Pork shoulder/pulled pork

[boatfixer]

Anyone have a good recipe for doing the whole pulled pork thing? Kids grad party and she wants pulled pork samiches. I got 2 big shoulder roasts and a Weber Genesis...GO!

[catfishkid]

use a good rub to start with. cover the whole thing with rub and wrap in plastic wrap. this can be done over night.cook with fat side up for aprox. 10 hours don't open the lid until then, after 10 hours check once in a while until its up to 190. you can take it off the pit and pull it right away or wrap in foil and stick in a cooler for up to a few hours. the temp that you should cook at is 220 to 230. when you pull it save the fat cap and chop it up very small. i add that, a little rub, and some sauce into the pork. use only about one cup of sauce and mix well.

hope this helps.

[MNHuntress]

I agree with the above, except I use a charcoal grill with the indirect cooking method, and add a pan of chips for a nice smokey flavor.

Also when I get the urge for pulled pork in the winter, stick the roast in a crock pot, add 1 cup of your favorite bbq sauce (that's it) and cook all day. Makes your mouth water.

[TN Rick]

This may be 'cheating', but I make pretty good pulled pork using the crock pot!

Put a Boston Butt Roast in the crock pot with 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar and a full bottle of hickory flavored liquid smoke. Cook on high for 10 to 12 hours. Remove the fat and shred. Hard to beat.

[KEN W]

Here are the directions from a friend that makes the best pulled pork I have tasted.

For a majority of most smoking I go by internal product temperature of what I am smoking to know that it is done, how long it takes in a smoker has a few variables, wind will rob the smoker of internal smoker temperature, size of roast, butts whatever you are smoking differs, etc. Internal meat temperature is the most accurate way to tell if something is done. General rule of thumb is an 1 1/2 hour per pound, but like I said, it can vary.

For pork butt about 12 hours before you smoke slather the butt in mustard and then apply your favorite meat rub. If you want to inject the butt with anything, now is also the time to do that (I do not inject pork butt). Then wrap the butt in plastic wrap and refridgerate.

When you are ready to put it in the smoker take the butt out about an hour ahead of time and let it sit on the counter to bring it closer to room temperature. This will help your smoker maintain temperature so it doesn't have to work harder keeping temperature up with a cold object added to the inside of the smoker.

Bring your smoker to 225º, fill your water pan with very hot water and insert a meat thermometer into the unwrapped butt and put the butt in the smoker.Add your wood chips. I do not like smoke billowing out of the smoker, to me smoke is just an ingredient in the recipe, not the main course. After the butt has reached an internal meat temperature of 100º start spraying a spritz on the butt once an hour or so . This will keep the butt from drying out.

For spritz I like a 50/50 mix of apple juice. The sugar will carmelize in the heat of the smoker and put a good tasting bark to the outside of the pork butt.

There will come a time when the porks temperture will hang up and quite rising. Do not worry about this, it is normal. Do not raise the smoker temperature to help the internal meat temperature keep climbing. This is important because letting it slowly go through the temperature plateau will be a big difference in your end product. If you rush it through the temperature hang up the butt will not be as tender and lose some taste.

When the butt reaches 165º set the butt in a foil wrap and pour a little of your spritz in the foil with the butt and then double foil wrap the butt keeping it upright so the juices do not drip out.

Now you can put it back in the smoker set to 250º or an oven, smoking is done.

Now it is your choice if you want sliced pork or pulled pork. For sliced pork bring the internal meat temperature to 185º or for pulled pork bring the internal meat temperature to 205º.

After the meat has reached the desired tempeature,double foiled wrap the butt in a few towels, keeping it upright so you do not loose juices and place it in a cooler.Fill any open cooler spaces with towels to help the cooler contain the heat.

I know this last step sounds crazy but trust me, you are getting close to having some of the best pork butt you have ever tasted. Let the butt sit (it is still slow cooking) in the cooler a minimum of 2 hours and I have let it sit as long as 12 hours before serving it. When you open the foil it will still be steaming hot, even after 12 hours !!! I keep the meat probe in it poking through the towels so I can always check the temperature just so I know it is still hot.

Now slice or pull, then it is time to eat.....

