Pulled pork

[Winger Ed.]

Years ago, my next door neighbor would go WAY down into the interior of old Mexico and bring back their Grandma for awhile.
Granny made pulled pork with the best and softest texture of any I've ever had.
It was so good, I wanted to go down there and bring her back myself sometimes.

I've made and had pulled pork all sorts of different ways, but it was never the same, or as wonderful.
I found and did a recipe today that is I think how she did it.
Her seasoning was a little different-- but I think this is the process.

With a big, 7-10 pound pork shoulder or butt roast:

Brine for 24-36 hours in the refrigerator.
Solution--- 1/2cup salt, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 3 Tbs dry rub, 2 Bay leaves, 2 quarts water.
I put it all in a big zip lock bag in a big bowl so I can swish it around without spilling it.

Pat it dry, and coat with plenty of dry rub. Any one will do, but I used:
1 TBS each of cumin, garlic pdr, onion pdr, chili pdr, salt, black pepper, paprika.
1/2cup brown sugar, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper.

For more of a Tex-Mex flavor, add in a pack or two of grocery store taco mix powder or more cumin.

Cook it fat side up, uncovered, in the over at 225F. (this is not a miss print)
At 170 F internal temp. it will be done like a regular pork roast.
This needs to go to 200 F internal. It will take at least 12 hours, maybe 13.

Once it hits 200 internal, shut off the oven and leave it inside, with the door closed until it cools down to about 140.
It'll take another couple or three hours.

Take it out and scrape off all the fat and that gooey looking white stuff.
Now it's ready to be 'pulled' with a pair of forks.

If you think it's dry, save the drippings. Skim off the grease, boil it down some,
pour it back over the shredded meat, and toss it like a green salad.

I did a 8 pound one today.
Mrs. Winger made me stop 'sampling' it so there would be enough left for dinner.


Sure- you can cook it in the oven at 350 a few hours, until the internal temp. is 200.
But it won't even be close to how this comes out.

[45workhorse]

NOW, I am hungry. Any "samples" left?

Have brined chicken and turkey, never pork.

Next weekend sounds good to me.

[Winger Ed.]

Have brined chicken and turkey, never pork.

Read up on making your own ham.
You will be inspired!

They get brined in the insta-cure/Prague powder stuff & salt for a few days or so.
That's what makes them pink.

For brining or with any of the meat recipes, they call for non-iodized salt. Iodized messes with the flavor somehow.
I use Kosher salt or that pickling/caning salt. Both list on the ingredient label, 'salt' and nothing else.

With seasoning in the brine, the flavors of it soaks in some.
I figure it works like seasoning does when you make your own corned beef.

[DDriller]

I do mine in a smoker at 225 degrees. After the international temp gets to 190 I take them off, sprits with apple juice, wrap in foil, then put them back on the smoker for 2 more hours.

[rockrat]

I season mine, using Head Country bbq seasoning, put in smoker, using applewood, and smoke for 6 hours @200 degrees. Pull out of smoker, wrap in heavy duty foil, and put back in smoker for 18 hours @180 degrees. 24 hours total. Pull out of smoker, let rest for about 30 min. and pull apart. Sometimes I will take some Head Country BBQ sauce and dilute it with water and put a bit over the pulled pork, to add moisture and a bit more flavor.

[dale2242]

Winger Ed, I do mine pretty much the same way with 2 exceptions.
I use an apple juice brine and inject it with the brine before drying and adding my favorite rub.

[Winger Ed.]

Thanks everybody.
In my travels, I'd never had it made like that except by the neighbor's Granny, or I wasn't smart enough to recognize it.

[David2011]

It’s the smoker for me. I like the smoky flavor. Six to eight hours with the smoker at 225 degrees F until the meat can be held at 180 degrees for an hour. Wrap in foil after 4 hours for less smoke flavor. Then the heat is increased to 275-300 degrees F until the internal temperature is 210 degrees. The pork shreds much more easily if it exceeds 205 degrees all the way through.

It’s easier to pull the pork if it cools down or you wear rubber gloves. Forks are OK for shredding once; after that experience I got a set of shredding claws. Makes the job go much faster and easier.

