I am roasting a 5-pound pork shoulder roast (boneless butt) today and am preparing this sauce to go with it; sort of a Hawaiian pulled pork dinner.

For the roast, traditional barbecue enthusiasts might want to skip this paragraph, because I am breaking a few rules. After patting the roast dry, I gave it a light dusting of Morton's Tender Quick, followed by an equally-light brushing of Wright's liquid smoke. After letting the roast sit a few minutes, I brushed on some mustard and gave it a liberal coating of a typical barbecue rub from Cabela's that is a bit on the sweet side, to balance the TQ. I then placed it in my enameled cast-iron Dutch oven, then into our oven - uncovered - at 230 degrees for an hour or so; then 240 degrees for an hour or so. Just a moment ago, I brought the oven up to 250, and in an hour or so I will cover the Dutch oven and leave it be for the duration of the cooking. I have prepared "faux-q" this way several times, with surprisingly good results; the house currently smells smoky and barbecuey, and I am sure the pork will be good. Having said that, I am eager for spring to arrive, so I can prepare barbecue the way it is meant to be prepared.

Anyway, for the sauce, I am preparing a slightly-modified version an original recipe that we got from the maternal grandmother of The Beautiful Mrs. Tas. My adaptation (below) adds garlic and increases the soy sauce and brown sugar just a bit:

1 large onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
4 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
5 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 20-ish oz can of crushed pineapple
1 29-ish oz can of tomato sauce
Salt and pepper, to taste

My preparation of this sauce was typical:

I cooked the onions in a little bacon fat until they just started to get a some colour, plus another 3 or so minutes. I then added the garlic and stirred everything around for a minute or two.

I then added the rest of the ingredients and stirred the sauce well, bringing it just to a boil. I then reduced the heat to the lowest setting and simmered it for an hour or so, covered.

A moment ago, I blitzed the sauce with my wand blender and will continue to simmer it, covered, at least another hour. After that, I'll check on it and continue to simmer, covered or uncovered as needed to maintain the desired saucy consistency. The sauce will darken and reduce a bit as it cooks and, as it has before, will gain a wonderful, savory, umami-filled character. I cannot stress enough how important extended simmering is for this sauce; it seems to need a minimum of four hours of simmering in order to leap from "very good" to "absolutely spectacular" - but as always, the longer you can simmer it, the better.

Worthy of note: the soy sauce that I used for this was the last of my bottle of Aloha Shoyu low-sodium soy sauce that we brought back from Oregon last year. This is hands-down the best soy sauce that I have yet tried. We are able to get "regular" Aloha Shoyu here, but the low-sodium is nowhere to be found locally. I'll see if I can locate it online, as it is a superior ingredient, in my opinion.

I expect everything to go well and do not anticipate any problems with this preparation. The combination of this sauce and pork is a match made in Heaven!

Sounds like a great recipe. Also, you can order the sauce direct:

https://alohashoyu.com/lower-salt-soy-sauce/

That looks exactly like what I was looking for - thanks!

Ron

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The combination of this sauce and pork is a match made in Heaven!

From your description it has to be! Yes, indeed!

Only pigs eat pigs!

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Only pigs eat pigs!

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Originally posted by Saeed:
Only pigs eat pigs!

My apologies Saeed - but it's just too darned delicious!

I would be willing to bet that this same sauce would be great on chicken!

Ron