For pulled pork I like making a finishing sauce to serve with the pork. taste it with or without, put on as as little or as much as you like to taste. Here is a finishing sauce recipe I like -

1 Cup Cider Vinegar

2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar

1 Teaspoon Tony Chachere's Cajun Seasoning

1 Teaspoon Course Black Pepper

1 Teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes

Warm the vinegar up enough so that it disolves the Sugar well. Then add the remaining ingredients. I like putting the sauce in an empty ketchup bottle for serving. The you can sprinkle a little hear and a little there.

This process is alot of work, but the taste of the end product and the compliments you will receive will make it all well worth it. Good luck !!!

[kitchy]

Use the link below to checkout thirdeyes recipe. It is wonderful. Pay particular attention to his explaination of the "plateau". It is critical that you have patience and get through this stage. Before I read his post, I was removing the pork from my smoker too soon because it seemed like it was taking forever. I've had cuts that took up to 16 hours to smoke.

Roasted Pork

[Jim Almquist]

Thirdeye's KFC style coleslaw on top of the sandwiches is awesome !

This is the recipe he posted

Pulled pork works great for something like that. It holds well, freezes well and reheats well. If you are not going to add any thinned barbecue sauce when reheating, add a little apple juice or Classic CocaCola. It will add moisture and sweetness only, there will be no tell-tale flavors.

I do make my own slaw for PP sandwiches, but one of the markets here has 3 or 4 kinds in their deli section that are pretty good too. The recipe I use the most was called KFC Style Slaw. Partially because is calls for a fine chopped cabbage, but the flavor is real close.

KFC Style Slaw

8 cups very finely chopped cabbage

1/4 cup shredded carrot

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup buttermilk

1-1/2 tbsp. white vinegar

2-1/2 tbsp. lemon juice

Directions:

Be sure that the cabbage and carrots are chopped up into very fine pieces, about the size of rice kernels. Combine the sugar, salt, pepper, milk, mayonnaise, buttermilk, vinegar, and lemon juice and beat until smooth. Add the cabbage and carrots. Mix well. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

[archerystud]

I've done a couple of Boston Butt's on my smoker and I'll add in one little tid bit of info.

The first couple I did were awesome but when I did some larger chuncks of meat it wasn't as flavorful. My solution was to add a little bit of the spice rub AFTER it was pulled and mix it up some more.

I didn't have to do this to a 5-6 lb roast but it made the 10-12 lb roast taste much better. Just do a quick taste test when you are done and determine if it needs a little more spice to go with the cider vinegar.

[peder]

I don't have smoker, so this is the method I use with good results. Dry rub on pork butt the night before, cook on weber (indirect) add soaked hickory chunks for smoke - cook about 2-3 hours, remove fron grill wrap in saran wrap and then in foil, cook in oven 210F for 4-5 hours. Internal temp should be over 200. Useing the oven isn't traditional but I'm lazy and it works. Serve with N.C. style slaw.

North Carolina Style Slaw

2# shredded green cabbage

2 C cider vinegar

3/4 C ketchup

1/4 C brown sugar

2 t salt or more to taste

2-3 T crushed red pepper flakes

1 t black pepper

1 t white pepper

Add all ingredients except cabbage to nonreactive pot, bring to simmer then allow to cool to room temp. Pour over cabbage, serve over pork on bun.

[zamboni]

Some of the BBQ joints in KC have "Carolina Style" BBQ sandwiches that have cole slaw on them, never tried them when I lived there- always got the pulled pork instead.

I seen a commercial for White Castle today- apparently they have pulled pork now. I hate to even venture a guess at how bad that would taste

[Jim Almquist]

Some of the BBQ joints in KC have "Carolina Style" BBQ sandwiches that have cole slaw on them, never tried them when I lived there- always got the pulled pork instead.

A little vinegar and some red pepper flakes on the pulled pork and some slaw on top That my Tummy talking

[zamboni]

Best pulled pork on the planet is Oklahoma Joes in KC. Literally melts in your mouth. Don't go at noon- the line is around a hundred deep- wait til 1

[End of the Line]

Everytime I go to KC I make the same stop! Right on Zamboni!

[zamboni]

We used to eat there once every 2 weeks. I went back to KC in december for the first time since I moved back to Minnesota in Feb of 06 and of course Oklahoma Joes was number one spot on my list of places to go. Always the original location- the gas station/liquor store.

