I love shopping at Costco. But usually, their cuts of meat are too large. Take the Costco pork shoulder. It weighs 19 pounds and is the size of a small boulder. Unless you’re cooking for a small football team, you won’t need that much meat. Good news: you can buy that hunk of meat and save money, without making everyone around you sick of pork. Read on to find out how I used up an entire 19 pounds of Swift pork shoulder for dishes so different you would never know they came from the same cut of meat.
First, Freeze
Usually, recipes involving pork shoulder only require 2-3 pounds. So, the first thing I did with the giant pork shoulder was to cut it into five pieces, of approximately 3 pounds each. I kept one piece in the fridge for a pulled pork recipe I was planning on making that day, and individually bagged and froze the rest of the pieces. Voila! Now you have zero pressure to use the remaining 16 pounds of pork.
Be sure to label each bag with the date on which you bought the pork. You’ll want to use these pieces within half a year for best results. Whenever you want to make a new recipe, just thaw the pork by moving it from the freezer to the fridge overnight.
Next, Ideate
Pork is an incredibly forgiving and flexible meat. For example, you can grind a thawed pork shoulder into sausage, slow-cook it into a stew, or roast it into a crispy-charred slab. Once cooked, it’s hard to tell that it was previously frozen.
The Recipes
Char Siu With Rhone Reds (Syrah-Grenache-Mourvedre) or Vouvray (Chenin Blanc)
Wine pairing: Char siu’s flavors range from savory, to umami, to honeyed sweetness. Therefore, it pairs well with wines that have ripe, jammy fruit to match the hoisin sauce, acidity to stand up to the soy sauce, and tannins to match the smoky caramelization that will happen on the meat.
One wine that meets all of the above criteria is a Rhone blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvedre. As quality can vary widely across the Rhone region, we like to go with specific AOCs for greater consistency, such as Chateauneuf-du-Pape or Vacqueyras. Read our full article on wine pairing with char siu for more details.
Pulled Pork with Riesling or Zinfandel
Difficulty level: Easy. Place three pounds of pork shoulder in a slow cooker, along with barbecue sauce, onion, and seasonings, and you have one of the most effortless, delicious dinners around! This is by far my favorite way to use the Costco pork shoulder. You can serve pulled pork in so many ways — in a bun, with corn bread, in a taco, the list goes on.
Wine Pairing: Match pulled pork with an off-dry Riesling or a a sweeter red like Zinfandel. We often default to pairing red wine with red meat, but pork is technically in between. It has more myoglobin than chicken, but much less than beef or lamb. This makes it a versatile candidate for both red and white wines – and especially Riesling. Pick one that fits your tastes. If you’re OK with sweeter wines, an off-dry Riesling or lush Zinfandel will perfectly match the sweetness of BBQ sauce. If you prefer dry wines, a Kabinett Riesling will still have the acidity to match the vinegar in the pulled pork, and the pineapple and tropical fruit aromatics to meld beautifully with the sauce. As alternatives, Syrah, Grenache, and Merlot are less “jammy”, but still have enough fruit that they won’t taste astringent against a sweet sauce.
Char Siu Bao With Vouvray (Chenin Blanc)
Difficulty level: Hard. Yes, you can even make dim sum out of that Costco pork shoulder. If you followed the idea above and made char siu, chances are you have some leftovers to fold into bao (buns). These golden orbs of soft, tender milk bread envelop sweet barbecued pork within. They are great for parties, and are a hit with kids – even the picky eaters! Most often, char siu bao is steamed. It is snowy, fluffy, and very delicate and clean-tasting. However, I find that baked char siu bao is are more versatile for wine pairing. Its toasty, rich flavors match a wider array of varietals and winemaking styles. Click here for the full recipe.
Wine pairing: One key rule of wine pairing is to match sweet with sweet. Tuck honey-glazed pork into creamy milk bread, and you have a sweet combination on your hands. As such, opt for a wine with residual sugar, like Vouvray (Chenin Blanc). It has crisp minerality, plenty of apple, stone fruit, and floral aromatics, and a honeyed sweetness that is perfect with the sweet buns and filling. Also, while it has clean, food-friendly acidity, it is rounded and smooth on the palate. Since milk buns are a very soft bread, wines with excessive acidity come off harshly against the light, fluffy crumb.
Sausage Pizza with Sangiovese
Difficulty level: Easy. One of my favorite things about having Costco pork shoulder in the freezer is that you actually have sausage on hand, anytime. Simply grind up a portion of the pork shoulder in your blender along with desired seasonings, and brown in a frying pan! While I used the sausage to top pizza, it would also be great with omelettes, with pasta, and mixed into meatballs with beef.
Wine pairing: Pick a medium-bodied red wine with high acidity to pair with pizza’s marinara sauce, while not overpowering the sausage. You can’t go wrong with an Italian Sangiovese like Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino, and Montepulciano. Alternatively, a savory Spanish Rioja or Cabernet Franc is also excellent with the herbal notes in sausage.
Taiwanese-Style Minced Pork over Rice with Syrah
Difficulty level: Easy. This recipe is particularly well-suited to Costco pork shoulder. The results are a lot better when you mince pork shoulder yourself in a food processor, rather than buying pre-ground pork. Taiwanese minced pork is braised in a rich broth of soy sauce, star anise, five spice, ginger, shallots, sugar, rice wine, and oyster sauce. The resulting dish is sweet, savory, flavorful, and like a warm comforting hug when served over a steaming bed of white rice.
Wine pairing: Taiwanese restaurants should start serving wine, because minced pork over rice with Syrah is pretty magical! Syrah has star anise, licorice, and black pepper spice notes that almost perfectly mirror the ingredients in the dish. It also has enough tannins and body to stand up to the fatty pork and flavorful sauce.
As you can see, these five recipes are quite different, but all are based off of the same Costco pork shoulder. We hope these recipes help you avoid pork shoulder fatigue, while still saving money!
Enjoyed these recipe and wine pairing ideas? Check out our other food and wine pairings here.