Mmmm...... pork........mmmm...... beer....

I love food, and I love beer, and as a homebrewer I love to incorporate my homebrew into my food.
I find cooking with beer can sometimes be difficult. I usually favor non-hoppy beer styles as most of the cooking with beer involves reducing it, thus concentrating that bitterness. For ales I use stouts and Scottish beers and for lagers I use Bocks or Vienna lagers most often.

Below you will find a favorite combination of mine: stout and pork. This recipe is super-easy and can be done in a number of variations. I included some shortcuts at the end that work equally well.

Stout-Braised Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Makes about 6-8 sandwiches.

Ingredients

• 3.5 lbs Pork butt or shoulder
• Dry Rub (2 tbsp. smoked paprika, 1 tbsp. white pepper, 1 tbsp. garlic powder, 1/2 tsp. salt)
• Carrots (2 small, cut small dice)
• Onions (1 medium, cut julienned)
• A couple pints of stout
• BBQ Sauce (see below for ingredients and recipe)

Preheat oven to 300F.

Take the pork butt and coat with liberally with the dry rub.








Sear (brown) the pork butt in a hot skillet (greased or oiled) about a minute on all sides.






Layer onions and carrots in the bottom of a casserole dish.









Place pork on top of carrots and onions; add stout to barely cover pork.

Wrap with foil and place in oven at 300 F for 4-6 hours.

Remove foil and set aside pork, onions and carrots. Cover with foil to keep warm (or place back in the stove).

Collect the reduced stout from the casserole.

Make BBQ sauce (see recipe below).





Take out pork and pull apart with hands or forks.

Mix with BBQ sauce put on a bun and top with onions and carrots

Enjoy!!!!



Basic Vinegar BBQ Sauce

• 1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup reduced stout from casserole
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon cayenne
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

Stir the brown sugar into the reduced stout until completely dissolved. Add the remaining ingredients and heat on low for a few minutes.

Shortcuts

• Dry Rub: Use whatever you have in the spice rack.
• Instead of the oven you can use a slow cooker instead.
• Instead of making the BBQ sauce, use store bought and mix in the reduced stout.