If you love pork stew and meaty ragus, we are pretty sure that you already a fan of pork shoulder. Pork shoulder is one of the perfect and delicious cuts since the shoulders move a lot. In case you cook pork shoulder yourself and wondering, “can you overcook pork shoulder?” With this article, we are sharing the details about it!
Pork Shoulder – What Is It?
Before we start with the answer of “can you overcook pork shoulder?” it’s important to understand what the pork shoulder is. To begin with, pork shoulder is the most inexpensive and tough meat cut. It has multiple fat layers and some people often label it as Boston butt or pork butt. The pork shoulder has boneless as well as bone-in cuts.
The pork shoulder cuts are available in weights ranging from five-pounds to ten-pounds. Before cooking, pork shoulder seems like a tough cut with lots of fats. However, when it’s slow-cooked for hours, it becomes the juiciest and tenderest meat. It’s safe to say that it will shred with a fork easily. Now that we are clear about what pork shoulder is, let’s check the overcooking part!
Can You Overcook Pork Shoulder?
If you need to overcook the pork shoulder, it’s absolutely possible. For overcooking the pork shoulder, you will need to use the slow cooker and use the high setting. Keep in mind that if you use the low setting, overcooking the pork shoulder will be impossible because it tends to be moist and has self-basting capacity.
On the other hand, if you use the high setting on a slow cooker, the pork shoulder will be boiled. That being said, if you need to overcook the pork shoulder, just cook it for a long time. Secondly, if you mean the well-done and crispy outer pork shoulder when you are talking about overcooking, you can opt for sous vide cooking techniques.
When you are using the sous vide cooking technique for cooking pork shoulder, you need to have a proper setup. That’s to say because the proper setup of pork shoulder will have the precise temperature and controlled cooking features. All in all, the water temperature must be maintained at a higher level for overcooking pork shoulder with sous vide.
In contrast, if you need to make medium-rare pork shoulder, you need to maintain the temperature of 135-degrees Fahrenheit while the medium can be cooked at 145-degrees Fahrenheit. In case you are cooking the pork shoulder with the traditional cooking method, you will need to cook for one to two days for overcooking.
As far as sous vide technique is concerned, you will need to sear, torch, or grill the pork shoulder to make it crispy (if that’s what you mean by overcooking). On the other hand, even if you don’t want to overcook pork shoulder, cook it for multiple hours to ensure pathogens are killed, so optimize the right temperature and time.
Keep in mind that the right time and temperature settings are important for transforming gelatin into collagen. The bottom line is that overcooking the pork shoulder is possible if you cook it for an extended time period or use high-temperature settings.