Pork Stroganoff

Mark Brown

August 7, 2022

This is the first of many unplanned entries about food. It’s half recipe, rambling because I don’t actually measure anything when I cook. I just kind of guess, correct, guess again and re-correct. I started a medium size pork shoulder in the oven at 10 pm Saturday night to prep food for Sunday and the rest of the work week. Yes, I don’t mind eating the same thing every day if it tastes good. I lifted about 10 am and came back to the house about 1:30 pm. I found the oven off because they turn themselves off after an amount of time for safety reasons. The shoulder was done when I came back home. And made some white rice and made the pan sauce for the pork shoulder. I initially declared my dish “Saucy Pork” but it is more accurately Pork Stroganoff. So, here’s a list of what’s in it and something of a guide to how I made it.

Pork Stroganoff

Pork Shoulder
1 medium size Pork Shoulder
4-5 tablespoons of coarse kosher salt
1/4 to 1/2 cup of homemade sale free taco seasoning

Sauce
All of the pan drippings, sivved – About 2 cups
1-1/2 cups of water
2-3 tablespoons of no sugar added ketchup
1-2 tablespoons of sweet hot mustard
5-8 second squeeze of honey
1 Tablespoon of corn starch diluted in about 1/2 cup water

Served over white rice and sour cream

This couldn’t be easier to make. I coated the pork shoulder evenly with the kosher salt and taco seasoning. After pulling the cooked pork shoulder from the oven, I poured the remaining liquid, fat and all, through a strainer to get only the liquid. From there I tasted it to see how salty it was and added the water to dilute it. I added the honey, ketchup and mustard then whisked it together so nothing burned on the bottom of the pan. I let the pot or sauce reduce by maybe 20-25% oh high heat before adding the corn starchy slurry. It thickened up to the proper viscosity in just a few minutes and I let it fully finish to cook out the corn starch. I pulled the shoulder meat apart in long strings and put it all into the sauce and heat up on low for another few minutes until it was all heated through. A true stroganoff would include the sour cream in the sauce but the it’s fine as a garnish.

This is the kind of cooking and food that is stupid easy to learn and execute. It’s very worth it.