Barbecue: Pulled Pork
Each week Joshua Bousel of The Meatwave drops by with a recipe for you to grill over the weekend. Fire it up, Joshua!
[Photograph: Joshua Bousel]
Due to some complications at my previous residence--including a nosy neighbor who was convinced I was burning down the hood every time I fired up the smoker--it's been over two years since I've made pulled pork, a shame that's hard to live down. With my new digs has come confidence, and this past weekend I smoked up two beautiful pork butts.
Brined in a molasses-and-salt mixture then rubbed down, the pork butts started smoking over a combination of oak and applewood at 10 p.m. on Saturday night and emerged from the smoker 16 hours later. So tender, they began falling apart as I lifted them out. After an hour's rest, they were easily pulled, piled high on a bun, and topped with North Carolina-style vinegar sauce (adapted based on your comments). Pulled pork is one of the few foods I openly brag about making incredibly well--this experience solidified that claim even further. Smokey, spicy, and juicy, the meat was everything pulled pork should be.
Pulled Pork
Brine recipe adapted from Alton Brown.
Ingredients
For the brine:
3/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup kosher salt
2 quarts cold water
About 1 cup of your favorite dry rub
1 pork butt
Hickory and apple wood chunks, or other smoking woods of your choice
Procedure
1. Trim the fat cap to 1/4 inch thick and cut off any hard pieces of fat from the pork butt.
2. In a saucepan, add the molasses, salt, and 1/2 quart of water. Stir over medium meat just until all the salt is dissolved. Pour mixture into your brining vessel, add the rest of the water, and stir to combine. Completely submerge the pork butt in the brine and then place in the refrigerator and allow to brine for 12 hours.
3. Remove the pork butt from the brine and pat dry with paper towels. Rub entire pork butt liberally with the dry rub. Wrap the rubbed pork butt in aluminum foil and place back in the refrigerator for another 12 hours.
4. Remove the pork from the fridge while you start the smoker. Fire up your smoker to 225°F. When at temperature, add wood chunks and the pork butt. Smoke until an instant read thermometer reads 190°F when inserted into the pork, about 14 to 16 hours.
5. Remove the pork and allow it to rest for at least an hour to cool down. Pull the pork using your hands or two forks and serve.
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18 Comments:
Nice looking sandwich! Pulled pork is the definitive "BBQ" for me and it was the food that started me on the path to being a foodie.
I've heard that the longer your butt stays in the "plateau" or stall point, the better it will be. Your thoughts on that?
I LOVE that one piece of bark next to the sandwich. I want to grab it and eat it.
swibirun at 7:56PM on 09/18/09
You have to post more photos. Or maybe a link to them. What kind of smoker are you using?
I am almost out of the very last crumbs of two whole hogs that I roasted over the summer. But just today I reheated some roast pork in cast iron for a sandwich. Heaven.
I like the marinade and dry rubbing prior to smoking. For beef and pork though I think mesquite or hickory is better than the fruit woods.
How come no slaw on the pulled pork sandwich?
climbhighak at 8:55PM on 09/18/09
@swibirun: There may be some truth to that. The plateau is really when the fat and connective tissue break down, so the longer that takes, the more tender I would think the pork would be, but that being said, I also think the plateau time would be controlled mostly by the amount of fat and connective tissue in the pork. My pork butts plateaued for about 2-3 hours at 225 degrees before the temperature starting rising again.
Joshua Bousel at 10:07PM on 09/18/09
@climbhighak: I use a weber bullet. I had slaw on some sandwiches, just not the particular one I chose for this post. Here's some more photos.
Your whole hog sounds delicious. Smoking a whole hog is a dream of mine, but I don't posses the means to do one....yet....
Joshua Bousel at 10:11PM on 09/18/09
I'm jealous, that sandwich looks great, I can almost taste it. Now I have to go buy a pork butt and get my butt in gear and fire up my Weber.
dmcavanagh at 11:56PM on 09/18/09
That sandwich is looking great!
jlewfoodie at 2:13AM on 09/19/09
Yea!! About time we had a true BBQ fan post something here! THanks Josh!
First of all, screw your neighbors. They can either close their windows and deal with it, or move the hell out. That's my motto. If you live next to me, smoke is pouring from my pit all year 'round. If your windows are open, too bad. I'll offer you some, but I can't control the wind, or the breeze.
Anyhow, great recipe. I do more of a standard rub with a mustard base to hold it all on and help create a nice bark. I love Eastern Carolina style, so I would love to try some of yours. One thing I might add, though. Eastern Carolina BBQ doesn't need to be as smokey flavored as the other styles. To get the correct balance, one must back off on the normal amount of wood used to create other pulled pork BBQ recipes. You don't want the smoke flavor to dominate in an Eastern Carolina recipe. It's kind like doing a proper beef brisket. Too much smoke will ruin the party.
Raiders757 at 2:52AM on 09/19/09
@Josh - you mean you're not going to tell us how you tweaked the vinegar sauce after all those comments on the other thread? You added some sugar? some ketchup?
lemonfair at 7:45AM on 09/19/09
I concur that it is nice to see some posts from a real barbecuer and fellow SMC owner. After looking at the rest of your photos it appears theres a recipe for baked beans and one for guacamole that you need to post in the very near future. Like now. :)
I've never brined my butts. I'm not huge on sweet for pulled pork, I save that for the beans and ribs. I've tried an injection recipe a few times and found it's more trouble than it's worth. I don't let my meat rest after rubbing it either, I've read from multiple reliable sources that it doesn't add anything. On the other hand I know serious barbecuers swear by their methods so to each his/her own. In the end all that matters is if it tastes good, right? Post more soon.
steamsoldier at 8:08AM on 09/19/09
@lemonfair: For the NC sauce recipe, I cut back the salt, added brown sugar until I got a balance been acidic and sweet that I liked, and gave the whole thing just a small squirt of ketchup.
Joshua Bousel at 10:23AM on 09/19/09
@steamsoldier: You should try out these beans in your smoker. They're not the ones in the photo (that recipe here), but they're my personal favorite.
Joshua Bousel at 10:26AM on 09/19/09
Thanks for all your hard work and the molasses idea--I've always used a bit of brown sugar.
Like bacon, I've never met a pulled pork I haven't liked.
betteirene at 2:37PM on 09/19/09
Great looking pulled pork!
I haven't smoked a butt in gosh...more than a year now. Shame on me!
I like to keep it simple: salt, pepper and keep the sauce east NC style:- cider vinegar, red pepper flakes, a few peppercorns, salt (ok sometimes I add a little bit of hot sauce or molasses)
Add cheap hamburger buns, decent slaw. Good eats!
Great, now I'm hankering for a bbq sammich.
FP
foolishpoolish at 6:46PM on 09/19/09
@foolishpoolish: Thanks. Try the pork on potato rolls, I think it's a big improvement over regular hamburger buns.
Joshua Bousel at 8:19AM on 09/20/09
@josh - thanks for responding.
lemonfair at 11:01AM on 09/20/09
@lemonfair: I forgot, I also added some Texas Pete...bought a bottle just to make this sauce with :)
Joshua Bousel at 10:33PM on 09/20/09
Pork..the other white meat....ha
Chef316 at 2:18AM on 09/22/09
@Joshua - You obviously have a one track mind. Haha. Step two: Stir over medium MEAT until dissolved. :)
lexophile at 10:00PM on 09/26/09