BBQ75/17: Reds True BBQ Pulled Pork

BBQ75/17 –  Reds True BBQ Pulled Pork:

Reds True BBQ Pulled Pork: I have cooked pulled pork a few times and my favourite recipe so far is the one by Reds True BBQ. I last cooked it on new years eve but it took so long to get to temperature it was new years day when it was time to eat and I had drunk a few beers so my photos weren’t great! I wrote it up last time but having a read through it’s not a great post so I will try and improve it here!

The night before the cook I made the Slow Pork Rub, the Kansas City BBQ sauce and the North Carolina BBQ sauce.

The Slow Pork Rub actually uses the Basic Dry Rub as it’s base so you have to make that first: Soft dark brown sugar, caster sugar, smoked paprika, sea salt, black peppercorns, ground ginger, garlic powder, ground cumin and cayenne pepper. Once the Basic Dry Rub is made you take 500g and add sea salt, paprika, onion powder, ground coriander and ground fennel to make the Slow Pork Rub.

The Kansas City BBQ Sauce is made by mixing cayenne pepper, black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, smoked paprika and salt together then in a separate bowl mixing ketchup, mustard, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, molasses and brown sugar. I melted butter in a pan and cook diced onion for 5 minutes before adding the dry spices followed by the wet ingredients. This was heated until it reduces and thickens at which point I blitzed it with a hand blender to reduce down the onion.

The North Carolina Mopping BBQ Sauce is made by warming soft light brown sugar in a pan of cider vinegar then adding hot sauce and ketchup. Once it’s cooled I added some chilli flakes.

The night before the cook i took the Pork Butt (Another Sherwoods Foods Pork Butt from Mark at Bob’s Butchers) removed the fat cap and trimmed off most of the fat. This helps the rub form a bark. I rubbed the pork butt with salt then wrapped it in cling film and left it in the fridge overnight. 

On the day of the cook the smoker was set to run at 275F for the Butterfly Pork Butt Burnt Ends and I was keen to try a standard pork butt at 275f to see if it reduced the cook time. I rubbed American mustard into the pork butt then applied the rub all over and patted it in. Once the smoker was settled I placed the pork on the smoker fat side up.

I made a spritz with apple juice and cider vinegar then pretty much left the pork alone for the first 5 hours. I was adding smoking wood for the butterfly pork butt. After 5 hours I started spritzing each hour to help the bark form.

This is it 6 hours in, nice colour and the bark is starting to form:

pulled pork

pulled pork

pulled pork

pulled pork

This was 3 hours later (9 hours total):

pulled pork

The pork butt had a double stall and I wasn’t sure it was going to pull out the second stall as it sat at 180f for quite some time. I held my nerve and left it in.

It didn’t get to 200f internal but seemed stuck at 190f. I had a good feel of the pork butt and it felt soft so I took it off at 12 hours 30 minutes:

pulled pork

Some great colours where the bark split and the meat had taken the smoking wood:

pulled pork

pulled pork

pulled pork

In the past I have pulled the meat apart with the claws you can buy but it tends to shred it too fine so the meat dries out quickly. This time I pulled it apart by hand into chunks and it was far juicier.

pulled pork

pulled pork

Once pulled I added the spritz to the meat along with some Kansas City BBQ sauce:

pulled pork

pulled pork

pulled pork

Time to make the roll! I made the Red’s Slaw: Red cabbage, red onion, carrots, red pepper, coriander, sea salt and black pepper

reds slaw

I then made a dressing with caster sugar, English mustard, cider vinegar and olive oil then mixed it all together.

I toasted some brioche buns and placed some pulled pork on top followed by some slaw:

pulled pork

pulled pork

The pulled pork rolls were fantastic, really tasty. Only due to sheer gluttony we had to eat 2 each!

I still love this recipe. The preparation takes ages but it’s so worth it as the rubs and sauces are so tasty. I like that you don’t wrap the pork butt as well.

Running at 275F rather than 225F was interesting. The meat was very juicy but the bark was harder than I remember it last time. I think 275F might have been too hot and it sat at 190F for too long where I should have taken it off so it dried the bark out a bit. Not a big deal as I broke it up smaller and it was very tasty with the meat! I would go back to 225F on future cooks for pulled pork I think unless it was getting wrapped.

Also I woke up twice in the night gasping for a drink so I would reduce the salt in the rubs next time, maybe by as much as half.

Loads of this went into the freezer and I also had a toasted pulled pork sandwich which was bloody lovely!

Cook Equipment: Weber Smokey Mountain
Cook Method: Low and Slow
Charcoal: 2x 4KG Heat Beads (other stuff was cooking longer)
Smoking Wood: Smokewood Shack Oak and Cherry
Cook temperature: 275F
Cook time: 12h30m
Internal temperature: 190F
Notes: 1: Go back to cooking it at 225F

2: Halve the salt in the rubs

 


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2 thoughts on “BBQ75/17: Reds True BBQ Pulled Pork

  1. Looks and sounds amazing, having just got the Reds book I’m defiantly going to try this one

    1. Hi Jools, thanks for taking the time to post on my blog!
      I love this pulled pork recipe, it’s so tasty! Freezes and reheats well too so I have used it as a pizza topping before. I made a toasted pulled pork sandwich this time as well which was awesome.

      Good luck when you cook it, tag me in your photos!

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