Day 25: Kalua Pork

If you're short on time, you do *not* want to attempt making Kalua pork. This dish only has four ingredients, but it takes hours in the crockpot. But it is SO WORTH IT. You have been warned. Because this can be really damned addictive.

Kalua Pork

Yup. This is it. Ingredient roundup:

* Pork butt roast, about 2 - 3 pounds depending on how much you want left over.

* Black Hawaiian Salt

* Red Alea Salt

* Liquid smoke

That's seriously all you need. Well, that, and a crock pot.

And a knife. Because you're going to stab the hell out of your roast. It's definitely a great way to get rid of stress, lemme tell you.

Now, granted, you don't want to stab it into oblivion, just only slightly murderize it.

Why? Because those little pockets get the salt and liquid smoke all down in there and it just suffuses through the rest of the meat.

It is delicious murder.

Put the roast, fat side up, into the crock pot and slather it with both salt and smoke. Now, the measurements don't really matter to me (I've made this so often it's almost second nature), but here's what I've learned: You can always add more salt. You can't take it away.

So, use your best judgment.

Generally, I started with about 1 Tablespoon of each salt and 2 Tablespoons of the liquid smoke. Don't be afraid to rub it in, either, get it into those stabbity pockets.

Ah, the humble crock pot. This is our little one. We have a much bigger one that I reserve for things like, oh, giant potluck foodstuffs.

Since there's only two of us here, this size works just fine. You put everything in, pop on the lid, set that sucker to low...and walk away.

No really. You're not going to even want to look at it for another, oh, 13-16 hours. You might flip it about halfway through, just to get all the juices distributed, but that's just personal preference.

When it's tender, pull it out and start to shred it. I generally use the time to discard any big pieces of fat that haven't melted off. Using two forks is my preferred method of shredding... well, not my preferred, but I haven't found anything easier yet. (Not unless I feel like attempting the mixer shortcut that I've seen...)

Back into the crock pot it goes. Usually for another hour or two, letting it absorb all the juices throughout, stirring occasionally.

And finally...

We make up some brown rice to layer it on, and if I'm feeling really ambitious, I make Hawaiian Mac salad.

This makes enough to seriously use in leftovers for a good long while. Pork enchiladas, tacos, stir fry, bbq sandwiches, salad toppings... Yeah.

Damn. Good. Eats.

~Snarkstress