The Secret to Great Pulled Pork

I freely admit - I love barbecue.   I love all of it.   I love brisket, pork ribs, beef ribs, chicken, turkey, and sausage.  I love smoked salmon.  Beer-can chicken? Any day, any time. I even like smoked cheeses and vegetables.  My favorite, however, is pulled pork.  For me, nothing is finer than a great pulled pork sandwich.

My odyssey began in of all places, Rhode Island.  My dear friend Blair was hosting a few high school pals for a weekend of fun.  Thoughtful guy that he is, he brought in some barbecue from Corky's in Nashville, TN.  Until this event, my barbecue experience had been largely relegated to ribs.  I loved ribs (still do), and never ordered anything else.  But that weekend I feel in love.  I loved the pulled pork. Tender, juicy, bold and satisfying. It was perfect.  Ever since that day, I've been sampling it at almost every opportunity.  Years ago we used to make an annual summer pilgrimage from our home outside of Dallas to the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  We would always interrupt our 15 hour first-day leg to stop in Jackson, TN to visit Corky's.  Our kids were all under 10 and the stop afforded me amazing food and a brief respite from continuous replay of The Aristocats on DVD.  Culinary shelter from an endless Disney storm.

The only topic that engenders more polarizing debate than either politics or religion is barbecue.  Parochialism runs amok.  Texans love their brisket.  KC's beef tips are exquisite.  'Q in the deep south often means pork. And in the Carolina's the battle rages over which sauce is supreme.  I believe the origin of MMA fighting began when a Texan met to debate barbecue with a guy from Memphis.  Try it.  Sparks will fly.  Fists may fly too.

I have little use for provincial pride.  People who believe their place in the world is better than everyone else's place in the world are usually short-sighted.  They're missing out.  In the world of food, the same precept is true.  Cooked properly - all of this great country's barbecue is a supreme treat.

Conversely, marginal barbecue is one of life's utter disappointments.

For years I've endeavored to cook a good pulled pork.  I can consistently cook a great cuban pork shoulder in the pressure cooker - which results in killer soft tacos or a fine cuban sandwich.   But my pulled pork in the smoker?  Meh.  A tad dry.  A tad chewy.  OK but never great.  I've read dozens of recipes.  I've read numerous books.  All to no avail. The results were always the same.

Last weekend, I solved the puzzle.  To my great surprise and delight, I figured it out.  I cooked the best pulled pork of my life.  It was worthy of any BBQ competition.  Tender, smokey, moist, savory... like finding the Holy Grail of 'Q.

Before I impart my secrets - a quick note to the BBQ Pharisees.  To you people I say, chill.  Spare me both your legalism and your provincialism.  I care not for your ritual purity. This is about gathering at the table and sharing some good food.

So how do we proceed?

1. Go to a good food market and procure a pork shoulder (aka Pork Butt).  Preferably bone-in.  Get a good quality pork in the 5-6 lb range.

2. Before going to bed, rub the pork with a nice dry rub.  I like kosher salt, paprika, chill powder, granulated garlic, granulated onion, white pepper and cumin in my rub.  Rub the meat thoroughly,  cover it, and let it sit overnight in the fridge.  "Overnight" is the operative word.  Got it?

3. In the morning, fire up the smoker.  I have found that saw dust is the best option in my smoker.  What kind of smoker?  Sigh.  Yes, I have an electric smoker.  I know, I know.  A violation of ritual purity. Get over it. I yearn for a barrel smoker that I make from a steel drum, but until that day comes - this will do.  I fill the smoke box with oak and/or hickory sawdust.  Saw dust smokes longer and more consistently than wood chips.  Turn the smoker on high and get that thing smoking. Then reset to about 250 degrees.

Now, some purists will say 225 degrees is best.  Others say 275.  I don't think this matters that much. Sacrilege, I know.

4. Put the pork on a shelf in the smoker.  Put an aluminum try underneath it to catch drippings.  There will be lots of drippings.  Be sure to have a water tray in the smoker to keep the environment moist.  Refill water and saw dust as necessary.  DO NOT LET THE WATER TRAY GO DRY.

5. After four hours, I cover the meat with foil.  Why? I don't want it to dry out.  Some purists call this cheating.  I call them stupid.  You're spending all day cooking this meal.  You want to risk making bad 'Q?  Neither do I.

6. At this time, I also insert a meat thermometer.  I love my bluetooth iGrill thermometer.  Accurate, simple, and it affords me the opportunity to walk away from the smoker.

Now for the secret step.  If you read dozens of pulled pork recipe, you'll often see "experts" (i.e. acclaimed chefs) tell you to pull the pork after x number of hours.  Or you'll read that you pull the meat at 175 or 180 degrees.  However, if you look long and hard to seek out the hard-to-find missives  from competitive 'Q cooks, you'll find that you should actually pull the meat at 202 degrees.  That's right.  202.  Sounds counter-intuitive to me.  To me, longer cooking to a higher temp translates to dry, tough meat.  Not true here.  At this temp, the pork is tender, moist, and absolutely fall-apart perfect.    There's a lot of science here about "the stall" and how and when the fibrous tissues break down.  I'll spare you. You don't care. You just want amazing pulled pork.  So just trust me on this.

Last week, my boneless pork shoulder was done in six hours. Yes it was boneless.  That's all my meat market had.  Make due and move on.  Six hours is a lot less than the recipes I've read that say 12 hours or more.  Ignore time.  Go with temperature.

For what it is worth, I also cooked some St. Louis-style ribs in similar fashion.  I removed the silver skin, applied dry rub, cooked for two hours, and then wrapped the ribs and cooked for one hour more.  Again - just fantastic.

Let the pork sit for 15 minutes and then shred with two forks.  I add a little barbecue sauce into the shred along with a little salt and/or dry rub.  Add pork to a toasted brioche bun (lightly buttered and grilled) along with some cole slaw and a little more barbecue sauce and your day is complete.

Now I love food lore as much as anyone.  If you love the concept of barbecue, I thoroughly encourage you to pick up a copy of Franklin Barbecue, A Meat-Smoking Manifesto by Aaron Franklin and Jordan Mackay.  Franklin Barbecue is a world-famous 'cue joint in Austin, TX.  This book takes you through the entire barbecue process from smoker construction to meat selection and preparation.  It is practical, fun, and without the fundamentalist dogma.  They do not have a recipe for pulled pork - but everything else in there looks amazing.

Try this out and let me know how do you.  And please share any other barbecue tales.  What have you tried? What works for you?