So, I have the hunk of pork butt, some fantastic bbq sauce, a cast iron Dutch oven, and some fresh Kaiser rolls. Um… now what?
I’m thinking of just dumping the meat and sauce in the Dutch, setting the oven itself to about two hundred, and letting it cook in there for about five or six hours. Simple, but will the pork end up shredding nicely for sandwiches or end up a large, solid, uninviting hunk of overcooked sadness? Should I roast the pork first, then shred it and put it in the sauce for a few hours? Should I just get over the fact that I’m a Yankee and leave southern cooking well enough alone?
Personlly I don’t dump the sauce in at the beginning. All of the fat renders off and makes it a really greasy sauce. I season and rub the pork well, with a little liquid to begin. But skim off a lot of the fat(only the floating fat though, the liquid collagen must be allowed to remain) toward the end, before adding the sauce for the last 45 minutes or so.
Do you have a crock-pot? (I’m assuming you don’t have a convenient charcoal grill with wood chips handy, or we wouldn’t be having this conversation, right?) A crockpot is the next best thing, IMO, to a grill. It provides the low temp, long cooking process needed to melt all that connective tissue into gelatin, which is what coats good barbeque.
If you’re going to be home midway through the cooking, then slice up a big onion, and put half the slices in the bottom of the crockpot. Then put the meat in (uncut), 'bout a cup and a half of water, and top off with the rest of the onions. Cook on low for 8 hours or so. Then drain the liquid and discard it (there went most of your fat), pour a bottle or two of your favorite barbeque sauce into the crock, add the meat back in, and cook again for another 4 hours on low. I know, it takes a long time. But trust me, it’s worth it. You won’t even have to pull it - just scoop it out with a fork.
If you really don’t have that long, or you won’t be around at a convenient time to dump the liquid, you can put the sauce in with the meat and onions from the start, and cook on low for 9 hours or so, but your meat won’t be quite as fall-apart tender, and the sauce loses some of its high notes. Adding a bit of hot sauce just before serving can help.
If you’re set on using an oven, it can be done. 250 for about 8 hours, covered with foil. But you’re going to get a lot of fat in your Dutch Oven, it should be drained off about halfway through cooking. After the meat is done, shred it with two forks, sautee some chopped onions (in your Dutch Oven on the stovetop will work) and then add the shredded pork and sauce and heat 'till warm.
I haven’t tried pulled pork yet, but on occasion I’ll throw a few frozen chicken breasts into the crockpot and let it cook for 8 hours or so. I pull the meat apart, dump a bunch of BBQ sauce in, stir it, and let it simmer for another half hour or so. No draining, which probably isn’t as necessary for chicken as for pork. It’s not amazing, but still quite serviceable and tasty.
No crock pot, just the Dutch – aside from not having to heat the entire oven space, is there a significant difference to the outcome?
I probably can’t put it in the oven until three, then I’ll be away until about eight or nine or so … only five hours. Should I scrap this idea and pick up Chinese?
What’s going to happen if beat up on Whynot’s suggestion (no intent to harm, I just don’t have a crock nor the full eight hours) and slice some onions, throw in some H20, and put it in their at … at … well, I don’t have a “low” setting on the oven, but what, about 160 (the final temp I want it at) and let it cook for about four of the the next five hours, then have Mrs. Dvl drain and add the sauce for the last hour?
Or should I just experiment and get back to the board?
Hmm…what’s the specific heat of pork and how big is the roast? (Sorry, I’m doing my chemistry homework at the moment, and it’s actually all about how much energy you need to put into things to heat them a certain number of degrees!)
It’s worth a try. You might not end up with pulled pork, but you’ll have a nice barbeque flavored pork roast, which will be tasty sliced thin and served on the buns. I’d push the temp up to 250 or 300, though. The meat is going to be too dense to heat to 160 in just five hours at ambient temperature, I’m thinking.
Start with well-marbled pork shoulder. Coat with yellow mustard. Sprinkle on your favorite dry rub of choice (I tend to use sugar-less rubs with equal parts salt, black pepper, paprika, cumin, and 1/2 part celery seed). You don’t need a dutch oven. In fact, if you want a crust (bark) of some sort, you’d best do without it. I do not like the crock pot version of this dish, and even the oven version is emergency-only-can’t-get-to-a-smoker last resort. One of the best parts of a nicely cooked shoulder is a mix of bark and internal meat, that’s one reason I don’t like crock pot versions.
Place the shoulder, fat side up, on the center rack. Turn oven on to 250 degrees. Cook until internal temp reaches about 195. Yes, 195. The collagen in your shoulder will turn into gelatin and keep the roast moist, despite the ultra-well done temps. Here’s a reference if you want it. If you have a well-marbled shoulder (Boston butt), you will have a perfectly succulent result.
If you want to, you can also administer a “mop” every so often to keep the roast moist on the outside. I personally don’t think it’s does too much, but every hour you can spritz or baste the roast with equal parts cider vinegar and cranberry juice.
Shred pork with two forks or with hands (wearing rubber gloves). I would add BBQ sauce at the table, but you’re welcome to mix it in the pork itself. I usually prefer North Carolina style, which is served with a finishing sauce of cider vinegar and hot pepper flakes. (No tomato).
Enjoy. Just don’t call it barbecue.
