I had a mean NC lady as a boss when I worked in a snack bar as a teen. She showed me how to make a mean pulled pork, using an oven roaster bag. I’ve never quite been able to replicate the sauce, though.
Making pork so it’s tender and pulls apart is pretty straightforward. Getting it just right takes finesse, but, generally, all you have to do is start with the right cut and let time and slow cooking take its course. Boston butt is the easiest and most usual cut to use. You can roast it dry in the oven, you could put it in a slow cooker, you can put it in a Dutch oven, you can put it in a roaster bag, you can wrap it in a banana leaf, foil, etc. You can cook it with liquid or without liquid. I have my opinions about some of those methods, not all good, but they all will make a serviceable, pullable, juicy product if you just cook at 200-300F and wait until the meat becomes tender enough to pull apart on its own, because as long as you are using Boston butt or a similar cut, it will. Just don’t call it “barbecue” if you’re not cooking it over wood (and nobody’s called it “barbecue” so far, so we’re cool. )
I made pulled pork in the crock pot again yesterday. Seriously, it’s so easy and always turns out fantastic.
Lexington is in the Western NC style.
Useless trivia for the day.
And it’s inferior to Eastern whole hog in every conceivable way.
Barbecue!
::runs away, cackling insanely::
Why I oughtta!
As a mass consumer of said pulled pork from said crock pot (just had the last of it with a dollop of BBQ sauce and a few driblets of Sriracha), I can verily say unto you, lo, teeming masses, 'tis the bomb diggity.
And yes, I made the goddamn sexual joke. Fuck ya’ll. Whaddya want? Sentences with “pull”, “pork”, “butt”, “crock”, “pie”…what’s a fella to do?
And now she says “easy”!
Lawd a mercy.