Friday, May 23, 2008

Pulled Pork!

By request of the G-man, here's how I do pulled pork...No doubt that if you have the time and equipment, Haddock's 36 hour cooking method is the best, NO DOUBT. However, I generally lack patience and my spouse would murder me for spending this much time and effort on what she refers to as barbeque. She's from Misery remember -

Today, purchase bone in pork shoulder ~ 8 to 10 lbs and your favorite dry rub. I sometimes make my own, but more often use Stubb's. In your kitchen, prep the pig by carving off any skin and large layers of fat. Rub pig generously with your spices. Wrap in plastic wrap, atleast 2 layers and toss in the chill chest.

Monday morning about 12 hours before you want to eat (can be as little as 10 hours). Take pig out of fridge and soak your wood for smoking (I like hickory, apple, or cherry). Plan on about an hour for soaking and warming your pig. Light your egg and regulate temp to about 250. When ready to cook, toss on about 1/2 of your smoking chips and set your egg up for indirect grilling. Place an aluminum pan under the grill grate to keep the fat off the fire. Throw the unwrapped pork on fat-side up. Close the egg and go make your mop.

I like a simple mop:
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
A splash of Worcestershire or Dale's
A splash of oil
Salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste (about 1 tsp of cayenne is generally enough)

Mix these together and set aside.

After about an hour on smoking, quickly open egg, mop and close. Do this every hour. Somewhere between 2 and 3 hours toss on some extra soaked woodchips when mopping. Around the 4th hour, turn the pig upside down. Around 6 hours, start checking the temperature. You are trying to get to around 190 degrees. Be sure your probe is not touching the bone. You may want to check in a few places. Anything over 170 degrees is safe to eat, but will not have the same appearance as the pork that has reached higher temperatures.

When done, remove from grill and wrap in foil and toss into an empty cooler lined with kitchen towels. Let the pork rest for about an hour. Remove the pork from the cooler, unwrap and pull using 2 forks. If using BBQ sauce, toss about 1 cup of sauce in with the pork and transfer to an aluminum pan. If you finish early, cover and place in a 175 degree oven & drink plenty of beer until your guests arrive.

JW

2 comments:

OG said...

Do you really have to keep basting it? How badly would it dry out if you did that? What about a barbecue sauce recipe? I saw one on the day that used oyster sauce to spice it up, sounded interesting.

MCG DAWG said...

I don't mop mine. I put apple juice/apple cider vinegar in my drip pan and have found that keeps the meat moist.

Also, you can cook a piece of pork ain 10 hours using my method as well . . .if you cook a small enough piece! Usually works out to about 1.5 -2 hours per pound cooking time. When I'm cooking for just myself and the bride I get a small 3-4 pound "picnic ham" and can have it done in 8 hours of slow smoking.

I've been disappointed with the smoke ring on my ribs the past few times I'm done them so I'm going to start using more, wetter wood and keeping the temp at 220-225 the first 2 hours instad of the 250 I've been using. Hope to get more penetration that way.