This looked like a true fire and forget recipe. 14 plus hours in a low oven with minimal attention. We really decided to put this to the test. Ox got a slightly overweight shoulder so he put it into the oven really late at night, checked it in the morning, and then headed off to work with instructions for Mrs. Ox to keep an eye on it. The plan was for him to get home early (it was flippin Easter after all!)Things didn't work that way. Somebody messed something up at his work (probably Ox himself) so they had to stay late (2 hours plus) for a "critique". "Critique" is Navy Nuke speak for, "Take way too long to figure out what everybody already knows." Needless to say this recipe was stretched to the extreme.
Ox got home and we started the Tomato Gravy. We had non-fire roasted tomatoes, which was a bit of a mistake, but it still came out great. Cornmeal, bacon fat and tomatoes - that's it. You wouldn't think this would be awesome, but it was (but use Muir Glen Fire Roasted Tomatoes when you do it - it will be even better.)
As expected, the meat was a little dry at the edges, but the bark was phenomenal. Deeper inside the meat was juicier, and the gravy covered up a lot of the dryness. All in all, done not perfect, this was excellent. Done without a "fact-finding" delaying everything. It would be awesome. (In my opinion the only "facts" that were found were that Easter doesn't stand a chance against nuclear stupidity.)
