Quick "Smoked" Pork Butt/Shoulder

On a recent trip to the Korean market, they had pork butt steaks on sale as well as pork shoulder (same part, different cut).  Usually I get a huge butt with bone in and slow smoke/roast it for over 12 hours, but thought I'd give a quicker method a try.  So I bought a package each of butt and shoulder that came to around 7 lbs combined.  The shoulder had skin on.  Both of these cuts are quite fatty and have a fair amount of connective tissue as well.  The "steaks" are about 2.5" thick cuts, and I decided to cook it "pot roast" style, like I do for beef. 

In my dutch oven, I heat about a quarter inch of oil pretty hot and -- cheater! -- about 3 T of liquid smoke, it was like a third of the 4 oz bottle.    I forgot it was a different brand with a larger opening, so it was quite a bit more smoke than I intended to add, but this turned out well so I plan to repeat my "mistake" the next time I make this pork.  If I had any bacon fat around I'd have used that, you can use your own source of frying fat.  I seared each steak well on all sides in the oil, then dumped in enough water to cover the pork (it came to about 3 quarts).  

Bring water to a boil then turn heat down to low to simmer.  I have an actual simmer burner on my ceramic-top stove.  I don't know what it is about this burner, but it simmers better than just an ordinary flame on low.  If I'm really wanting to leave something like this, I may stick the pot in the oven on around 300 F.  

I just let it go until it fell apart with a fork -- maybe 3 hours, maybe less even.   Take the pork out and reserve liquid.  I used my Oxo fat separator and toss the fat, YMMV there too.   If you're interested in the "tools" check that tab here at this blog!

Pork can be pulled or cut up.  I used this in soups.  The pork absorbed the smoke flavor nicely and was delish!