No more Mr. Tough Pork

Associated Press

Slowly cooking a big hunk of tough, inexpensive meat isn’t just the best way to cook this cut of meat. It’s really the only way.

Most tough cuts of meat come from the hardest working parts of the animal, and therefore have a lot of collagen. This collagen needs to be broken down and converted to gelatin for the meat to become tender, and that is accomplished by low and slow cooking.

Here, if you want to rub the meat with the spice rub the night before and leave it loosely covered in the fridge overnight, the dry rub will season the meat a little more deeply. But this isn’t a heavily seasoned roast, so it’s a step that you can skip if you don’t have time or fridge space. 2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon paprika, hot or sweet 1 teaspoon coarse or kosher salt ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1 5-pound boneless pork butt roast

½ cup dry white wine

Preheat the oven to 300 F.

In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, garlic, oil, chili powder, paprika, salt and pepper. Rub it all over the roast. Place the roast in a roasting pan, preferably in a wire rack. Add the wine.

Cook on low heat for five to six hours, until it has a nice crust and the meat is falling-apart tender.

Remove the roast from the oven and let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes. Use a fork or two to shred the meat into nice-size pieces.

Nutrition information per serving: 273 calories; 154 calories from fat; 17 g fat (6 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 82 mg cholesterol; 255 mg sodium; 4 g carbohydrate; 0 g fiber; 3 g sugar; 23 g protein.

Katie Workman has written two cookbooks focused on easy, family-friendly cooking, “Dinner Solved!” and “The Mom 100 Cookbook.” She blogs at http://www. themom100.com/about-katie-workman. She can be reached at Katie@themom100.com.