My Specialty....Pulled Pork!!!

   Everyone has the one thing that they are extremely good at doing. Mine is pulled pork. I have to admit, mine is just plain delicious! I will give you folks the steps to making your pulled pork tender moist and packed full of flavor.


   First and foremost. I usually cook like I am going to feed an army. I have no idea why, but I like to make sure there is enough for everyone. This example will be fore a 15 lb pork shoulder. Bone out, because it gives you two pieces of meat and will reduce the cook time, vs having to wait for the full 22 hours. This is based off of 1.5 hours per lb of meat. Bone out gives two 7.5 lb pieces making it a 11.25 hours cook. ( Did you get all that ?)

   Start your fire, get it going, make sure you have plenty of fuel to last the smoke. With my pulled pork, I prefer a hickory and an apple wood for flavor. Good stuff there!! If you are using chips, make a foil pouch of your chips and poke a small hole for smoke to escape out of. I usually use chunks of apple and hickory logs, but the result is close to the same.


   Back in the kitchen, you should have your favorite pork rub out and our new friend, yellow mustard. For the new people following my blog, it will not affect your food. The mustard is there to hold the rub onto the meat. Ok, we need to score the fat side of the shoulder with a nice hatch mark design. This will get the rub into the gaps and flavor the meat even more. Your getting hungry aren't you? I am. So rub the mustard in real good, we want the rub to stick and be kinda thick, but not overly thick. After you have it lathered in mustard, apply your rub. Get it all over and let it sit about 15 minutes.


   Head out and double check that fire, it should be up to temperature. I like to cook at 240º. After making sure final temperature is right, put another coat of rub on your pork shoulder, and head outside. Place the meat, fat side up!!  This is important, it will let the fat run down around it and through it to create wonderful flavor, and keep it moist. Now go grab a cold one and find something to do for the next 8-12 hours. Now what I do, I mist my meat about every 2 hours. I use a whiskey, honey, and water mix, or I use a mango, honey and water mix. Either way, it is great. Cant really taste the alcohol in it, but it keeps it moist and imparts a good flavor. I suggest you play around with it and find something that you enjoy.

   After time has gone by, and you have obviously kept the fire at the preferred temperature ( you did maintain the right temps didn't you?), our shoulder should have a nice bark on it.


   Once the temp reaches 190º take it out and wrap it up like we did our ribs, but this time it only needs to rest about 20-30 minutes. After that time, you should be able to set the pork shoulder down on the table, and using your palm, press down hard and the meat should break apart and the bone will pop right out. If you are using boneless it will break into several chunks. Grab 2 forks and start pulling the meat apart with the forks.

   There should be a nice smoke ring permeating about 1/4 inch into the meat. That is the sign of perfection. Grab some bread or buns, whichever you prefer, and load it up. Squirt it with your favorite Slidejob BBQ sauce and sit back and enjoy!!


   Let me know how this turns out for you please!!