For those weekends when you want that delicious barbecue taste but the weather just isn’t playing ball, try rustling up some tasty barbecue pulled pork. It’s easy to make and the long slow cooking time means that you can savour the delicious cooking smells for hours. Our recipe calls for pork shoulder, a fully flavoured cut that almost melts when cooked properly. This is a fabulous treat for all the family.

Ingredients

2 kg pork shoulder joint, skin removed

3 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp garlic salt

2 tsp mustard powder

1 tsp onion salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

4 tbsp barbecue sauce

For serving

Bread rolls, crusty baguettes, brioche buns, or tortilla wraps

Coleslaw

Barbecue sauce

Sliced pickled gherkins

Method

Preheat the oven to 150C or 130C fan. Rub the pork with 2 tbsp of the olive oil. Heat a large non-stick pan until very hot and sear the pork on all sides until golden brown.

Place the meat on a wire rack in a roasting tin. Mix the remaining olive oil, smoked paprika, mustard powder, garlic and onion salt, and black pepper. Brush all over the meat.

Add 1 cup of water to the roasting tin, cover tightly with foil and cook for 5 hours.

Remove from the oven and check for doneness. The meat should be falling apart.

Drain the juices from the meat into a measuring jug. Leave to settle and then skim off the fat.

Shred the pork using 2 forks.

Mix together 4 tbsp of barbecue sauce with 125 ml of juices, and add to the shredded pork.

Your barbecue flavour pulled pork can either be kept warm, or allowed to cool and reheated.

When ready to serve, fill bread rolls with pulled pork, coleslaw, pickles, and a spoonful of barbecue sauce. Or, for more fun, lay out the ingredients, and let people do their own assembly.

If you’re like most people, you may feel that you already know the correct way to cook sausages. You’ve been cooking them for years and are happy with the results. There is the possibility, however, that with a few tweaks, you could be rustling up some of the best sausages you’ve ever had. Follow our recommendations and get ready to enjoy a sizzling sausage sensation!

This guide is aimed at those cooking sausages in the kitchen. We can offer alternative guidelines if you’re cooking on the barbecue.

Bring the sausages to room temperature before cooking.

This is a step that many are familiar with when it comes to cooking steaks, but it’s also important for sausages. Removing them from the fridge around 20 minutes before cooking helps them cook more evenly. In addition, there is less chance of the skins breaking.

Don’t prick them.

In days gone by, it was common for sausages to explode while cooking, hence why we call them “bangers”. This was down to the use of a range of cheap ingredients and low meat content to make them more affordable. Although pricking them reduced the possibility of the sausages exploding, this is an unnecessary step when you cook sausages of high quality. Furthermore, much of the juices will seep out resulting in a dryer, less tasty sausage.

Heat a heavy-based frying pan on a low to medium heat.

If it’s too hot, the sausages will burn on the outside before cooking in the middle. Be patient and let them cook gently.

Certain establishments like to deep fry sausages. It seems more efficient as it takes away the need to turn the sausages over every few minutes. However, deep frying usually results in dry sausages with tough skins.

Baking sausages is also not ideal as it doesn’t deliver the sort of umami flavour that is typical of frying.

Add around a teaspoon of fat to the frying pan.

It could be sunflower oil, peanut oil, or even goose fat if you’re feeling indulgent. Using fat adds to the taste and texture of the cooked sausage, but if you have a non-stick frying pan, you could go without fat completely.

Place the sausages in the pan. They should sizzle gently.

Turn them every couple of minutes so that they cook evenly and take on a golden-brown colour all round. A typical British sausage should take 15 to 20 minutes to cook through. If you have a temperature probe, aim for approximately 70°C.

Remove the sausages from the pan and allow them to rest for a few minutes.

Most meats benefit from a bit of time to relax immediately after cooking and sausages are no exception. A rest will make them juicier and more tender.

Serve.

Whether you pop them in a crusty roll with onions at a barbecue, or serve them with bacon and eggs as part of a hearty breakfast, following our simple steps will result in delighted faces all round.

Further reading

Now that you know the correct way to cook sausages, why not try your hand at cooking the perfect steak?

Speciality sausages from Traymoor

At Traymoor, we offer a wide selection of speciality sausages. These include:

• Cumberland sausages
• Venison and red wine sausages
• Old English pork sausages
• Wild boar and apple sausages
• Pork and caramelised onion sausages

If you would like a type of sausage that we have not listed, please contact us and we will endeavour to fulfil your request.

Traymoor delivers an incredible selection of restaurant quality meats all over Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and London (North & East). Our range includes 21-day aged steaks, roasting joints, chickens, lamb steaks, burgers, and kebabs.

We also offer a wide variety of great value meat packs. Available in a range of sizes and prices, these meat packs are filled with an assortment of household essentials including minced beef, chicken breast fillets, pork chops, sausages, and bacon. In addition, our incredible steak lovers pack is filled with sirloin steak, ribeye steak, rump steak, fillet steak, and T-bone steak.