[Rapier]

I do two butts at a time for 14 hours at 220 in a hickory loaded Chook Shack Electric Smoker. My dry rub is 3,2,1, black pepper, garlic powdr and Cajun Seasoning. No sugar or salt. Wrap in foil for an hour or two to cool down for handling. I pull with stainless pulling forks. They sell them around these parts, looks like a pair of 1/4" bear claws.

The important part is to cook them low, slow and long enough to break down the connective tissue all they way through the meat, so they are not stringy and chewy.
A few hands full makes a great pot of baked beans.

[BLAHUT]

Years ago, my next door neighbor would go WAY down into the interior of old Mexico and bring back their Grandma for awhile.
Granny made pulled pork with the best and softest texture of any I've ever had.
It was so good, I wanted to go down there and bring her back myself sometimes.

I've made and had pulled pork all sorts of different ways, but it was never the same, or as wonderful.
I found and did a recipe today that is I think how she did it.
Her seasoning was a little different-- but I think this is the process.

With a big, 7-10 pound pork shoulder or butt roast:

Brine for 24-36 hours in the refrigerator.
Solution--- 1/2cup salt, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 3 Tbs dry rub, 2 Bay leaves, 2 quarts water.
I put it all in a big zip lock bag in a big bowl so I can swish it around without spilling it.

Pat it dry, and coat with plenty of dry rub. Any one will do, but I used:
1 TBS each of cumin, garlic pdr, onion pdr, chili pdr, salt, black pepper, paprika.
1/2cup brown sugar, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper.

For more of a Tex-Mex flavor, add in a pack or two of grocery store taco mix powder or more cumin.

Cook it fat side up, uncovered, in the over at 225F. (this is not a miss print)
At 170 F internal temp. it will be done like a regular pork roast.
This needs to go to 200 F internal. It will take at least 12 hours, maybe 13.

Once it hits 200 internal, shut off the oven and leave it inside, with the door closed until it cools down to about 140.
It'll take another couple or three hours.

Take it out and scrape off all the fat and that gooey looking white stuff.
Now it's ready to be 'pulled' with a pair of forks.

If you think it's dry, save the drippings. Skim off the grease, boil it down some,
pour it back over the shredded meat, and toss it like a green salad.

I did a 8 pound one today.
Mrs. Winger made me stop 'sampling' it so there would be enough left for dinner.


Sure- you can cook it in the oven at 350 a few hours, until the internal temp. is 200.
But it won't even be close to how this comes out.

When I was working, I would do something similar, I would put a frozen roast in a deep pan, put in pealed patoes, cut onions, garlic, carrots, celery, mushrooms, pour two cans of stueded tomato over all, cover and put in about a 210 deg oven, when back from work, after 12 to 16 hours it would be fork tender, fished all parts out and added a little cornstarch an water or flour and water to make a nice gravy. Easy cooking and a hot meal when done with work for the day.

[BLAHUT]

Read up on making your own ham.
You will be inspired!

They get brined in the insta-cure/Prague powder stuff & salt for a few days or so.
That's what makes them pink.

For brining or with any of the meat recipes, they call for non-iodized salt. Iodized messes with the flavor somehow.
I use Kosher salt or that pickling/caning salt. Both list on the ingredient label, 'salt' and nothing else.

With seasoning in the brine, the flavors of it soaks in some.
I figure it works like seasoning does when you make your own corned beef.

When a little kid, I would help grandpa get hams ready, he would make a small cut along the bone and stuff a hand full of rock salt in, then roll the ham in small grain rock salt, and hang, with a slow smokey alder fire under them, then about every couple days he would roll hams in salt again, you could walk by the building the hams were hanging in and hear the water dripping, the hams would go from about 12" / 14" across to just about 6" across, kept well, when needed just washed ham off, soak in a big pot of water all night, then slow cooked in water for about 10 hours or so, from what I remember.

[MaryB]

Years ago, my next door neighbor would go WAY down into the interior of old Mexico and bring back their Grandma for awhile.
Granny made pulled pork with the best and softest texture of any I've ever had.
It was so good, I wanted to go down there and bring her back myself sometimes.

I've made and had pulled pork all sorts of different ways, but it was never the same, or as wonderful.
I found and did a recipe today that is I think how she did it.
Her seasoning was a little different-- but I think this is the process.

