Tuesday, July 01, 2008 6:10 PM
Recipe for pulled pork?
Just don't call it "barbecue". Call it oven-roasted. Call it baked. Call it pulled pork. Because technically, it's not barbecue unless natural wood smoke and charcoal are part of the process. (I'm under a psuedo-contractual obligation to make such disclaimers.)
This recipe is based on one from Tyler Florence from The Food Network, but I've made a few adjustments to the rub, cook instructions and sauce based on a few years of making it. Although the pulled pork always gets raves, it's the sauce that people flip for. I watched one dinner guest fill his plastic plate with sauce and sop it up with bun after bun when the meat was all gone. The secret? It's in the au jus--the porky-delicious, skimmed "stock" left over from the roasting meat.
And the name of the recipe? Yes, my mama was a queen in the Cochon de Lait parade in Mansura, Louisiana in 1960. Bless her heart.
“My Mama Was a Pig Queen” Pulled Pork
Dry Rub
3 tablespoons paprika
3 tablespoons coarse salt
1 tablespoon black pepper, coarsely ground
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon dry mustard
2 teaspoons oregano
1/4 cup Liquid Smoke
1 5- to 7-pound pork shoulder or "Boston butt"
Mix the dry rub ingredients together in a small bowl. Douse the meat with Liquid Smoke and gently rub it in. Rub the spice blend all over the pork and marinate in the refrigerator, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, for as long as you have time for--as little as 1 hour or up to overnight.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Place the pork in a roasting pan, fat-side up, and bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes.
At 30 minutes, lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees and roast for 2 1/2 hours.
Cover the roasting pan with a lid or foil and roast for approximately 3 hours, until the meat is separating from the blade bone and fall-apart tender. (The meat may take up to 1 hour more in the oven to reach the "fall-apart tender" stage. Check it every 15 to 20 minutes if it is not done at the 6-hour mark.)
When the pork is done, take it out of the oven and allow the meat to rest for about 10 to 20 minutes. When the meat is still warm, but not too hot to handle, pull the meat apart.
Au jus for barbecue sauce: Pour all of the juice in the bottom of the pan into a
plastic container. Refrigerate or freeze the liquid until the fat
floats to the top and hardens, about 2 hours. Warning: the fat will turn
a funky shade of orange from the rub. Scrape or pull the fat layer off of the top.
The brown, gelatinous "stock" that remains is the au jus to be used in
the Vinegar Sauce.
Tangy Barbecue Sauce
Au jus from cooking pork, skimmed of fat
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
1 cup yellow mustard
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 garlic cloves, smashed
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Combine the skimmed au jus, vinegar, mustard, ketchup, brown sugar, garlic, salt, cayenne, and black pepper in a saucepan over medium heat. Simmer gently, stirring for 10 minutes. [Note: I've done a quick simmer on this sauce, but the longer the simmer, the better the flavor--up to 1 hour. The sauce will taste super vinegar-y by itself, but the flavor mellows when it's mixed with the pork.]