ETA: If you only have five hours, you’ll be cutting it very close. Generally, it takes me around 7-8 hours for a 10 pound bone-in butt.
Put in pot with onions, beer and spices after giving roast a good rub with pepper, cayenne, paprika, a touch of cumin, some more pepper, and Penzey’s Barbeque of the Americas powder. Cook at 300° for 4 hours or so. remove from oven and siphon off the fat. Return to oven. When it starts to pull semi-easily with a fork, add BBQ sauce and continue cooking another 30 minutes. Remove, pull and enjoy. Personally, I usually let the meat sit in the refrigerator overnight before saucing. Makes it very easy to remove the fat. Then it gets pulled, sauced and bunned.
If you don’t have access to a smoker, the oven version above is the next best thing. Crockpot pulled pork ends up too wet and fatty.
If you DO have access to a smoker, google “Elder Ward” pulled pork for the world’s best recipe. It’s a little rambly, but you won’t get better pulled pork than that. It’s better than anything I’ve ever had in any restaurant.
pulykamell nailed it.
Pulled pork is cooked to an internal of about 200F.
If you were to use a thermometer and graph the internal temp of the meat, it would rise until about 140-160 and then it will stabilize or drop a bit for 1-3 hours and then start rising again.* The point where the temp is stable or dropping is called the plateau where the connective tissue breaks down into collagen.
When I put a couple of Boston butts on my bbq it can take anywhere from about 6 hours to 16 hours to get to 200F.
I also find it a great idea to add some extra rub, and salt to the meat after pulling.
Traditionally pulled pork is served on cheap white bread or hamburger buns with coleslaw, mustard, and a vinegar based BBQ sauce.
*Yes on the BBQ websites guy actually graph this and post the graphs
What a fun coincidence. I’ve never made pulled pork sandwiches in my life but decided to make them this week for dinner. My recipe says to put the pork butt in the crock pot with 1 cup beef broth for 9 hours. Take it out, drain it, pull it apart, add BBQ sauce and cook in the oven for 30 minutes. I hope that is okay - I don’t have enough time in the day to cook for 9 hours and then another 4 hours! We’d be eating dinner at midnight!
So the rush is off – after reading how it should be done and the underlying emphasis on how good it is when it’s done right, I’m putting things off until Wednesday – I’ll be able to start it first thing in the morning and will be able to let it go all day into the evening – if I’m lucky, I’ll have a 12 hour spread to work with.
Again, though, I’m working with a Dutch oven, not a crock pot – I assume most of the above still stands though. It does have those dimply things on the lid for self basting, if that helps at all.
Ya know, there is another way to make pulled pork that really develops flavors through crisp frying. Carnitas style!
Taking a play from Rick Bayless, I came up with this Carnitas inspired pulled pork recipe.
Carnitas Style Smoky BBQ Pulled Pork
3-4 pounds of pork butt or pork shoulder cut into 4 inch chunks
6 strips of chopped hickory smoked bacon
Enough water or chicken stock to cover the meat
1 chipotle plus 2 tablespoons of adobo
4 cloves of chopped garlic
2 medium onions chopped
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of fesh ground pepper
Enough of your favorite BBQ sauce to cover
Cut the pork butt or shoulder into largish chunks and add it and the chopped raw bacon into a dutch oven, as well as the chipotle and adobo, salt, and enough water or chicken stock to cover the meat by a 1/2 inch. Set over medium heat, bringing it to a simmer. Simmer 40 minutes partially covered until the meat is barely tender. Take the lid off and raise the heat to medium high and quickly boil away the remaining liquid. After all of the liquid is boiled away, the fat from the bacon and pork shoulder will have rendered and the pork will begin to fry. Let the pork fry, turning frequently, and browning the chunks evenly on all sides. This will take about 30 minutes. Remove the pork from the pan to drain on paper towels and cool. Drain off all but two tablespoons of the fat from the Dutch Oven (optional). Sweat the onions and garlic slowly in the oil on med low heat while you shred the pork. Return the shredded pork to the pan, add the pepper and enough of your favorite BBQ sauce to cover. Stir to remove the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Cover, slow simmer on low heat for a minimum of a half an hour or up to several hours (add a little water or chicken stock if it gets too dry).
Sorry. Life got in the way of recipe consultation. As for the best kind of beer - anything not highly hopped. Any micro lager would work fine. In a pinch, use stout. Personally, I keep a half-case of Hamm’s around for just this sort of thing. A micro will develop the flavor a bit more, but I like my pork on the spicy side, so any non-riced American lager is just fine.
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*addendum: If the bacon bits get too crispy or start to burn while you are browning the pork chunks, remove to the paper towels and add back in with the shredded pork.
When I’ve used beer to simmer fresh polish sausage, I’ve had the best luck with light lagers. (I generally use Labatt Blue.) Slightly darker beers like Killian’s or Brooklyn Pennant Ale also yield pretty good results, but I think I’d apply the “cook it with what you’d drink with it” heuristic and use something light and crisp for this.
I always poke a few, like somewhere up to a dozen, whole cloves into the meat. Stick a skewer in, then poke the cloves into the holes. Of course, that means you have to find them later.
(Sorry, I’m doing my chemistry homework at the moment, and it’s actually all about how much energy you need to put into things to heat them a certain number of degrees!)