Why was there no congealed fat on top after I refrigerated overnight?

I made this recipe yesterday and refrigerated overnight so I could skim the fat as instructed. I used pork shoulder that had a very healthy amount of fat on it, but there was no fat on the surface of the pan to skim off this morning.

There also wasn't a ton of liquid in general, so I wonder if there wasn't enough liquid for the fat to move through it to the top. But that would also be confusing, because I probably used a little too much wine when making the recipe (I never got it to reduce to the point where the spoon left a trail to the bottom of the pan, even after cooking it for longer than instructed).

For reference, I used 3.5 lbs of boneless, skinless pork shoulder in a 5 quart Le Crueset dutch oven.

linzarella
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Recipe question for: Garlic-Studded Pork Shoulder With Anchovies & Calabrian Chiles

4 Comments

AntoniaJames
AntoniaJames July 8, 2021
Your analysis seems quite sound.

If there isn't much liquid, there's no place for the fat to go. Sometimes you can find it hiding in crevices of the cooked pork, in which case, you just dig it out as best you can.

If there is still visible fat on the pork, anywhere, you should be able to cut that off quite easily, now that it is cold. ;o)
 
linzarella
linzarella July 8, 2021
Thanks AJ!
 
AntoniaJames
AntoniaJames July 8, 2021
That's happened to me on more than one occasion, by the way. I read somewhere, years ago, that when braising a meat like a pork shoulder or brisket, it's a good idea to pull the meat apart gently while it's still warm and then let the meat cool in the braising liquid. It's said that doing that gives the meat more flavor. I have found that when you do that, the sauce disappears almost entirely (visually, as you certainly can taste it when you eat the meat) though when you warm it all up again, a bit - though less, it seems -- can be detected. Of course in that situation, there is no fat to skim off. ;o
 
linzarella
linzarella July 8, 2021
Glad I'm not the only one! And I don't really mind a bit of extra fat—I just tasted it and it certainly doesn't seem to suffer for it. I was just confused why I didn't get the outcome the recipe suggested :)
 
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