I’m in the mood to pull some pork and all I have are thick, boneless chops.
My plan is to make them in a slow cooker, then shred the pork once cooked and serve on buns. Seasoned and sauces, of course.
I’ve made this before with a pork roast, but never with chops. I assume the chops would shred like the roast does, but I thought I’d ask here just to be sure.
Thanks,
mmm
It will work for the most part but the results can’t be quite the same. The chops will have come from the loin area which is quite a bit leaner and drier that the pork butt or ham. You’re never going to get the lip smacking juicy collagen goodness.
Go for it, they will eat. The chops really prefer fast cooking over dry heat though.
I don’t think it will shred properly. I’ve tried pulled pork with different cuts and the never ate quite the same texture to pull properly.
Nope. Just not enough fat/collagen in pork chops. They won’t shred properly, and will likely be dry. Save the pork chops for pork chops, and go buy a butt roast.
Thanks, glad I asked. I’ll go with just chops and pull my pork another day.
mmm
Works fairly well in my instant pot.
This. But the results will vary based on the type of chop you have. Blade chops you can get away with slow cooking (they work fine for that.) Loin chops (which is what most pork chops are in my experience) not so much. My mom is one of those people who just overcooks loin and loin chops to all holy hell. Yeah, it’ll fall apart eventually, but it’s a dry mealy mess of a meat at that point. Some people don’t seem to mind as long as you have a lot of sauce on it, but it doesn’t at all have the right texture. It just doesn’t have the collagen/gelatin content to keep the meat feeling moist in the mouth, no matter how much sauce you put on it. You know how chicken breast gets shreddy but dry if you slow/wet cook it for a long time? It’s exactly like that.
Of course it works…to a degree. It’s not like it’s going to turn into a toxic stew if you choose to use a wet, braising method instead of the more commonly used dry heat. The OP specified that he wanted ‘pulled’ pork though. You’re just not going to get that specific texture or mouth feel from a loin chop no matter how you cook it. Some people may prefer that to the stringiness of pulled pork shoulder and there’s certainly something to be said for the lower fat content but it’s not the same thing. The distinction is not meaningless.
Yep, agree with both of these. It’s not like what you’ll get will be inedible, but, at best, it’s gonna be just OK. I personally wouldn’t do it, and I’ve done plenty of weird things with the wrong cuts of meat.
When husband had a bad toothache, I put a slices of cooked pork chop in the little mini-chopper, mixed it with some barbeque sauce, and served it on a bun. The texture was close to cooked hamburger, but the resulting little white chunks of pork were definitely on the dry and chewy side. You really need a fatter cut of pork.
DEVIL’S ADVOCATE: We forgot we had a pork tenderloin (very lean) in the fridge for a week, and it seemed a little too seamy for human consumption. I figured it would be okay for the dogs, so I simmered it for an hour to kill any nastiness that might harm them.
When I cut it up for their dinner, it easily separated into the sort of shreds I would call pulled pork.
Izzat what kids are calling it these days? d&r
Seriously, you made the right call. Proper pulled pork needs that connective tissue to be succulent which then in turn needs the long cooking time that makes the tissue be succulent.
Kind of like when a friend of mine who had a new smoker announced he was going to try using flank steak instead of brisket for some “Texas BBQ.” No, dude, you’re gonna wind up with jerky. I brought a backup.
Oh my! And why would you want to do that, anyway? Flank is like twice the price of brisket (maybe more). I mean, you can smoke flank successfully; just don’t do it for 8-12 hours and do it to normal steak finishing temps. But why when you can do a lovely brisket for far cheaper?
Heh. I made “pulled pork” using pork tenderloin and it was just not right. i did it just to see how it would work, but would never repeated the experiment.
Additionally…when we have food that is “a little too seamy for human consumption” the dogs do not get it. I’d rather eat it myself. I’ll vomit and expel diarrhea into a toilet, the dogs will not.
ETA: I recently cooked a pork butt (shoulder) sous vide at 160 for 72 hours. It was incredible.
If it’s good and seamy enough for the dogs, it’s good and seamy enough for you!
Well, as I said, he’d just gotten the smoker so he was one of those kinds of guy who then instantly Knows Everything There is to Know About Smoking Meat. I mean, to listen to him tell it, 30-year career pitmasters from San Antonio came to sit at his feet. I think he was thinking a better cut of meat would improve the end result or something. I brought three one pound chubs of sausage I’d smoked for three hours, then frozen in Seal-a-meal bags. After a few hours when it was getting evident things were not going to turn out well (thunk, thunk) his wife and I conspired to put them into a pot of simmering water so they’d be hot an hour later.