Posted by lindac "How are you going to get that hunk of refrigerator cold pork up to a temp warm enough for eating? Certainly won't happen after 3 or 4 minutes in the oven....even at 500 degrees? How is the outside going to "BBQ" at 3 or 4 minutes?" Very good questions. First, I should have said that this is Chinese char siu style roasted pork shoulder. It is typically eaten cold. You buy it from a store, and you cut it up and serve it cold. But actually hot is always better. Pork shoulder is a cheap tough cut of meat, the sous vide method transforms it to magically flavorful tender and succulent cuisine. Typically: After I sous vide the pork shoulder at 145F for 36 hours,* I put it in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to cool the outside, may be only 1/2" deep to prevent overcooking in the oven. The oven is set at 500 degrees with a cast iron griddle on the bottom. The griddle gets to be about 1,000 degrees, even the oven is set at 500. The pork is than BBQed on the red hot griddle. It takes a few seconds on each side to get a nice crispy crust on the pork. The blackened color is the color of Hoisin sauce, not burnt. The red color of the meat is not food coloring, that's the way it looks when cooked this way. If invited guests arrive late to dinner, I can put the pork shoulder back in sous vide cooker, and the it will be served at 145 F. It will not be overcooked. If you arrive late to my dinner, I promise you I will not give you the cold shoulder. dcarch *Disclaimer: You must do your own research when you cook food at low temperature. Do not trust my methods.

Let's see, what can be made ahead and frozen? Chicken pot pie, or even better since you're at the ocean, Lobster Pot Pie, I saw Ina Garten make one and couldn't figure out why I'd never thought of it. She used puff pastry dough, making it fast, instead of homemade dough. Cabbage rolls do well made ahead and frozen, then baked with the sauce when needed, or just cooked all day in a crockpot. Macaroni and cheese is easy and fast to put together and nearly everyone likes it. A "taco bar" has been discussed here many times, and it's something that people can put together as they like, you can use ground meat, marinated chicken, pulled pork or beef, or all or any combination, and some tortilla chips along with the toppings could yield nachos and taco salad for those who like that. LindaC's idea of meatloaf is a good one, and a couple of roasted chickens can yield hot chicken sandwiches, that above mentioned pot pie, chicken tetrazzini, chicken salad sandwiches, chicken enchiladas. You can't go wrong with a couple of roasted chickens. Your leftover roast can yield a shepherd's pie too, my girls loved it, along with Spanish Rice made with ground beef to make it a full meal. As well as dinners, how about breakfast? Lots of breakfast casseroles are quick and easy, and I make Woodie's Creme Brulee French Toast the night before and just bake it in the morning. The smell alone got my kids out of bed! Biscuits and gravy are pretty fast, if you bake biscuits the night before for supper and then heat them in the morning. BreaKfast burritos are easy to make ahead and freeze, as are "McMuffins", which then only need thawing and heating. Oatmeal cooks overnight with fruit in the crockpot really well too. I'm sure you have cookies, brownies, desserts covered. LOL Cookies and brownies freeze well, but the dough can also be made ahead and refrigerated for a day or two, and baked off as needed. Oh, and I have a cinnamon roll recipe that calls for making the dough the night before, letting it rise in the refrigerator and baking them the next day for hot, fresh cinnamon rolls, if you're interested in that. Annie

Darn, I got impatient and just took a guess, though I should've waited for your good advice bc I don't think this'll be ready for tonights dinner anyway. lwo, thanks! I bet a smoker would make it perfect. I don't have one though, and I'm not trying to win any contests tonight just feed hungry mouths! And most recipes I found online said to use a dutch oven & said nothing about a rack. I just got this new pot & wanted to try it out. I ended up searing it, pouring some apple cider vinegar and 1/2 a beer over it, choosing "convection roast" on 275, and now its def sitting in all its fat slowly roasting away. I guess itll be fatty but it does smell good! Next time I'll do a rack on a sheet pan. So you don't cover it when you do that? My real question that I need to explore is what the difference is between all those settings on my Bosch oven... topic for another thread or someday finding the time & desire to sit down with the oven manual... thanks!

I cooked my pork shoulder (Boston Butt) in the crock pot Tuesday and it was not greasy at all. First, I did trim the "fat cap" off with kitchen shears and a knife. I also trimmed as much fat as I could from the exterior edges. I then lightly browned it in my cast iron skillet and put in the crock pot on high to get it going and reduced to low for the rest of the day. I added 1/2 cup of water to the crock. When it was done, I lifted the roast out of the pot to a large cutting board. and left the broth. This left all the fat behind. Pull it apart and let cool until you can handle the meat. I then went through and pulled the parts out that I don't like ( left from around the fat). If you like the sauce cooked into the meat, discard the broth in the crock pot, return the meat to it with your favorite BQ sauce, and cook on low until heated through. I usually put them on the smoker in the summer and it doesn't have to be trimmed, because all the fat drips off, but we were going to be gone all day. I have an old Hamilton Beach"Crock Watcher" 6qt that I used the other day. I also have a new Rival "Crock Pot" 4.5 qt that works well, because my small one died. My new one has the dial for off, high, low, and warm. It is not one of the digital ones with a timer. The new ones cook a lot hotter and faster, so be sure to turn a new one down to low sooner and try to get one with the warm setting.