With a big, 7-10 pound pork shoulder or butt roast:

Brine for 24-36 hours in the refrigerator.
Solution--- 1/2cup salt, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 3 Tbs dry rub, 2 Bay leaves, 2 quarts water.
I put it all in a big zip lock bag in a big bowl so I can swish it around without spilling it.

Pat it dry, and coat with plenty of dry rub. Any one will do, but I used:
1 TBS each of cumin, garlic pdr, onion pdr, chili pdr, salt, black pepper, paprika.
1/2cup brown sugar, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper.

For more of a Tex-Mex flavor, add in a pack or two of grocery store taco mix powder or more cumin.

Cook it fat side up, uncovered, in the over at 225F. (this is not a miss print)
At 170 F internal temp. it will be done like a regular pork roast.
This needs to go to 200 F internal. It will take at least 12 hours, maybe 13.

Once it hits 200 internal, shut off the oven and leave it inside, with the door closed until it cools down to about 140.
It'll take another couple or three hours.

Take it out and scrape off all the fat and that gooey looking white stuff.
Now it's ready to be 'pulled' with a pair of forks.

If you think it's dry, save the drippings. Skim off the grease, boil it down some,
pour it back over the shredded meat, and toss it like a green salad.

I did a 8 pound one today.
Mrs. Winger made me stop 'sampling' it so there would be enough left for dinner.


Sure- you can cook it in the oven at 350 a few hours, until the internal temp. is 200.
But it won't even be close to how this comes out.

Pretty much how pulled pork on a smoker is made, same temps, I wrap in foil and rest in a cooler 2-3 hours.

[Winger Ed.]

Pretty much how pulled pork on a smoker is made, same temps, I wrap in foil and rest in a cooler 2-3 hours.

I think it'd take me about a month of hanging out with you for me to weigh about 700 pounds.

[rockrat]

I also use a Cook Shack smoker. Had it for about 23 years or so. I have done 6 pork butts at one time!!! Thats a bunch for that little smoker!!!
When kid graduated high school, it what we made for the kiddo's. Think we had about 35 lbs of pulled pork in the roasting pan (saved about 10 pounds for wife and I). At the end of the evening, there was maybe 3-4 pounds left in the pan. I know a couple of the guys had 4 sandwiches each. They never had something like that before they said.

[45workhorse]

I think it'd take me about a month of hanging out with you for me to weigh about 700 pounds.

I think i resemble that remark also!

[GregLaROCHE]

Pulled pork is one of my favorite ways to eat it. Unfortunately, you can’t really find it around here.

[Finster101]

I just couldn't bring myself to do a pulled pork in an oven. I think I will try Winger's method, but on a smoker with mesquite wood chunks.

[dale2242]

GregLaROCHE, you need a pellet grill.
Pulled pork or most other smoked meat is easy peasy on one.
You don`t need a high dollar Traeger.
I have a Pit Boss Classic that I bought at Walmart for $400.
There are a lot of brands of pellet grills.
Every grill maker has dozens of easy-to-follow recipes.

[Winger Ed.]

Pulled pork is one of my favorite ways to eat it. Unfortunately, you can’t really find it around here.

It's sort of involved, and takes a lot of time, but it isn't much harder to make than boiling water.
If you can find (either front shoulder or rear) pork roast cuts, or hog quarters, you're there as far as making it yourself at home.

Or ask the meat market folks. Years ago, I was going to make another run of sausage.
I was at the local meat market and was going to buy 70-80 pounds of pork roasts.
The butcher asked what I was going to do with all that. I told him....
He said he'd sell me a whole 100 pound hog for about 75% the price of the roasts.
Ya just need to talk to them, and make your best deal.

A little while later, a whole hog was laying Mrs. Winger's brand new- one week old new kitchen counter.
That didn't go over to well. But it was easier to get forgiveness than permission.............

[dverna]

The last time I made pulled pork was for deer camp this past fall. Used two slow cookers, a couple of McCormick seasoning packets, couple of cans of beer and Sweet Baby Ray BBQ sauce. Everyone loved it and it was dead simple

Probably not as good as you folks can make but good enough is good enough.

We use jacketed bullets too. We are just Heathens!!