Pulling Pork

Some days I think I am a mad scientist when it comes to food.  My mom had purchased some pork steaks; a childhood memory of Jill’s involves the grilling of these slabs of pork butt.  These are okay, but they are usually tough and gristly when you grill them up.  So we decided to call an audible on this recipe and change up the meal.

For those of you unfamiliar with pork butt, it is not from the ass of the pig, it is actually the shoulder at the front of the oinker, sometimes also known as Boston Butt, most commonly seen in that delectable dish known as pulled pork.  That is exactly what we decided to change our meal to, usually butt comes in gigantic portions (it is a cheap cut of meat so quantity is king), and unfortunately for a few people that is overkill so the logic the steak cuts would create a smaller serving.

The key to good pulled pork, as with all barbecue, is low and slow, low temperature cooking over a much longer period of time (talking hours not minutes).  For those of you who like to interchange the phrases, grilling is high heat over a short period of time; consider it the next time you fire up the grill.

We used the Crockpot for this, letting the meat sit in a broth of beer, vinegar, ketchup, and a mixture of spices.  I am a firm believer in beer being an excellent cooking agent anytime you have the meat soaking in something or even when using a drip pan. 

As you can see after a few hours you have some tender succulent pork ready for pulling.

My personal favorite sign is when the blade bone slides right out without any effort.

My preferred method of pulling is using two forks to sort of scrape the meat so that it comes part in strands.  The one benefit in the steaks is that the meat is in shorter pieces instead of being 3 or 4 inch long pieces.

Now it comes time for the construction of the proper pulled pork sandwich.  Having not spent an abundance of time in the southeastern United States (epicenter of the bbq pork world) I have not had a whole lot of experience in this first hand, but fortunately I am a loyal adherent to Man Vs Food and Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.  Ergo, I have learned that the proper way to create a pulled pork sandwich is to top it off with a heaping helping of coleslaw.  I was too lazy to make my own coleslaw, so I picked up a container at Hickory Hollow on Heights here in Houston and it was perfect.

All in all I would say this was a successful cooking experiment, and even made some awesome leftovers for the next few days.  So yes if a Texan can accept a pulled pork and coleslaw sandwich, then perhaps there is hope for world peace.  Do not worry beef, I still love you more.