I'm currently making a stew with pork shoulder (for the very first time) and I've been cooking it for like 2 hours now...

I'm currently making a stew with pork shoulder (for the very first time) and I've been cooking it for like 2 hours now but the meat is still very tough.
Will the meat continue to get a lot more tender or did I fuck up by frying the meat too long?

>he didn't brown his meat

cook it longer

I did brown it quite a lot. Thats where I think I might have fucked up. I rarely cook with pork.

Pic Related, the stew in question

Pork shoulder contains a lot of fat and connective tissue.
You're going to need to simmer that thing all day if you want it to be tender.
A couple more hours, at least.

ok thanks guys, I'll keep it on the stove and I'll check it once every hour. Will report back in a couple of hours.

browning a large cut like that won't matter in the end because you cook it for 8+ hours at a highish temperature to break down the connective tissue.

If you had one of these, you’d be done in an hour

The idea of pork in a stew seems so odd to me. I guess because I always connect stew to beef stew even though it can be a lot of things.

right? it's something that never comes to mind when i think of stew or soup. ever.

BROWN your meat lad.
Its a pain in the ass, but its definitely worth it.
Just slice it in liek ~1 inch slices, put some flour in in it and fry in olive oil for a few minites til it starts changing its color(dont fucking OVERCOOK it at this point, just make it brown)
It changes the whole taste of the stew dramatically.

Also, yeah, i know its annoyinh, but once you slice all of your meat, DONT put it in the pot to brown at once, you gotta give it some space, so it doesnt get steamed all together and become mushy, you will fry for a while, putting all the meat out and inside the pan, but if you want good stew, its totally worth it.

P.S. Dont forget to put some red wine or dark beer in your pan once you finished cooking to simmer and collect all those good little bits that are left from the frying

P.S. 2. add a big tasty spoon of Worchestershire Sauce to you stew, it elevates it to a whole other level!!!

Well maybe like ham or sausage or shredded pork in a soup with beans but even then. But a roast like OPs pic my first thought would have been cutting it into chunks like you would with beef. Pork stew chunks sound so unappetizing. Shredded seems the way to go.

Wish I had some beef stew

A pork shoulder you haven't cut into pieces has a 7 hour cook time on the low end. Cutting it into chunks can reduce it to 4, but I'd cook longer in both cases.

What you do is slices, for pork, like steak like slices. It is pretty good.

Dutch oven drops that time to 3, 4 if you want a bark. Pressure cooker would be about an hour but it might explode

am*ricans were a mistake

The stew is coming along great. The Meat is falling apart just by stirring and there seem to be no tendons or onions left. I'll continue to cook it for 1-2 more hours nur I doubt I'll get much of a different result.
There's like 2kg of very Fatty shoulder in that pot, so the stew will be very filling.

Pic Related but the stew is darker irl

it's literally impossible to cook a stew too long, OP. just keep it simmering until the meat is done to your liking

>never had glorious guisado de puerco
Feel bad for you, son. Rectify this asap.

Looking good.

>Pork stew chunks sound so unappetizing.
I'm a little bit at a loss as how to reply to you. Other than to say I feel sorry for you.

Looks a bit too mushy for my taste. There is a sweet spot where the meat is tender and yet somewhat intact.

It seems I've committed some mortal sin for never eating pork in chunks. I've cooked it shredded, in chops, sliced, ground. I even stuffed a roast once but Ive never cut into hunks like chicken or beef.

Just to elaborate on this user's post, the browning is the maillard reaction and it occurs at temperatures above 300 degrees fahrenheit. I'm not sure what the optimal temperature is or the difference between say, 310 vs 400 in terms of the reaction. For scale, the smoking point of butter is about 340 degrees but the milk fat in butter starts browning at 300 degrees. But the maillard reaction creates tons of different tasty chemicals that react and create even more tasty flavor chemicals. When you make a stew those flavors are pulled into the liquid and then distributed to everything in the soup or stew causing awesome to permeate and infuse all your ingredients.

The other thing I wanted to mention was that the addition of Worcestershire sauce is great because it has a high concentration of glutamate which is the savory (or umami, if you prefer) chemical that makes everything meaty taste even more meaty. Other good sources are marmite, parmesan, tomato, fish sauce, soy sauce, and giant sea kelp (giant sea kelp has tons in it). There are other good sources but Worcestershire is my go-to for soups and stews. I think there can be a synergistic effect between different sources but I can't remember the chemistry behind that. I know the book I was reading suggested Worcestershire and marmite be added to stews and another third ingredient that I can't remember.

The more you know...

I don't know about stewing, but when I roast pork shoulder I go at 150 celsius for several hours (5+), so I'd say it's going to get more tender.

Oh, I just remembered another stew tip. Throw a shot of liquor in there and simmer it for 20-30 minutes. According to Harold Mcgee, in concentrations under 1% alcohol actually improves the aroma of food by helping pull those aroma molecules out along with it, which means it tastes even better. Over 1% and alcohol will actually stifle the aroma and overpower everything.

A lot of these anons have it right. Browning the meat is the most important step of making a stew. Brown the meat and your stew will turn out 200% better than if you didn't.

how think are the cuts?

I cut them on average into 3x3x3 pieces

those were my thoughts exactly. ham in minestrone or senate bean soup, but not chunked pieces of roast.

looking really nice. i guess i'll have to google some recipes and see what turns up. thanks, OP.