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@lae
About a month ago I bought an enormous 4kg shoulder of pork which was reduced to £2.12. Had about 12 servings out of it.
I braised some of it in cider - really good:
Start sautéing some onions in a cast-iron casserole.
Make half a dozen deep incisions into the meat with a long, thin knife.
Into each hole stuff half a clove of garlic, some rosemary, and a pinch of toasted fennel seeds. Slice the skin and rub in some salt.
When the onions have caramelised, take them off the heat and deglaze the dish with 2/3 bottle of very sweet cider, then place the pork and some bay leaves into it.
Put on a tight-fitting lid (add a cartouche of greaseproof paper) and put into a low oven (120 degrees) for 4-6 hours or so, basting every hour to keep the pork really moist.
Then remove pork, put pan on heat and add some roux to make a sweet onion gravy - while this is doing its thing, I blowtorched (!) the pork skin to make crackling.
It would've been nice to braise it with some whole fennel, but I didn't have any. I just served with some green beans.
One thing I'm fond of doing is getting some really straggly cheap bits of pork hock, pounding them out thin and flat, and rolling them up around some chopped garlic, a bit of fresh parsley and a few toasted fennel seeds. Then tie it up really well and cook in your pasta sugo for a few hours - and serve on top of your plate of pasta. Good cheap 'nice dish for Sunday evening' type meal. Sometimes if you ask the butcher you'll get a cheap trotter thrown in, too (although perhaps not in That London since they're fashionable right now).