www.sausagemaking.org

Had to make a bunch of pulled pork in a rush, so I got a couple of boneless shoulder roasts (Boston butt) and used an electric pressure cooker I was recently given. I was out of the pork stock I usually make with roasted shoulder blades and leg bones from breaking down shoulders, so I used some Penzey's roasted pork base and made a couple of cups of stock for steaming. Cut up a 7-lb boneless roast into 2" cubes and set the cooker for 45 minutes at 11.6 psi. Sprinkled some house seasoning on the meat (salt, pepper, granulated onion and garlic) and poured the broth over. Sealed it and left it to run. After the pressure cooking was over, I let the pressure drop naturally for about 20 minutes. Removed the meat for pulling and strained the broth from the pot. poured 2 cups back into the pressure cooker, and 1/2 cup into the pulled pork, and reserved about 4 cups with rendered fat. Cubed the second shoulder and put it in the pot with the broth from the first shoulder. Cooked that as above. In just over 2 hours, I had about 10 lbs of seasoned pulled pork and 8 cups of pork broth and rendered fat.

I put the leftover broth in the fridge for 24 hours to chill and solidify the lard. Pulled it out today, lifted the lard disk and had over 6 cups of clear, golden, roasty, pork gelatine. The collagen from the shoulder cut was sufficient to make an excellent gelatin. Perfect for pies or a base for gravy. I'm so pleased.

Don't confuse a nice gelatinized stock with real gelatin used for thickening. Almost any good stock if done with some bones will be like a jelly when cold, but true gelatin used as a setting agent will take a lot more bones and reduction. It most likely will not thicken very well when used, but it will still be a good stock.

I find that I get a 'stronger' gelatin when using pork rind rather than pork bones. It really firms up a pork pie !

RodinBangkok wrote:Don't confuse a nice gelatinized stock with real gelatin used for thickening. Almost any good stock if done with some bones will be like a jelly when cold, but true gelatin used as a setting agent will take a lot more bones and reduction. It most likely will not thicken very well when used, but it will still be a good stock.

Fair enough. I had no bones in this meat. The gelatin held at room temperature, but certainly not when warmed in a saucepan. Made a good gravy, though. The technique most often mentioned for gelatin for pie is to cook down trotters. I'm curious how trotters in the pressure cooker would do.

Gelatine being a setting agent, not a thickening agent, you can expect that even the most solid mix to melt when heat is applied.

I reckon I would call what you ended up with, Tom, aspic or aspic jelly. A very gelatinised clear stock - which is what is put into terrines and pork pies to fill all air holes for preservation purposes.

I thought this was a love story with a happy ending.

It WAS amazing, Paul.

vagreys wrote:I'm curious how trotters in the pressure cooker would do.

Phenomenally good. You could walk across it

Throw some rinds in too.