Pulled Pork

This has been on our list of barbecue plans for quite a while now. We did some research, invited some friends round, bought a pork shoulder and got to work.

Pulled pork is traditional in some southern American states and the idea is that it is a slow-cooked pork shoulder that becomes so tender during its long, slow cooking that it can easily be pulled apart with a couple of forks and doesn’t need to be sliced. These “pulled” bits are traditionally mixed with a sauce and then served on a white roll to make a “pulled pork sandwich” which often also includes slaw. The pork is rubbed with a spice mixture before cooking to give it a bit of heat and flavour, and can be smoked when cooking.

These were the spices for our spice mixture, before being mixed together:

Being an American speciality, the recipes call for “pork butt” which is an American cut comprising the top part of the shoulder. We ended up with a whole shoulder though and just decided to cook the whole thing. So the day before, we skinned it and removed the fat cap and then rubbed it all over with a spice rub. (This skin became crackling with we served with seared scallops that night) We didn’t have a freezer bag big enough for the shoulder, so we wrapped it in cling film and put it into the fridge overnight for the rub to penetrate the meat.

Before begin rubbed, with a penny for size comparison:

In the morning, we popped it into the oven on a low temperature (140C) for about four hours before putting it onto the barbecue. This, the actual cooking of it, was the bit I was worried about, with regards to timings and temperatures, etc. Some recipes said to cook it in the oven covered, others said uncovered and of course there were the ones on the barbecue which interested us, but a lot of these were for special smokers and/or recommended using a remote thermometer to monitor the internal temperature. However, we needed a combination of these as in order to have it ready for 2pm, we needed to start quite early in the morning and didn’t think our neighbours would appreciate being greeted by barbecue smoke shortly after waking up. Also, very boringly, we had washing on the line that needed to dry and we didn’t want that to smell like barbecue.

So we started with it in the oven, covered, for four hours, and then planned to put it onto the barbecue with some wood chips and smoke it with the lid on for a further hour. However, it was still quite far from being done when we took it out of the oven and it needed at least two hours on the barbecue, during which time it become a little charred on the outside – too much heat. The result was that although some of it was easily to “pull” apart, other bits weren’t, but it tasted good, which is the main point. It did mean that our friends had to wait a bit for their lunch, but Kerri had made a large bowl of very good guacamole which we ate with corn chips while we waited.

Just out of the oven:

And on the barbecue, a little blacker than planned:

Then pulled and ready to be made into a sandwich:

Now there was the sauce to consider. There are two main schools of thought on this, which is mostly down to regionality – some people use a spicy, vinegar-based sauce whereas others use a sweeter, tomato-based sauce. We went for a simple vinegar-based sauce which we warmed up in a saucepan and added the shreds of pork to – it worked really well, moistening and adding flavour to the pork. We also made slaw, which was very simple to make and a good addition to the sandwich.

Also barbecued corn:

It tasted rather good and was successful in that department, but didn’t turn out quite as we’d hoped overall. We’ll just have to try again and try to perfect it!