Cider Pork Shoulder Brine

This Cider Pork Shoulder Brine is a great way to add tons of flavor to your smoked pork shoulder! Read on to learn everything you need to know about brines and brining pork shoulder.

What is a Brine?

A brine is a solution made with simple ingredients: salt and water.

When you soak your meat in this mixture, osmosis comes into play. Essentially, the salt in the brine moves into the meat until their salt levels balance out. This process also applies to sugar, enhancing the overall flavor.

What is Brining?

Brining is a method used to enhance the flavor, tenderness, and moisture of meat.

It involves soaking the protein in a solution of water (or other liquids like apple juice, beer, or wine), salt, sugar, and spices for several hours in the refrigerator.

This process helps infuse the meat with a subtle taste and ensures it stays juicy and tender during cooking.

Making this Pork Shoulder Brine

When I make our smoked pork shoulder, I like to brine it in this cider pork shoulder brine first. If you’ve never tried brining pork shoulder for smoking, you’re missing out! 

Brining the pork shoulder does add some extra time onto the whole process, but I promise it is worth it!

An overnight brine before smoking pork shoulder results in the best pulled pork meat – it is juicier, is seasoned throughout instead of just on the surface, and super tender.

Tools Needed to Make Cider Pork Brine

You’ll need a few kitchen tools to prepare this recipe. Here’s what I recommend having on hand before getting started:

• Measuring Cups and Spoons – to measure the pork brine ingredients.
• Large Stock Pot – to prepare the wet brine in.
• Wooden Spoon – for stirring the pork brine mixture as it cooks.
• Large Bowl – or other container large enough to hold the whole pork shoulder with enough brine to completely cover it.
• Plastic Wrap or Lid – to cover the container you’re storing the raw meat and brine solution in.
• Refrigerator – to store the brining pork shoulder overnight. If you don’t have room in your fridge, you can place the pork with the brine in a well insulated cooler. Then, surround the container of pork and brine with ice so the meat stays cold – don’t add ice directly to the brine as this would dilute it when the ice melts.

Pork Shoulder Brine Ingredients

There isn’t anything too fancy in this cider pork brine recipe, but sometimes the simplest ingredients can have the biggest impact. Here’s what you’ll need to have before preparing this recipe:

• Water 
• Kosher Salt
• Brown Sugar
• Peppercorn
• Yellow Onion
• Garlic
• Bay Leaf
• Apple Cider
• Worcestershire Sauce
• Apple Cider Vinegar

For the complete ingredient list and detailed instructions to make this cider pork brine, scroll to the bottom of this post for the FREE printable recipe card.

How to Make Brine for Pork Shoulder

1. Combine water, salt, brown sugar, peppercorn, onion, garlic, and bay leaf – boil, then simmer.
2. After simmering, let rest at room temperature.
3. Then, add the remaining ingredients to a container large enough for the pork and the brine.
4. Add the salt water mixture to the container with the other ingredients, and stir to combine.
5. Place the prepared pork shoulder in the brine once the liquid has cooled. Then transfer to the fridge to brine for 12 – 24 hours.

The above is simply a quick summary of this pork butt brine. Check out the full recipe in the free printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for all the detailed instructions.

Pork Shoulder Brine FAQs

Got questions about how to make this pork shoulder brine recipe? Here are the answers to a few commonly asked questions. Feel free to leave any other questions in the comments on this post and I’ll respond with answers.

Why should you brine a pork shoulder?

Brining seasons the meat all the way through rather than just on the surface. It adds great flavor to a large cut of meat like a pork shoulder, tenderizes the meat, and results is juicy meat.

What type of salt should I use to make pork shoulder brine?

This recipe calls for Morton brand coarse kosher salt. I don’t recommend substituting another salt. Kosher salt has much larger granules than table salt, for example, so you would not be able to use the same amount.

How long should I brine pork shoulder?

We like to let our pork shoulder soak in this brine for at least 12 hours or up to 24 hours (for an 8 – 10 lb. pork shoulder).

Pork Brine Times

• 8 – 10 pounds: brine up to 32 hours, I prefer 24 hours
• 6 – 8 pounds: brine for 12 – 16 hours
• 4 – 6 pounds: brine for 6 – 8 hours
• 2 – 3 pounds: brine for 2 – 4 hours
• Individual Pieces of Meat ( i.e. pork chops): brine for 30 – 90 minutes, depending on thickness

Do you rinse pork after brining?

Yes, we rinse our pork shoulder to remove any residual salt from the pork shoulder brine off the surface of the meat so it isn’t too salty when you add the dry rub (which contains some salt).

How should I cook pork shoulder after brining it?

We like to cook brined pork shoulder on our Traeger to smoke it. Here’s a detailed post on how to smoke a pork shoulder.

Can I use this pork brine with different cuts of pork?

Yes, the flavor profile of this pork brine works well with many different cuts of pork: Boston butt, pork roast, pork loin, pork tenderloin, and pork chops.

Just make sure you adjust the length of time the meat is brined for according to the size of ​the piece of meat. A small pork tenderloin or pork chops, for example, won’t need to brine as long as an 8 pound pork shoulder.

Try this Pork Shoulder Brine!

Next time you’re looking for a way to add extra flavors and tenderness to your pork shoulder, give this Cider Pork Shoulder Brine recipe a try!

Did you think the brining process produced the perfect pork shoulder? Leave a comment below and give it a review for others to see what you thought of this brine solution.

On Instagram? Share your photo and tag me @goodlifeeats #goodlifeeatsrecipes. I’d love to see your photo of this pork recipe!

More Brine Recipes

Garlic Herb Peppercorn Dry Brine is full of flavor and will make your turkey shine on Thanksgiving! Dry brining a turkey is really simple and produces juicy, seasoned turkey meat. It would also work well for a pork roast or whole chicken.

This Rosemary Beer Brine works great with a whole chicken, turkey breast, or whole turkey.

Don’t see what you’re looking for here? You can always head over to check out the recipe index to look for more recipes.

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