bone-in pork shoulder (8-10 lbs.)
1/4 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar

  • mix salt and sugars
  • cube pork and toss with salt/sugar mixture
  • place in a ziplock bag and chill overnight
  • discard juices, brush off excess salt/sugar, and transfer pork to a crockpot
  • cook on low for 8 hours, until very tender
  • remove from crockpot and shred
  • serve with ginger-scallion and ssam sauces, rice, lettuce leaves, and kimchi, making a taco with a lettuce leaf as a wrapper, or a taco salad

ginger-scallion sauce:

1/2 bunch scallions, thinly sliced
2” fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
1 tbsp. neutral oil
1 tbsp. sherry or rice vinegar
2 tsp. soy sauce
1/4 tsp. salt

  • puree all ingredients in food processor to make a chunky sauce

ssam sauce:

2 tbsp. ssamjang (fermented bean-and-chili paste)
1 tbsp. kochujang (chili paste)
2 tbsp. sherry or rice vinegar
2 tbsp. neutral oil

  • mix all ingredients to make a thick chili sauce

source: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/12197-momofukus-bo-ssam

09/21/2024: commenters say it’s too salty (both the overnight brine and the glaze), so i think i will reduce the amount of both.

9/22/2024: made this tonight and it was very good, but the texture of the pork wasn’t what i would like (i pulled it out after 6 hours, and it definitely wasn’t collapsing, or easily shreddable). i made several subs and changes, so let’s get those out of the way first:

  • used 1/4 cup of kosher salt and white sugar for the rub
  • used rice vinegar instead of sherry vinegar
  • puréed the ginger-scallion sauce (and added more soy sauce and rice vinegar to make it thin enough to blend)
  • didn’t have ssamjang, so doubled kochujang and used 1 tbsp. of black bean sauce
  • used 1/3 cup brown sugar and 1/2 tsp. salt for the rub, mostly a powder on top and browned for 5 minutes instead of 15

next time i would:

  • either get ssamjang or use a lot more gochujang to make the sauce spicer, and reduce the oil a lot
  • cube the pork, toss with salt/sugar mix, and cook in a crockpot
  • mix with brown sugar and broil to make a bark

11/25/2024: made a crockpot version of this which was great. adjusted the ratios in the sauces a bit to make the ginger/scallion sauce blendable, and the ssam sauce thicker and spicier. the salt/sugar/brown sugar rub went perfectly with the fattiness of the pork shoulder.