First Pulled Pork
Posted: 02 Sep 2012, 10:23
I had 16 people over for a barbecue yesterday, so I did a mixture of pulled pork (from a 4lb boneless shoulder), kebabs, sausages and burgers. I'll post pics of the pork later.
There's a lot I could say - it was lovely and tender, went well in the buns, etc, and most of it you know and/or have heard before. So I'll just post a few slightly different thoughts.
Firstly, accompaniments. We tried a few of these - traditional red barbecue sauce, North Carolina vinegar sauce, etc, etc. But without doubt the best accompaniment was sage and onion stuffing. An absolutely perfect balance of flavour and texture alongside the pork. It may not be traditional American barbecue, but it was tastiest and most popular (which I suppose is the idea at a barbecue) and had I done ribs, it'd have been a nice change, and something a bit different to sweet & sticky.
Secondly, flavour. Again, without doubt, the biggest flavour hit to the pork was the juice. The pork was cooked open until it hit 140 degrees f (c.3 hours), then triple wrapped in strong foil until the end of cooking (4 more hours), and to rest for an hour. Just before serving I poured the juice into a saucepan and gently re-heated it, then poured this over the pork just before eating. I reserved a little bit of meat (some from the smoke ring some from the 'middle') without juice for comparison.
The smoke ring portion was nice and smokey - good, traditional match for pork flavours. The rest of the pork tasted like...roast pork. The thing is, if I'd separated the smoke ring, it'd have maybe have filled one bun. And it'd have been a bloomin' frustrating task. That’s a hell of a lot of work for one pork sandwich!
Now when the meat juices were poured there was a really nice smokey hit from it. At this point, when tasted straight off a fork, it became very difficult to distinguish between the smoke ring and the rest. In a bun it would have been absolutely impossible.
My rub was:
2 Tbsp Hot Smoked Paprika
1 1/2 Tbsp Maldon Sea Salt
1 Tbsp Garlic Granules
1/2 Tbsp Garlic Pepper
2 Tsp Coleman's English Mustard Powder
2 Tsp Dried Sage
I'm not sure how much of the smoke in the juice was from the wood (3 handfuls Hickory Chips) or the Paprika, but based on rubs-to-juices flavours from previous meals, I suspect it's the Paprika.
BTW, heresy I know, but the final 4 hours were in the kitchen oven. Most people appear to agree that you can't take on any smokey flavour after the outside is cooked, and it was heavily wrapped in foil anyway. The first three hours had involved lots of fiddly temperature control (I have a Weber One-touch, not a smoker) and I simply couldn't have afforded to spend the last five hours pratting about like that. As far as I can tell, there would be no advantage to cooking the pork on the barbecue after 3 hours, wrapped in foil, and the over gave a much more even, easily controlled temperature.
Just a quick word of thanks to everyone here. I’ve had a few questions over the past few weeks leading up to this, and you’ve been a big help.
Steve W
There's a lot I could say - it was lovely and tender, went well in the buns, etc, and most of it you know and/or have heard before. So I'll just post a few slightly different thoughts.
Firstly, accompaniments. We tried a few of these - traditional red barbecue sauce, North Carolina vinegar sauce, etc, etc. But without doubt the best accompaniment was sage and onion stuffing. An absolutely perfect balance of flavour and texture alongside the pork. It may not be traditional American barbecue, but it was tastiest and most popular (which I suppose is the idea at a barbecue) and had I done ribs, it'd have been a nice change, and something a bit different to sweet & sticky.
Secondly, flavour. Again, without doubt, the biggest flavour hit to the pork was the juice. The pork was cooked open until it hit 140 degrees f (c.3 hours), then triple wrapped in strong foil until the end of cooking (4 more hours), and to rest for an hour. Just before serving I poured the juice into a saucepan and gently re-heated it, then poured this over the pork just before eating. I reserved a little bit of meat (some from the smoke ring some from the 'middle') without juice for comparison.
The smoke ring portion was nice and smokey - good, traditional match for pork flavours. The rest of the pork tasted like...roast pork. The thing is, if I'd separated the smoke ring, it'd have maybe have filled one bun. And it'd have been a bloomin' frustrating task. That’s a hell of a lot of work for one pork sandwich!
Now when the meat juices were poured there was a really nice smokey hit from it. At this point, when tasted straight off a fork, it became very difficult to distinguish between the smoke ring and the rest. In a bun it would have been absolutely impossible.
My rub was:
2 Tbsp Hot Smoked Paprika
1 1/2 Tbsp Maldon Sea Salt
1 Tbsp Garlic Granules
1/2 Tbsp Garlic Pepper
2 Tsp Coleman's English Mustard Powder
2 Tsp Dried Sage
I'm not sure how much of the smoke in the juice was from the wood (3 handfuls Hickory Chips) or the Paprika, but based on rubs-to-juices flavours from previous meals, I suspect it's the Paprika.
BTW, heresy I know, but the final 4 hours were in the kitchen oven. Most people appear to agree that you can't take on any smokey flavour after the outside is cooked, and it was heavily wrapped in foil anyway. The first three hours had involved lots of fiddly temperature control (I have a Weber One-touch, not a smoker) and I simply couldn't have afforded to spend the last five hours pratting about like that. As far as I can tell, there would be no advantage to cooking the pork on the barbecue after 3 hours, wrapped in foil, and the over gave a much more even, easily controlled temperature.
Just a quick word of thanks to everyone here. I’ve had a few questions over the past few weeks leading up to this, and you’ve been a big help.
Steve W
