresh ham

18 to 36 ounces (2 plus to 4 plus cups) barbecue sauce

Put the fresh pork roast in a large-capacity crockpot or into a covered roasting pan. Set the crock pot temperature at high to cook it for five to six hours, or at low to cook it for seven to eight hours. Or put the roaster into a 250-degree oven for five to six hours. When the meat is so tender that it comes away from the bone, take it out of the pot and allow it to cool enough to handle. Remove the bones, pull off every particle of fat and discard. Add barbecue sauce to taste, and return to a low heat until you are ready to serve it. Serve as a sandwich on hamburger rolls or on tortillas.