After reading Emma's Ultimate Cheater Pulled Pork recipe last week, I was craving homemade pulled pork, but was saddened by the fact that, without a slow cooker, it seemed beyond my reach. I did some digging, however, and learned that there are some easy workarounds for this dilemma, and that my days of being stymied by slow cooker recipes are behind me.
As pointed out in two threads (here and here) that I discovered at the discussion forums on Chocolate & Zucchini, people have been slow cooking since long before slow cookers were invented. In fact, it was argued that it's easier to regulate the heat in an oven because it has more settings than the average slow cooker.
A few tips for slow cooking without a slow cooker:
- For pulled pork, recommended temperatures and cooking times ranged from 8 hours at 250 degrees F to overnight at 200 degrees F.
- When the pork has finished cooking, use a meat thermometer to ensure that it has reached an internal temperature of at least 190 degrees F.
- As for what kind of pot to use, most commenters agreed that a heavy casserole dish or Dutch oven would do the job nicely. One person particularly recommended using a cast-iron Dutch oven for its ability to evenly distribute heat and for the fact that it supposedly imparts a better flavor on the food.
- According to one commenter, using the lid of the Dutch oven is, surprisingly (at least to me) optional.
Personally, I don't feel comfortable with leaving the oven on for 8 hours while I'm away from the house, so this is one of those weekend-only ideas, but I'm looking forward to trying it out!
How about you? Do you have any tried and true tips for slow cooking the old-fashioned way? Or is a slow cooker the only route you'll take?
Related: Fall Weekend Cooking: Break Out the Slow Cooker!
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...may I ask why you don't have a slow cooker?
Because I have a tiny kitchen. If I got a slow cooker, I'd have to get rid of my ice cream maker. :)
I wonder which -- slow cooker or low-set oven -- has the more efficient energy output.
I had the same question as akay. I'd be concerned about the energy involved.
I too have no slower cooker and a small apt.
@TammyE
Because I have a tiny kitchen. If I got a slow cooker, I'd have to get rid of my ice cream maker. :)
That's actually the funniest thing I've heard all day.
I really want a stand mixer for making bread and pizza dough, but also having a tiny kitchen, I would also have to ditch something. My wife, probably.
@akay I don't actually have anything to back this up, but I'd guess the slow cooker would be more efficient. Think of it this way - the slow cooker is heating only the area of the food you're cooking, whereas if you're using an oven, all of the air in your oven is being heated along with the area of the food you're cooking.
This is interesting.. I have a friend who's been jealous of my slow cooker. I'm going to pass this on to her!
Like you, I do not own a slow cooker for lack of space. Many of my girlfriends really enjoy the happiness of arriving from work with dinner almost ready to serve. I own 2 cast-irons Dutch oven and since I often work for home, I will give it a try.
if only the same instrument could be used to make ice cream and slow cook! the designs are nearly the same, shape and size wise! :D
I place the well seasoned meat in a roasting pan on a rack, brown it first in a 425°F oven then turn the oven down to 325°F and add some liquid to the bottom of the pan. I know this will sound crazy, but I cover the roasting pan with plastic wrap and then foil. The plastic wrap will not melt because the water in the pan will keep the temperature around the meat no higher than boiling point. A pork butt will take about 4 hours to get to that point where it shreds easily, but tastes great. Almost as good as an outdoor smoke pit.
I always make this recipe in my Le Creuset on the stove with the heat on low. Takes about 3-4 hours. Unbelievably delicious!
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Slow-Cooked-Carnitas-Tacos-241855
There are two main ways I make pulled pork--the first I use when I'm short on time, the second when I have more time but don't want to pay any attention while it cooks.
Stovetop Method: The first method is to take a heavy bottomed pot with a lid, put about a 3lb pork shoulder roast (trimmed of fat) in it whole, seasoned with S&P. Add roughly a cup of water, 3-4 Tbl. cider vinegar, a few tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, and a dash of cumin if you'd like. Sometimes I also slice up an onion in there, it just melts eventually. Bring to a boil on stovetop, reduce heat, cover, simmer for about 1.5-2 hours or until meat is tender and about 190 degrees F. Check the meat occasionally and add more water or vinegar as necessary if it's drying out. This method works better than it should, I've made delicious pulled pork this way. I found it in some random Better Homes and Gardens cookbook called Anyone Can Cook.
Second method: Put a spice rub on the outside of the pork shoulder, put it in a dutch oven, bake it covered or uncovered in a 275 or 300 oven for 4-5 hours. Easy and perfect. No slow cookers needed.
I would prefer to use a dutch oven and my standard oven but alas... I too am worried about the efficiency of that - our gas bill is high enough as it is!
A slow cooker/ice cream maker/bread maker/rice cooker combo. Now that would be a great space saver!
Of the above I only have a rice cooker. I love the idea of setting a slow cooker and going out to come home to cooked food but also hate the idea of leaving a whole oven on while I'm out. It probably isn't dangerous, but I'd constantly worry that something would go wrong.
@ErikTheRed: No one else seems to have caught your wife comment. I thought it was hiliarious and so did my fiance! Thanks for the laugh. :)
First let me say that I just found this site and that I like it a lot. Now, I'd like to chime in on the subject of crock pots and slow cooking.
Slow cooking has existed long before the crock pot was invented. I use both Lodge cast iron dutch ovens and an electric crock pot. If you have neither, you can still slow cook in a roasting pan covered with aluminum foil in a slow oven. Nigella has some good recipes for slow cooked meals.
I just tried this method while on vacation last week! The condo where we stayed did not have a slow cooker...or even a cutting board for that matter. I used a heavy, oven safe pot and tightly wrapped the top with aluminum foil. I preheated some stock on the stove and baked the whole thing at 250 for 5-6 hours. It came out wonderfully, even better than some of times I've done it my slow cooker.
I tried the slow cooker method super bowl weekend so I could do some baking and was really bummed by the results. After 8 hours on high in my slow cooker I had to finish my pork in the oven because it never got hot enough to pull apart. If only I had two ovens.......
We just got a slow cooker so now I'm looking for the other info - how to make standard recipes work in the slow cooker :-) I wouldn't want to leave my oven on all day, it would worry me too much aside from the cost. Before this, we always made stuff in the regular oven but just picked a time we'd be home all day.
Aww,come on,a small kitchen is hardly a reason not to have a slow cooker!
The thing is practically the same size as a dutch oven.Hell,put it in the hall closet when your not using it.Mine sits on top of refrigerator.
I don't have a slow cooker and have no intention of getting one, so this is great.
@Scoop: On top of the fridge? But that's where my popcorn maker and pasta machine live! ;)
@Scoop @TammyE For a long time when I lived in an apartment with NO space in the kitchen I used plastic bins that fit under my bed and kept lesser used kitchen appliances in there. It was interesting.. but worked!
I would give up pretty much any other appliance over my crockpot! (Well, maybe not my coffee maker...)
Expanding on the use of a lid for the dutch oven, it's important to make sure that the lid isn't securely fitted. On the Splendid Table podcast one of the experts they had on explained that if the lid is tightly fitted no evaporation takes place. This not only means that there is no concentration of flavour, but too much energy (in the form of heat) is stored within the pot, overheating the food which leads to overcooking. Ever since hearing that I've taken to cracking the lid whenever i am slow cooking and am convinced that they were right! I'd also say that if you are going to leave something in the oven overnight it might be worth testing out the temperature of the oven with an oven thermometer beforehand so that you can be sure that the temperature you set the oven at is actually the temperature your food will be cooking at - there can be quite large variances between the temp on the dial and in the oven.