I disagree. For me, shoulder/butt is too fatty, even after severe trimming. I buy a whole pork loin, then cut it into a bunch of small roasts, trim any visible fat, then vacuum seal and freeze each little roast.
To cook, I thaw a roast and sous vide for anywhere from 8 to 72 hours at 145-165 depending on how I’m serving the meat. Pork loin sous vide at 165 for 24 hours, shredded and served with barbecue sauce is delicious.
ETA: for the OP using fully cooked and shredded meat, I’d just make the bean stew and then add the meat just prior to plating.
Sure, sous vided I could see that working, when cooking to that temperature, but with braises and slow cookers, loin is terrible for this, as it gets all the way up to like 190 and dries out. Some people don’t seem to mind as long as there’s a lot of sauce, but it drives me nuts.
I very highly recommend getting an instant read cooking thermometer. Mine has made me a better cook and given me a better understanding of how things heat and when. Thermapen ($$$) and LavaTools Javelin ($$) are reputable.
I went thermometerless up until about 10 years ago, and I finally got myself a Thermapen. They really take the stress out of cooking meat (for me, my fear was more overcooking than undercooking). And when you have like a rib roast you paid sixty to a hundred bucks or more on (depending on how big), it’s a nice thing to have.
But also when making chicken, I find it very helpful to make sure it’s not underdone. Definitely recommended.
Safety is relatively easy; the USDA guidelines are aimed at instantaneous safety at that temp- i.e. if you get your chicken above 165 at all, you’re good to go, as bacteria don’t live at 165 for long at all. Slow cooking is pretty hot relative to the safe pork temp (145), so once it’s up to temp, you’re fine.
With uncooked meat, the thing is that as it heats, the muscle fibers contract and basically squeeze juice from the meat. Fat tends to hang around and add a perception of juiciness. More important for slow cooking though, is the change of collagen to gelatin, which happens over time in meat as it’s held above a certain temp and in the presence of water. While the muscle fibers themselves are totally contracted, the other stuff making the meat tough dissolves into gelatin which is basically liquid.
This is why things like brisket, pot roast, oxtail, etc… are great for smoking, braising and slow-cooking. They have lots of collagen, which makes them super-tough unless they’re cooked slow and low for an extended period.
In your case, the meat is pre-cooked. I’m assuming that they probably did so in a way that makes it reasonably tender based on the cut. I’d probably throw a couple of pieces in the slow-cook for flavoring, but add the majority for the last half hour or so in order not to potentially make it too tough.
I have sufficient ingredients to make another one of these, which I figure I will do next week. Between my own observations of what seems to work, and all the tips in this thread, I can see a few things I’ll do a little differently.
This stew came out quite all right, but I still see a few things I could do a little better.
Yikes! Weather forecast for tomorrow is 105! I could cut down my electric bill and just set the crock pot out in the sun to slow cook the next batch!