Tag Archive for: Pulled Pork

The Whole Pig

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I have eaten a lot of pulled pork in the last two weekends.  It has been pretty awesome.  What I have been amazed at is the different ways said pork has been prepared and how tasty each different one is.  The first round of BBQ sandwiches was last weekend when we spent the day on the dock down in Wadmalaw.  My fantastic friends Brooke and Jodie said they were bringing some BBQ which was great because while I had dinner planned out, I had not done anything for lunch.  When we all got hungry from not catching any fish, Brooke ran up to the house to heat up the BBQ.  He came down with Jack Daniels new line of “ready to eat meats” Pulled Pork (http://jackdanielsmeats.com/products/PulledPork/index.html).  I must admit I was skeptical as I am not usually a fan of that kind of stuff, but this was really good.  The sauce was great, the meat was delicious, and it was so easy, and also the perfect size for just a few people.  Definitely a great thing to have in the fridge when you have a craving for BBQ.

The second event for pulled pork was this past Saturday night.  My brother and his wife have just recently moved to Charleston, and they had a house warming party.  Mac and cheese, biscuits, and pulled pork were on the dinner menu, and bourbon banana pudding and apple pie was for dessert.  It was pretty special.  Corby has cooked pulled pork on the grill a couple of times before, and it has been really delicious, but it takes forever!  He has to let it marinade in a brine for 24 hours and then he puts it on the grill for 8-10 hours, and it is just a huge effort that doesn’t happen very often.  Clearly, the low and slow technique is what good BBQ is all about, so why had I never thought to cook it in my crock pot like my sister in law did for Saturday night- genius!  As much as I love my crock pot and BBQ, I can not believe I have never done this!  Here is a great recipe I found for crock pot pulled pork- it is at the bottom.

Now, the third eating of pulled pork was last night at a Lowcountry Local First (www.lowcountrylocalfirst.org) event out at some friend’s house on Sullivans Island.  It was a great event to raise money for LLF which is a great group supporting local farmers and connecting them with restaurants and people to buy local and eat local.  The hosts had spent some time getting ready for the party.  The house is amazing and looked beautiful, they had a great band, and they had cooked an entire pig in a pit in their yard.  A big, huge pig in a hole- slow cooked for hours and hours.  It was pretty impressive and oh my god good.  So basically, from store bought to crock pot to whole pig in the ground- pulled pork BBQ is pretty awesome no matter what.

Crock Pot Pulled Pork

Ingredients:

1 pork roast or butt (size depends on how much you want)

1 large Vidalia onion, sliced thin
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (4-6 lb) boneless pork butt or shoulder
¾ cup cider vinegar
4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 ½ teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
1 ½ teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoons dry mustard
½ teaspoon garlic salt
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions:

Rinse pork roast under cold water and pat dry with paper towels.

Place onions in crock-pot. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, paprika, kosher salt and pepper; mix thoroughly. Rub mixture all over roast and place the roast on top of the onions.

In a medium bowl, combine vinegar, Worcestershire, red pepper flakes, sugar, mustard, garlic salt and cayenne pepper; whisk to combine. Drizzle about 1/3 of vinegar mixture over roast. Cover and refrigerate remaining vinegar mixture.

Cover crockpot; cook on low for 10-12 hours. Drizzle about 1/3 of reserved vinegar mixture over roast during last ½ hour of cooking.

Remove meat and onions; drain. Chop or shred meat and onions. Serve with remaining vinegar mixture or your favorite barbeque sauce.

 

Sean Brock’s Backyard Pulled Pork

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There are so many reason why Sean Brock won the James Beard Award in 2010- McCrady’s and Husk are amazing restaurants, but we tried his backyard pulled pork recipe this weekend for a football watch party we were throwing, and I now think Sean Brock is a god.  I am maybe slightly biased because Corby worked very hard on this, but it really was the best pulled pork EVER! (and here is a picture of the party which was so much fun!)

 

Here is what you need:

  • 1 cup Dijon mustard
  • 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons kosher salt
  • 2 tablespoons freshly ground pepper
  • 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
  • 1 tablespoon onion powder
  • One 12- to 14-pound bone-in pork shoulder, with skin (we used pork butt- either works fine)
  • About 50 hardwood charcoal briquettes
  • 8 cups small hardwood smoking chips, soaked in water for 30 minutes and drained

Here is what you do:

  • Preheat the oven to 275°. In a medium bowl, whisk the mustard with the brown sugar, salt, pepper, paprika and onion powder. Set the pork shoulder, fat side up, in doubled 14-by-18-inch disposable aluminum roasting pans. Brush the pork with the mustard mixture. Roast, uncovered, for 12 hours, until the meat is very tender and is pulling away from the shoulder bone.
  • Tilt the pan and pour the roasting juices into a medium bowl; you should have about 1 1/4 cups. Refrigerate the juices for 30 minutes. Skim off the fat before using.
  • Meanwhile, light 10 of the charcoal briquettes. When the coals are hot, cover them with the remaining 40 briquettes. When all the coals are hot, arrange 6 cups of the soaked wood chips around the coals. Set the roasting pan on the grill grate over the coals and wood chips. Cover the grill, partially open the air vents and smoke the pork shoulder for 30 minutes.
  • Carefully remove the pork and the grill grate and stir the coals a few times. Scatter the remaining 2 cups of soaked wood chips over the coals. Replace the grill grate and return the pork to the grill. Cover and smoke for 30 minutes longer.
  • Transfer the pork to a work surface and let rest for 30 minutes. Pull the meat off of the bones; discard the bones, gristle, skin and fat. Using tongs and a fork, or your fingers, finely shred the meat and transfer it to a large bowl.

Growing up in South Carolina, I am completely biased towards the mustard based sauce, but any sauce would work on this magnificent dish.  Here is the sauce we used:

Mustard Sauce:
  • 1 1/2 cups prepared yellow mustard
  • 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar vinegar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon white pepper

Preparation:

Combine all ingredients. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours to blend the flavors