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Monday, March 11, 2013

Pulled Pork 1-2-3

1 = WOW, 2 = So good, 3 = Very Very Easy

These are some of the leftovers as I forgot to take before and after of prep and then cooked. Grenville and I are trying to figure out why we never tried preparing this before this past Saturday.

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OK, our excuse could be that we are not really southerners. Not that being from the South is necessary, but this dish is sure popular here.

Pulled pork is a form of BBQ in which pork, usually shoulder cut (also called Boston butt) is cooked low and slow using grills, smokers, ovens and our choice, a crockpot slow cooker.This process is the quintessence of Southern smoke roasting — lazy, slow, easy, and fragrant. The cooked pork is SO tender that it’s pulled apart using fingers or forks to shred the meat. It’s usually served on a bun with BBQ sauce with cole slaw either piled on top or as a side dish.

In some places, pulled pork is made from a mixture of the blade shoulder and arm shoulder meat and served with a tomato-based barbecue sauce. In others, either a whole hog, mixed cuts of the hog, or the shoulder cut alone are used; the pork is served with or without a vinegar-based sauce.

A whole pork shoulder (15-20 lbs.) consists of the upper part (Boston Butt) and the lower part (the Picnic). The difference between these is the bone structure. The butt has a small shoulder blade bone and the picnic has the front leg bone and joint. Also, the picnic is normally sold with “skin on” and the butt only has a small fat cap.

We invited friends over, even though this was a first time recipe for us at home.  Haven’t you ever done this?

Only a few things were needed, the pork, some spices and a large crockpot. Lots of variations for a rub and my choices were: cumin, garlic power, smoked paprika, chili powder, sea salt and ground black pepper, also added a roughly chopped onion at the bottom of the crockpot and 1/4 C of apple cider vinegar. Meat was placed in fat side up. The fat easily pulls off after 6-7 hours of slow cooking.

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We’d offer y’all some, BUT there weren’t many leftovers, thanks to 6 hungry diners — maybe next time. We’re doing this one AGAIN.

10 comments:

Connie said...

That does look very, very good. I've made it before with the tomato based barbecue sauce and my family loved it. Yours looks yummy!

DeniseinVA said...

Sounds wonderful! I can't wait to try this one.

Out on the prairie said...

Like the slaw on the sandwich. It is becoming popular everywhere.

Montanagirl said...

Looks really tasty!

Elaine said...

Much easier than the traditional methods! We have many transplanted southerners here in Fairbanks, and we go to a couple of parties in the summer where a whole pig is roasted on one of those huge grills, turning round and round for many hours. Yummy, but the slow cooker method looks much more manageable to me.

MadSnapper said...

yep, pulled pork is a staple in the South, and mother was so happy when she got a crockpot which made is easy. i think i can smell it...

Anvilcloud said...

Now I finally know what the heck pulled pork is. I've been seeing recipes more and more lately.

Anonymous said...

I know that was pretty good, but it is NOTHING, and I do mean NOTHING like slow smoked over Hickory wood pork is made here in the South. We may be backwards and uncouth in many ways but we do know how to make Bar-B-Que! Come on down to Tennessee and I will find you some "Slap Your Mama good" smoked pork!

DEB said...

That Pulled Pork sounds delicious. Thanks for dropping by my blog. From your profile you sound very much like me. Enjoy!

Unknown said...

oh yes, love it but only make it when we have guests otherwise I have left overs for the freezer. We have excellent tasty pork in this part of the country, and often have chops or pork loin, smaller and oven roasted. One southerner I met this trip slathers her pork roast with Welch's grape jelly, paprika, garlic powder, cayenne pepper or chili powder, it was delicious too.