[rushing]

What I like is...Cover a 4lb pork roast in Caribbean Jerk Seasoning. Put it in the crock pot, cover half way with Orange Juice, throw in some onion and garlic and cook for 4-5hrs on high. Pull the roast out shred it up put it back intot he crock pot. Add a tiny bit of OJ and some Famous Dave's Sweet n Sassy with a few dashes of Tobasco sauce mix well. Serve on a Kasier Roll with a couple slices of dill pickle and a slice of Swiss Cheese.

[boatfixer]

Well saturday is the big day and Im gonna start smoking tomorrow afternoon. After further thought, I went out and picked up a smoker. The mustard and rub are on!!! My plan is to smoke and spritz until it hits around 175 degrees or so then wrap in foil and let 'er finish up through the night and pack in a cooler until we're ready!!!! Thanks a ton for everyones suggestions.

[HarleyK50]

how much are you cooking?

[boatfixer]

a pair of 8 lb'rs

[HarleyK50]

it sounded like you were doing alot more than that, and I was gonna recomend you fire up the oven. but you should do fine, you have great advice. this will quickly become one of your favorite past times. i am thinkin about ribs right now. yum. have fun and enjoy.

[boatfixer]

I have to work today and cant get started until the afternoon anyway. This way I can watch them til they're done. I have a remote temp probe that I can set an alrm on and if need be I'll get up during the night. It's my little girls grad party, thats what daddys do!!

[Doop]

Pork Butts are so easy because they are fatty and dang near IMPOSSIBLE to mess up! They always turn out great!

Here is how I do mine:

You need to cook the shoulder at 200 to 225 degrees for at least 6 to 14 hours depending on the size of the roast you are cooking. Again, as with brisket cooking the idea is to cook at low temperatures for long periods of time until we get the internal temperature of the shoulder up to about 200 to 210 degrees internal temperature.

I personally wrap this piece of meat during cooking (about 2/3 of the way thru the cook) but if you want to you do not have to wrap it.

I use the Simple 1-2-3 method of applying Worcestershire sauce and then Texas BBQ Rub and place on the pit. Coat heavily with Texas BBQ Rub. Two or three big hand fulls will give you the amount of rub you will need. If you have a side with more fat on it than the other you can put the fat side up. But this piece of meat has a lot of fat internally so it will stay moist under low temperatures.

When you finish the shoulder you can pull the meat off the bone (if it is cooked right you can simply pull the bone from the middle of the shoulder and just have the meat left to chop or shred) or you can shred the meat or cut it up and make a chopped pork butt sandwich. This meat is excellent for sandwiches or just eating plain. Alot of folks like to add a BBQ sauce to the pulled pork and you can use the recipe we gave to you earlier to add to the pulled pork.

GOOD LUCK and let us know how it comes out!!!! It's definitely LUNCH TIME!!!!!!!!!!!

[fishinchicks]

We had pulled pork with bbq sauce for my daughter's grad party a couple weeks ago. I cooked up about 19 roasts, ranging in size from 2.5 to 3.5 lbs. Low and slow is the way to go!

We are hog farmers, so we just used the roasts from our last butchering. I wasn't able to choose the type of roast, but even the toughest cuts are good when cooked low and slow.

I used a Famous Dave's rub, and put a little apple cider and Lea&Perrins in the bottom. I have some large pans, and could fit a couple of roasts in each. When the first batch was done, I left the liquid in the bottom, and added another couple roasts. The leftover juices helped to flavor the cuts that didn't have a lot of outside fat or marbling.

I would love to try some of the other methods!

[catfishkid]

I posted these on another link about grills, but you might like to look at the pictures. I dont know how to link you to it but it is on page 3 at the top " most anglers love to eat, lets see your grill in action . I built both pits. great hobby and you make lots of friends

[boatfixer]

Well I gotta tell ya! Man that was GOOD EATS!! I pulled em at about 7:30 this morning after they hit 205 degrees and put em in the cooler and let them coast for a few hours and they only dropped to 180. I literally couldnt pick them out of the foil cuz they were so tender! Thanks to all for your suggestions

[Jim Almquist]

catfishkid I copied your pics instead of linking the thread

I am getting hungry looking at all this pulled pork