Learn how to make Cumin and Orange Braised Pork Butt while getting an honest review of the meat delivery subscription service Butcher Box. Seasonal eating is easier when you have easy access to quality ingredients and basic kitchen techniques!
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Cumin and Orange Pork Butt Recipe and a Butcher Boc Review
Never having cooked a pork butt before, I referred to the Butcher Box recipe on the website. I found it a little short on details, so I rewrote their recipe based on my experience with this cut of meat.
What is pork butt?
Despite its unfortunate and misleading name, this cut of meat is actually from the shoulder of the pig.
Boston butt, or pork butt, is the American name for a cut of pork that comes from the upper part of the shoulder from the front leg and may contain the blade bone. Boston butt is the most common cut used for pulled pork, a staple of barbecue in the southern United States. In the United Kingdom, Boston butt is known as pork shoulder on the bone, since regular pork shoulder normally has the bone removed and then rolled and tied back into a joint.
wikipedia
Our portion was nearly 6 pounds. Even with the bone in, it was a lot of meat for 2 older adults. We made a total of 5 meals from this one portion. McKeever, our 125 pounds German Shepherd, LOVED the bone when we had completely devoured the meat, but it could have just as easily been used to flavor bean soup.
The Braising Technique
This recipe calls for us to braise the pork butt for 3 hours.
Braising is a technique that uses both wet and dry heat to slow cook the meat rendering it tender and flavorful. Some braising calls for the cook to first search the meat, but this recipe will have a rub on the meat and then slow roast it in a pot with a moderate amount of liquid.
Make your rub…
This simple rub is easy to make and very flavorful.
Mix in a bowl:
- 2 tbsp cumin
- 2 tbsp garlic
- 2 tbsp sea salt
- 1 tbsp black pepper
Cover your pork butt with the rub and set aside. We will not be searing this piece of meat.
Braising Juices
In your dutch over, place the following ingredients:
- 2 oranges, quartered
- 1 cup orange juice
- 1 onion quartered
300 Degree Oven for 3 hours
Place the pork butt on top of the braising liquid, and move your pot to a 300-degree oven. Cook for 2 hours uncovered, basting every 30 minutes.
After 2 hours, cover the braising meat with the lid to the pot or a piece of aluminum foil. Continue cooking at 300 for another hour. When done, the meat should easily fall from the bone. Let rest for 20 minutes at room temperature before carving.
Serving Suggestions for Cumin and Orange Braised Pork Butt from Butcher Box
We were exhausted from a long day’s work, so we carved the meat and placed it on top of a bed of fresh, local spinach. We added a serving of our own sauerkraut and topped the entire meal with juice from the braising pan. It was delicious!
Use leftovers for future meals such as pulled pork and coleslaw, pork tacos, carnitas buddha bowls, over polenta, or cheesy grits.
What’s your favorite use for leftover pork? Tell me in the comments section below!
Braised Pork Butt (Pork Shoulder) with Cumin and Orange
Equipment
- Dutch Oven or Large Heavy Roasting Pan
- Lid or Aluminum Foil
- Mixing Bowl
- Measuring Spoons
- Knife and cutting board
Ingredients
- 5-6 pound Bone-in pork butt, pork shoulder, Boston butt (all names for the same cut of meat) Pastured, Hormone Free, Antibiotic Free
- 7 tbsp Cumin Rub 2 tbsp cumin, 2 tbsp garlic powder, 2 tbsp sea salt, 1 tbsp black pepper
- 2 whole oranges quartered
- 1 medium onion peeled and quartered
- 1 cup orange juice fresh squeezed
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Set oven to 300 degrees.
- Make the rub and coat your pork shoulder. Set aside.
- Place all the braising liquid ingredients in your roasting pot: oranges, orange juice, onion, water.
- Rest the pork shoulder on top of the braising liquid.
- Cook at 300 degrees for 2 hours, uncovered. Baste every 30 minutes.
- Cover and cook another hour at 300 degrees.
- Meat should be fall-from-the-bone tender when done. Remove it from the oven and let rest at room temperature for 20 minutes before carving.
Notes
What is Butcher Box
ButcherBox delivers high-quality meat you can trust; 100% grass-fed and pasture-raised beef, free-range organic chicken, heritage breed pork, and wild-caught Alaskan salmon directly to your door on a monthly basis. All of our products are humanely raised and never given antibiotics or added hormones ever.
