Roasted Montreal Pork Shoulder

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There’s nothing better than a juicy piece of pork shoulder roasted to perfection!  I don’t like to put much besides salt and pepper on my oven-cooked pork roasts because I don’t want to overpower that wonderful natural pork flavor it has when roasted.  But today I decided to try a little Montreal Steak Seasoning on the one shown above just to see what that would taste like.  I’m quite fond of that seasoning and have finally found some recipes to make it from scratch, to avoid the sugar and excessive salt in the commercial version.

This roast came out SUPER!  And it made the richest pan juices for gravy to have on the stuffing I served this with.  I cooked the roast long and slow and when the designated number of hours/pound had passed, the meat thermometer said it was time to dig into this beast.  Man, was it ever good with a batch of low-carb stuffing and some lovely fresh, steamed broccoli!  This preparation would be good on a loin or tenderloin, but I especially love shoulder for roasting because the fat marbled throughout the meat self-bastes it to perfection.    This recipe is suitable for all phases of Atkins and Primal-Paleo as well.  Reason I do such a large roast with just 2 of us is I can get two meals, some chopped meat for a casserole or soup and lots of great snack meat and sandwiches out of a large one.  Cooked pork freezes well, too.

INGREDIENTS:

1 large pork shoulder (mine was 10 lbs.)

½ tsp. Montreal Steak Seasoning blend (recipe I use is below)

1 clove garlic, sliced in thirds

Montreal Steak Seasoning:  (this recipe from About.com is but one of many on the internet: http://bbq.about.com/od/seasoningrecipes/r/bl80106a.htm )

• 2 tablespoons black pepper
• 2 tablespoons paprika
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon granulated garlic
• 1 tablespoon granulated onion
• 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds, coarsely ground
  
• 1 tablespoon dill seeds

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 300º.  Place roast in pan.  If you like the crispy skin, place it fat-side up; if not, either way is fine, but fat-side up will self baste the meat quite nicely and keep it more moist.  Pat the surface of the meat dry with paper toweling.  Rub the cut sides of the garlic all over the surface of the meat as thoroughly as you can. Throw the pieces of garlic into the pan so it will season the pan juices during cooking (or stud it into the meat with a knife tip if you like).  Sprinkle the steak seasoning onto the surfaces of the meat and pop uncovered into a 300º oven.   Cook about 40 minutes per pound.  The 10# roast above was cooked for 7 hours…….like I said, slow, low and long.  Though the latest thinking is that pork is OK to be eaten at 140º, I’m old school and still roast my pork to internal temperature of 160º on a meat thermometer.  I don’t want pink pork and I think it is more tender as well as tastier when cooked to 160º internal temperature.  When done, remove and let the meat sit on cutting board for 15 minutes or so before slicing.  Pork pan juices will make the most  delicious, brown gravy.  Just use your preferred thickener. I love gravy on roasted meats!

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Given the amount of bone in a pork shoulder roast, I find a 10# roast will yield around 10-12 servings, depending on the appetites of your diners.  Each 4-oz. slice of meat alone will contain approximately:  (this does not include any pan juices/gravy you might dip over it)

266 Calories

15.5 g  fat

<.1 g  carbs, negligible fiber, <.1 NET CARBS

28.7 g  protein

645 mg sodium

392 mg potassium

24% RDA Vitamin B6, 41% B12, 16% copper, 21% iron, 7% magnesium, 35% niacin, 36% phosphorous, 38% riboflavin, 77% selenium, 65% thiamin, 59% zinc