Tonight I prepared a random pork shoulder with ingredients we had around the house. I thought I would share the recipe as it turned out nicely. The recipe is nice but takes time, especially in the prep stage. My thoughts were to combine some of the spices I noticed in Eastern European cooking, especially the Polish recipes from my mother’s cookbook.

• Boneless Pork Shoulder (1-2 lbs)
• 1 TBSP Ground Pepper
• 1 Bay Leaf
• Water
• Salt
• Head of Cabbage
• 1 TBSP Poppy Seeds
• 1 TBSP Dried Onion
• 2 TBSP Rice (optional)
• 1 Clove Garlic, large

First, grind pepper and place with pork into a sealable container. Add bay leaf. Add an equal amount of water to the container. Measure total mass and add 1% of the total mass in salt. So, if you had 1 kg of pork, you’d have 2 kg at the end to which you would add 20 g of salt. This is known as equilibrium brining in the books I have read on food smoking.

The next day, clean, stem, and slice cabbage. Place into crockpot in an even layer. Grind poppy seeds and onion in a spice grinder.

Remove the pork from the brine and let rest. Discard brine and bay leaf. Rub the mixture over the pork on all sides. Sprinkle remaining spice over the cabbage in the slow cooker.

At this point, I ground the 2 TBSP of Rice in the spice grinder for two reasons. First, the rice removed the extra ground mixture from the grinder in an efficient manner. Second, the ground rice helped thicken the liquid that developed in the slow cooker during cooking.

Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat. When hot, sear the meat on all sides until a nice brown. Place the pork over the cabbage in the slow cooker. Peel and mince the garlic. Sprinkle garlic evenly over the pork and cabbage.

Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6-8 hours. We served the pork and cabbage alongside apple sauce.