Pulled Confit of Lamb Shoulder

Serves: 4 to 6

Preparation: 20 minutes. Slow cook 12 hours. 

This recipe came about through luck and experimentation. I had followed a recipe for confit duck legs that were flavoursome, succulent, and fell off the bone. It got me thinking that rather than slow roasting pork shoulder for use as pulled pork or taco meat, I could maybe try to confit it . I found a joint of what I thought was pork shoulder at the back of the freezer and thought it would be a great candidate for the test. 

So, off to the supermarket I went and bought a couple of blocks of lard and some thyme. When I got home I boiled up a little stock, less than half a pint, using a stock cube and poured it into my slow cooker. 

Then I took what I thought was pork out of the freezer, removed the wrapping, gave it a covering with oil and sprinkled it with barbecue rub, plus the fresh thyme, and some rosemary and bay leaves from the garden. It all went straight into the slow cooker, as a frozen block of meat, and was accompanied by the 2 blocks of lard, that were cut into big chunks. 

The lid went onto the slow cooker and I let it do its stuff for about 12 hours.

I stuck a fork into the meat and twisted it to check if it was tender - the meat fell apart with the slightest touch. 

I carefully removed it from its lardy stock bath and used 2 spoons to shred and pull it on a chopping board. As I pulled it I began to think that maybe it wasn't pork, as the grain and texture of the meat seemed looser than I expected. I tasted some and realised it was lamb - very tasty, moist lamb. 

I used the pulled lamb, mixed with chipotle salsa, as a filling for some tacos, that went down really well. I'm going to have a go at making some other confit meats in the coming months as the process makes for beautifully tasty meat.