This winter has sure been a doozy! Snow storms, a blizzard, freezing rain, snow dustings, freezing temps – one thing after another has kept this winter a pretty white, but also pretty cold!
Trying to keep things warm in an old farmhouse full of cracks and drafts has its challenges, and my husband and I have found that the best way to really keep things warm in our house is to cook and bake as much as possible in our oven. These severe temperature drops and fluctuations make cooking a long roast in the oven just the thing to keep the house nice and toasty, while also filling the home with the rich and spicy scents of apple cider, nutmeg, roast pork, sweet carrots, and fragrant sage.
This simple and delicious Apple Cider Pulled Pork recipe is one that, in all honesty, is just bursting with flavor. Tender, juicy meat with hidden fruits and veggies mash together well as you pull the pork apart, and Weaver’s prize winning apple cider, apples, and homegrown veggies add so much flavor to this main-dish as well.
Not only all that, but this recipe makes for great leftovers and freezes easily! Stop by our Farm Market for these simple ingredients, and get some delicious batch cooking done this winter with a hearty, healthy take on an American classic: pulled pork!
Apple Cider Pulled Pork
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 3.5-4 hours
- Total Time: 4 hours
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Main-Dishes, Apples, Gluten-Free, Recipes
Ingredients
- 2 Weaver’s Fuji apples, cored and thickly sliced
- 1 bunch homegrown carrots, scrubbed and cut in thirds
- 2 yellow onions, peeled and quartered
- 1/2 homegrown garlic bulb or about six cloves, peeled
- 5 pounds off-the-bone pork shoulder
- 1/2 pint Weaver’s apple cider
- 1 bunch fresh sage, washed and stripped
- 1 whole nutmeg kernel, grated
- 1/4 cup cooking olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- First, preheat the oven to 400 Fahrenheit. Rinse and dry veggies before prepping them on a cutting board. Core and thickly slice the apples, scrub and cut carrots in half or in thirds. Peel onions and garlic, and quarter the onion. Strip the sage leaves from the stem.
- Place half of the apples, veggies and sage into the bottom of a heavy-duty roasting pan or Dutch oven, drizzling with olive oil, salt and pepper. Then add the pork shoulder, setting it on top of the veggies. Fill in the remaining veggies around the meat snuggly before pouring the Weaver’s apple cider over the roast and contents of the pan. Finally, add the rest of the olive oil, some more salt and pepper, and grate the fresh nutmeg over everything before placing the pan into the oven.
- Cook uncovered at 400 degrees for 1.5 hours, before lowering the temperature to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Add splashes of apple cider if the meat starts to dry out, and then cook for another 2-2.5 hours or until meat begins to pull apart easily.
- Remove the roast from the oven and let cool a bit before tearing the pork apart with two forks, mixing in the cooked-down apple, onion and carrot as you go for some intense flavor. Enjoy this pulled pork a variety of ways including in sandwiches, with a side of cornbread and baked beans, or as the main star in a wintery dinner!
Keywords: Apple Cider, Apples, Pork, Dinner, Sage