Slow-Cooker Pork Shoulder With Brown Sugar & Balsamic Glaze

I ordered a 4# boneless pork shoulder from my butcher. It just came and I think it is bigger than this. He also tied it with string. Should I take the string off? If it is bigger than 4# I guess I will cook longer. Can anyone tell me what the proper internal temp should be for "fall apart tender?" Thanks!

I want to make double this recipe in my slow cooker with two separate pieces of 4-pound meat. Do you think I need to keep it in longer or stick to the four hours plus one?

I made this with a 4# bone-in piece of meat and followed the directions exactly. It smelled wonderful while cooking. It was not "fall apart tender" but was well cooked and tender - That may be because the butt was bone-in and needed more than 5 hours to cook. The sauce was good, but too sweet for me. I would cut the sugar by 1/2 if I were to make it again. I also expected the sauce to be thicker than it was (since it had contained cornstarch). I am looking forward to having the leftovers in a few days, to see if the flavor is different.

In the photo, there’s a creamy-looking sauce beneath the roast. What is that?

Excellent! A great winter option when it's too cold to grill or smoke outside and you have that "Q" craving. Leftovers make a great ingredient in Cowboy Cocktails.

Already in the comments. 😬

Truly excellent. I had a few challenges- a five pound bone in shoulder, no dry mustard. Subbed 3 T of Kozlowski date fig mustard for the dry, reduced the sugar to a third of a cup of demara, used half a cup of cheap port instead of water; all worked fine. I added an hour to the cooking time because of the extra weight - mistake. Small carrots and tiny new potatoes needed more than an hour in the slow cooker, so I put them with some sauce in the oven for 20 minutes. All told, a really delicious meal, and a forgiving recipe. Plus, easy!! Definitely in the rotation. Thanks.

Delicious and easy! I used a 2 lbs pork loin. I added carrots for the last hour. Next time, I will cut the carrots up into thick slices as they were a bit too undercooked/crunchy for my taste. I served the pork with some of the sauce drizzled over it.

I made this Saturday with a pork shoulder as suggested, a 2-lb one with the bone in, and it was delicious! My husband and I agree it is one of the best sauces EVER. Is it bad that I actually ate the sauce with a spoon? I served it with buttermilk mashed potatoes (smothered in sauce) and buttered cabbage with whole grain mustard. This is going in my regular rotation.

Terrific recipe. I am from the South and just have to move more slowly-250 degrees for 8 hours and it was divine. I used an iron camp cooker, but in the oven.

Thank you for this delicious slow cooker meal! I used apple cider vinegar because I was out of balsamic. I served this dish with mashed potatoes and steamed carrots. Yum!

This looked to me like a riff on Chinese red cooked pork, and after reading all the comments and knowing the my husband detests stringy meat, aka pulled pork, I made the following changes:
1. No water (there was plenty of fat and juice)
2. Reduced the preliminary cook time to 2 hours (it was just short of falling apart
3. Bagged the meat, poured the juice into a container, chilled.
4. Next day, strained the juices on to the meat on a rack in a pan, made the glaze with 1/2 the amount of sugar, thickened it on the stove, poured it over the meat
5. Roasted @ 250 for the final hour, basting with glaze and juice.

The end result was perfect, juicy tender, deeply flavored roast slices with a velvety texture. The next day my husband asked for the leftovers for his dinner. A little fussy, but worth it if you have time.

I made this with 2lbs cut of meat. I think the cooking time was too long. The meat fell apart and was super tender, but it wasn't "sliceable" like it looks in your picture. How long should I cooked a smaller piece of meat? Please let me know!

what's your second most popular? Don't eat pork.

Put on the smoker for 2 hours before the slow cooker really enhanced the flavor.

what owld be a substitute for pork?

I made this recently and the glaze was very sweet. Has anyone else found that it was too sweet? Did I do something wrong?

My roast pork was amazing. People asked for seconds and thirds! Since the piece of meat was large, (4.8 lbs) I used 1.5 cups of water to start and it was swimming in liquid. I cooked it for 4.5 hours then added the sugar/vinegar glaze and cooked it another 90 minutes. Still swimming in liquid but fall-apart tender and so very delicious (the liquid sauce was full of flavor and very good on rice). We've christened it "fusion adobo" and it has made me a slow-cooker fan!

Erik,

Any thoughts on an Instantpot conversion? I would prefer to use the pressure cooker function, not the slow cooker function.

How would I cook this in a conventional oven or on the stove?