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Shredded Pork and Pork Broth for Stewed Beans
3
cups shredded meat and 1½ quarts broth
1 hour 20 minutes
Ingredients
-
2
pounds boneless pork shoulder, trimmed and cut into 1½-inch cubes
-
2
jalapeño chilies, stemmed
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GET DIGITAL & PRINTIf you have pork neck available it is a great starting point for this braise and to use the stock and neck meat in the Mexican beans. Typically a cut found in the markets in poorer areas, some chef said "if you can't find pork neck in your store you probably aren't poor enough", it can also be found in some farmers markets in areas where small family farmers sell every part of their butchered animals, nose to tail. Being a fan of using cuts less well known I search them out to support the producers. You may want to do that too and you'll be rewarded with great flavor as well as supporting small farm producers. (Lamb neck is another winner but that's a protein for a different recipe topic.) Unfortunately in the mass market pork production facilities these kinds of cuts are lost.
See my September 24 comment re making this stock with pork neck. I did try it and works great. About 3# of pork neck bones to start and using the same 7C of water as this for the simmer part. Brown the neck bones first (3 - 4 min each side), add water and jalapeno then simmer, covered, about 2.5 "ish" hours. Remove neck bones and let them cool a bit to pick meat off of them to use. Strain the stock into a container to refrigerate for several hours or overnight so you can lift off the sizeable fat cap that will be on top. Pork neck throws off a lot of fat. It will be too much to want to keep it in the stock, but once it solidifies on top you can save it to use as you might a savory lard (remember this had jalapeno in the braise water). For example, for the beans recipe I sauteed the onions (and garlic and cilantro stems) in this reserved fat and I also used it in the sofrito cooking. The leftover fat can go in the freezer too in a small container (you'll likely get about 1/2 - 2/3C) to use at other times. Yep, it adds an extra day to the cook process for these beans in that you'll want to give the pork neck stock time to release the fat. But used about 2 parts stock to 1 part water in the bean cook step, the flavor is so worth it. Freeze the extra stock for another use.
Could you make this in an instant pot and cut the time?