Take the Pork Shoulder out of the fridge first thing in the morning to bring it up to room temperature.
Heat the oven to 220.
Make a rub of smoked/hot paprika, salt, pepper, garlic powder and rosemary, salt and pepper.
Pat the pork dry with paper towels, try to get it really dry
Using a very sharp knife score the pork skin in lines, try not to cut in to the meat.
Unroll the pork and, avoiding the skin, rub the meat with the rub. (Avoid doing this in the pan you’re cooking this in, any of the rub that sits on the bottom of the pan will burn)
Roll the pork back up and rub more salt than you think is enough into the skin.Getting it into the scored parts (Dry, salty skin is the secret to good crackling).
Place the pork, skin side up in a snug dish, and then into the oven for 30 min.
Take the pork out the oven and cover tightly with foil.
Reduce the temperature to 150 and put it back in for 4.5 hours
Now’s a good time to chunky chop some carrot, celery, a head of garlic. and a red onion and keep to one side (no need to peel, you can cut the whole head of garlic in half) this will be the base for your stock.
Take the pork out of the oven, and lift the meat onto a chopping board (It might feel like it wants to fall apart, but just get stuck in you can use a big knife to move it)
Toss the chunky veg in the pork juices, and then place the pork on top of them
Put the pork back in the oven, uncovered for 1 hour.
Once the time is up take the pork out of the oven and place the meat onto a separate dish.
Pull the crackling off and cover the pork to rest while for at the very least for 30 minutes to an hour.
Take the veg out of the bottom of the pan, and you can serve these if you want. Or mash them for additional flavour.
Boil the kettle, and pour it onto the pan where you were cooking the pork, scraping all the bits off the bottom. This is concentrated flavour.
Pour this into a small pot top up with some hot water and mix in some Chicken Bisto granules until your gravy is the consistency you like.
Remove the skin from the Pork, cut the crackling into strips (if the skin is a bit soggy you can heat it in the oven when serving, but be careful it burns easy 1/2 minutes)
Shred the pork with two spoons and serve.
Notes & thoughts
You can rub the pork the night before, but don't salt the skin until just before the cook. Once the pork is out of the oven you can start roasting other veg. The pork needs time to rest, it's been working hard all day. I like this with roast potatoes and roasted carrots, onions and sweet potatoes. Trying this adjusted with a slightly leaner cut - 1.5 kg shoulder no bone, 2 hours for slow, was dry last time. If not doing pulled pork then 250 for first half hour then lower temp for shorter. 2.5 hours after in total left the meat dry Accidentally did his for 8 hours for better result, reduced temperature to 150 about ~4 hours in. Roasted the veg under the pork for 2 hours, covered for 1. Also made a gluten free version of the gravy using GF/low sodium granules and tamari.