Butcher Box on Facebook
Butcher Box is a meat delivery subscription service that delivers quality products safely to your door on a monthly basis.
The products are grass-fed, pasture-raised, sometimes organic, often from heritage breed livestock, and very tasty. You can read more about food labeling here.
We very much appreciate that the products are certified human. Animal welfare is important to us as omnivores.
How does it work?
Butcher Box is a monthly subscription service. You sign up, choose the size box you want, and select the products you enjoy. When the delivery ships, you get an email notification, and the shipment arrives, in my experience, within 24 hours.
The shipment comes in an insulated box with dry ice. The meat products stay frozen during delivery. Since I work from home, I’ve always been here to receive the shipment as it arrives. I have had to let the box sit for an hour until I could free myself to unpack it, and it was better than fine.
You can cancel your subscription anytime. But I have to warn you when researching for this review, I read that Butcher Box sometimes ships after an order has been canceled and doesn’t offer the best customer service when this happens. I have not had this problem, and they do have a triple-A rating from the Better Business Bureau. I think when I cancel my subscription I will modify my credit card number just to be on the safe side.
Is Butcher Box safe?
In my experience, Butcher Box deliveries are just as safe as bringing meats home in my car from my local shopping. The insulated box has dry ice in with the meats to help stabilize the temperature.
We ship your box with a specific amount of dry ice that is calculated based on your location. As the dry ice evaporates, it mixes with the air inside the box which continues to keep the meat cold. Don’t worry if your box arrives without any dry ice!
Butcher Box
Is Butcher Box really worth the price?
Ours is a 2 adult household, so the economics of Butcher Box works for us. So far, we have never eaten all the meat in a delivery, which has given our pantry a nice little bump in inventory.
Here’s our standard delivery:
Living in a rural area, it is difficult for us to get trustworthy, quality meat products without driving to 4 different suppliers. Butcher Box saves us time and gas money, as well as being well priced for the product itself.
Our personal experinece…
Well, so far we love it! Our monthly Butcher Box delivery comes without a hitch, and I don’t have to spend the day in the car driving from farmers market to food co-op finding quality meat products for our seasonal meals.
I will switch up the contents with my next delivery and see how the customer service is with that experience. I’ll update this post once I receive that delivery.
As for flavor, the seafood is top-notch, as is the chicken. Honestly, the ground pork is a little dry and tough, so I may drop it from our deliveries. The pork butt we used in this recipe was flavorful, tender, a lovely cut of meat.
You should know, the chicken thigh package has only 2 pieces in it. That’s plenty for us, but it might be a stretch for a family of 4. Locally, organic chicken is about $6 a pound and not always available, so we are glad for this option as we eat a lot of chicken.
Meat, Packaging, and the Environment
We’re omnivores and enjoy flavoring our meal with meat. Long gone are the days when Bob and I would eat a meat-centered meal 5 days a week. This braised pork butt was an exception to our rule because it came as a promotional item in our monthly deliveries.
These days, we cook vegetable-centric meals and use meat almost as a condiment. So, as environmentally conscious consumers, we need to source our meats from trusted sources. You see, the way meats are sourced is certainly an animal welfare issue, but it is equally an environmental issue. Both are priorities for us.
The Zero-Waste Dilemma
As mentioned above, we choose to have our sustainably produced meat products delivered because the amount of driving I had to do regularly to source meat products was, well…unsustainable on many levels.
The insulated box is recyclable, and I usually keep one around if we need to store food items in the car on hot days.
52 Weeks of Seasonal Eating Meal Plans
There are weekly meal plans available to everyone on this blog.
These weekly meal plans focus on seasonal meals that are easy to make, flavorful, and rely on the pantry as much as the supermarket.
If you like to learn more and view the current collection of meal plans, simply click the image below.
Plan Your Pantry Now!
These meals plans will help you plan your pantry and garden in 2020. Each week’s shopping list can be a prompt to help you think about what you eat, especially in the off season. Those ingredients…how many of them could come from your pantry with a little planning?
There’s a party happening and we’re waiting for you to arrive!
A bunch of us meet every day in the Create Your Seasonal Life Facebook Group and over on Instagram!
We also gather over email once a week to focus on one specific garden, kitchen, or wellness topic in-depth, with lots of step-by-step how-to’s. The best way to jump into the email conversation is with the Seasonal Living Workbook, you can download it here and explore the seasonal living framework with an email course!
So much love and free information in one place, but it’s not the same without YOU!
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