Pulled Pork:
Pulled Pork: When I first got my smoker I practised with pork shoulder as I read it was pretty forgiving. I went on to try a few recipes and never managed to get the dark, black bark you see on a lot of peoples photos until I tried the Reds BBQ recipe from their book.
Not sure how many pork shoulders I did over the years as practice runs before I ordered my first 5 KG Pork Butt from Turner and George but I have had them a few times now and they are great quality. A lot of meat for not a lot of money compared to other meats/cuts: http://www.turnerandgeorge.co.uk/pork/pork-butt.html
The photo below is after I had trimmed the meat of excess fat/random bits, applied the rub and wrapped them in clingfilm to sit overnight. The T&G butts don’t tend to need much trimming but you want the excess fat off so the rub sticks. There is plenty of fat through the meat to melt during the slow cook.
The reds recipe calls for 1 rub (slow pork rub) and 2 bbq sauces (Kansas City BBQ sauce + North Carolina BBQ Sauce) The rubs and sauces are easy enough to make, my notes say to make double the quantity of both sauces.
I kicked this off at 6 am on New years eve with the intention of it being ready for dinner…….16 hours later
A few folk have asked me about the “burnt bits” – It’s not actually burnt, that’s the bark from the rub and it’s the best bit! The key to the Reds method is spraying the pork with an Apple Juice / Cider Vinegar mix every hour and not wrapping at the stall.
I left them until they 201f internal and as I picked the first one up a large clump of meat came off in my hand! I knew it was going to be good!
Previously I have pulled the pork apart by hand but I didn’t have any gloves this time so used the claw things. Pulling it into smaller shreds of meat dried it out quicker so I would go back to pulling larger bits by hand in future.
This is the meat before you add rub and sauce.
This is the meat after you add rub and sauce, colour looks great!
This was the finished article! I burnt the bun and presentation isn’t great but it was 22:30 on New Years eve and I had drunk a few beers!
The 2 pork butts were about 10 KG raw and produced about 5 to 6 KG of pulled pork. We eat a lot that night then used the food saver to freeze the rest. It’s been great on Pizza and reheated for pulled pork rolls again!