Choosing good meat, any housewife will always make her choice in favor of pork shoulder - a soft, tender and juicy part of pork, since it can be used to prepare many options for meat dishes.
Why choose a pork shoulder?
Pork shoulder is a portion of a pork carcass with muscle and adipose tissue. One hundred grams of pork shoulder contains about 250 calories. By its composition, the shoulder blade is saturated with proteins, fats and a number of microelements. That is why the nutritional value of the scapula is great, and its beneficial properties are not lost even after prolonged processing. Choose a pork shoulder carefully. It should be pale pink in color with a subtle smell of meat without admixture of unfamiliar aromas. If the color of the meat turns out to be dark, this indicates that the animal was old, and the meat after cooking it will be tough.
It is best to stop your choice at the top of the scapula, because it is always more tender than the lower part of it. A newly purchased pork shoulder needs to be stored in the refrigerator for no more than 4-5 days, and in case of later use, freeze it in the freezer. It goes well with other foods, including potatoes, rice, mushrooms and vegetables. In the process of its preparation, various spices and seasonings are used, as well as various sauces.
It is thanks to the layers of fat that the scapula is perfect for those dishes that require tenderness and juiciness: kebabs, chops, minced meat, roast. And its part with a small bone is a good choice for making rich homemade borscht or kharcho soup.
Let's dwell on several interesting, tasty and simple recipes from a shovel, described step by step.
Pork pork baked in foil
An easy-to-prepare version of a meat dish with tender and juicy boiled pork as a result. For cooking, you will need: boneless pork shoulder (sirloin), garlic, salt, pepper, a little mustard, favorite spices, foil.
- Rinse the fillet of the shoulder blade and dry with a cloth or paper towel.
- Cut the garlic into oblong slices into several pieces.
- Place the prepared garlic cloves in the cuts made in the pork shoulder fillet with a sharp knife.
- Rub the pork with salt, black pepper, and your favorite spices (for example, basil and oregano).
- Coat the resulting pork blank with mustard on all sides.
- Put pork in a large piece of foil (on the basis of wrapping the shoulder blade on all sides), wrap it tightly with an envelope. For reliability, so that the foil does not break during frying and the meat juice does not leak out, wrap the spatula in a second piece of foil similar to the size of the first.
- The spatula is baked in the oven at a temperature of 180-200 degrees for an hour and a half. If desired, to achieve a golden-brown color of the meat, after the baking period, the foil can be opened and left for another 20 minutes.
Pork goulash
According to this recipe, pork goulash is similar to the goulash offered for lunch in kindergartens: the recipe is simple and uncomplicated, but the meat turns out to be "correct": tender, healthy and easily digestible. For the recipe you will need: half a kilogram of pork shoulder pulp (low-fat part), flour, tomato paste, sour cream, onions, carrots, salt, black pepper, bay leaves, vegetable oil.
- Rinse ½ kg of lean pork shoulder, dry and cut into oblong cubes.
- In a small amount of vegetable oil, lightly simmer the resulting pieces of meat, finely chopped onions and grated carrots in their own juice. When the meat and vegetables are slightly browned, add a glass of boiled water and simmer until the liquid evaporates over low heat under a lid. Use a spatula to check if the meat is tender and add some more water if necessary.
- 7-10 minutes before the meat is ready, salt and pepper, add the washed bay leaf.
- In half a glass of warm boiled water, dilute a flat tablespoon of wheat flour, a tablespoon of sour cream and a teaspoon of tomato until smooth.
- Continuously stirring the meat, pour the mixture prepared from flour, sour cream and tomato into it.
- Simmer the meat for another 5-7 minutes until the gravy thickens. If the gravy is still thick, you can always dilute it with hot boiled water by stewing the dish for an additional 3 minutes.
Goulash is served with buckwheat, boiled rice or mashed potatoes with pickled cucumber.
Chops with mushrooms in the oven
Chops baked in the oven are soft and juicy, and most importantly, not as fatty as their counterparts cooked in a pan.
For chops, you will need: pork shoulder pulp with small layers of fat, onions, salt, black pepper, wild mushrooms (fresh or dried), vegetable and a little butter.
- Rinse and dry pork shoulder meat. Cut across the fibers into fairly large pieces about a centimeter thick.
- Place the prepared pieces of meat on a wide wooden board, cover with cling film and beat carefully with a hammer to beat the meat.
- Salt and pepper each piece of beaten meat and cover again with cling film, leaving the meat pieces on the board for 20-30 minutes.
- While the meat is marinating, let's take care of the mushrooms. If the mushrooms are fresh, rinse them with cold water, cut into long slices and very lightly sauté with onions in a frying pan so that the excess liquid contained in the mushrooms evaporates. Dried mushrooms must first be poured with boiling water for 10 minutes, and then rinsed with cold water. As with fresh ones, they need to be lightly fried with onions, cut into long half rings.
- Pour some vegetable oil into a rectangular, heat-resistant dish with small sides. Arrange the meat in rows, and top with the mushrooms and onions. Salt and pepper everything thoroughly. Place a small piece of butter on top of each piece of meat, which will add extra juiciness to the dish. Add 2-3 teaspoons of boiled water to the mold, which will evaporate by the end of cooking.
- Covering the form with foil and pinching the edges of the foil, put it in an oven preheated to 200 degrees.
- Bake for an hour and a half. Remove the foil 10 minutes until ready and leave the mold in the oven for a few more minutes to give the meat a golden color.
Meat is served with any potato side dish and fresh vegetable salad.
