The Best Way to Cook Pork (Confit and Rillettes)

Summary by Krater

A cooking demonstration explaining how to make pork confit and rillettes using Boston butt, concluding that confit is superior to braising for pork shoulder.

From the video

Answers: How do you make pork confit and rillettes?

• pork confit
• pork rillettes
• braised pork shoulder
• slow roasting pork
• french culinary techniques

Ingredients

• 3433 g pork shoulder
• 27 g kosher salt
• 10 g sugar
• 10 g pimenton
• 5 g black pepper
• 40 g garlic
• 180 g shallots
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• a bunch thyme
• 2 bay leaves

What it concludes

• Pork shoulder cooked via confit yields exceptionally tender meat without a single dry bite, which cannot be achieved with air or water cooking methods.
• Braising pork shoulder results in textural problems with dry and fibrous meat, whereas confit keeps the meat succulent and tender.
• Duck or pork fat is completely unnecessary for confit when using pork shoulder because of the natural fat it contains.
• Pork confit is easier than braising because it requires no browning of the meat or making of a sauce.
• Cooling the pork confit overnight before serving or turning it into rillettes is necessary because the texture changes completely once chilled.