I wanted to pin down the timing of my favorite cut of pork in the pressure cooker, so I set up a three way test. Each pressure cooker got 3 pounds of pork western shoulder ribs (1 1/2 to 2 inch thick strips of pork shoulder) and a half a cup of water. Then we had a taste test. The results?

20 minutes is not long enough – the pork was tender enough to be edible, but just barely.

40 minutes is fork tender – the pork shredded when pressed with a fork.

60 minutes is easy to shred – the pork falls apart when you look at it, let alone press on it with a fork.

So, 45 minutes is my new “default” pork timing. (I’m giving it an extra five minutes, just in case.) That gives me “ribs” that just barely hold together. It’s also good, because that’s what I’ve used the most in my older posts.

That said, if the end goal is shredded meat (for pork tacos, say), then I’m going with a full 60 minutes of pressure cooking, so the pork is coming apart as I try to lift it out of the cooker.

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