Does Size Matter? Part II

Exhibit A                                        Exhibit B

Last September, I posed the question: Does Size Matter?

On Sunday, I learned that it does not.

Exhibit A: Kalua pork oven baked to perfection for my post-game dinner. It was the perfect Super Bowl dish. It took just a few minutes to prep the pork shoulder and pop it into the oven in the early afternoon. I then sat back and enjoyed the game. Right after the Saints clinched the win, the pork was ready to eat. The timing couldn't have been better.

Exhibit B: Kalua pork slow cooked to a stone. I brought a petite slow cooker out of retirement in order to test my co-worker's theory about my crock pot-to-meat ratio. That is, my original 4-pound pork shoulder was too small for my 6.5-quart crock pot. With a mini slow cooker, I hoped to avoid the frustrations chronicled in What a Crock. I sliced off about 2 pounds of my 6-pound pork shoulder before I sent the bulk of the shoulder into the oven. The slice certainly filled up the little crock pot. I turned it on before the game.

Again, a disappointing result. Not sure if my setting was too high (there's only one setting on my mini crock pot) or I left it in too long (the duration of the game).

In any event, the meat was so tough that my fork didn't give when I speared it. Instead of fall-off-the-bone morsels, I found a piece of meat that shrunk into itself. Barely edible.

Contrast this to the oven-baked version. The oven-baked meat easily shredded and was savory in its salty juices.

So after some experimentation, the verdict is in.

No more messing with the crock pot when it comes to kalua pork. The oven is the way to go.