Time for another great post from a guest blogger. Today we have Paul from The Beard It Speaks. He walks us through how to have some tasty pulled pork. By itself, it is fantastic, but it can also be used as a base for so many other recipes, it is always great to have on hand. Take a look at The Beard It Speaks and Paul’s Pulled Pork…
I saw The Ranting Chef post about becoming a guest writer on his blog. I emailed him about being interested in becoming a guest. After a long, grueling five minutes of contract negotiations, The Ranting Chef and I came to an agreement.
Some background on myself. My name is Paul, I am from small town South Carolina. Which means, most of the recipes I will provide are southern cooking in nature, but not all of them. I might very well surprise you.
As I was thinking of what recipe I would like share as a first post, I knew it would have to be something I was confident about. Whelp, that would be BBQ, pulled pork variety. To many people, this cook exhumes thoughts off grandiose proportions. In reality, it is a very simple cook, with a very forgiving piece of meat. There are three main steps that will ensure perfection. 1 proper cooking temperature, 2 proper internal temperature, 3 Patience.
I prefer cooking on wood or coal grills. Gas grills are fine if that is what you have. I use a Big Green Egg.
First step is meat selection. Boston Butt or Pork Picnic. Both easily found in all grocery stores. When buying butts, try to buy BONE IN. You can season the meat with anything or nothing at all.
Step two is prepping the grill. I cook my BBQ at a grate temp of 275. On average, this means the meat will take about an hour a pound to cook. This time could vary depending on the grill and environmental conditions. You do not need a lot of smoke, a light grey to clear smoke is ideal.
Step three, internal temperature. You want these particular cuts of meat to be at an internal temperature of 195. This allows the connective tissue to break down into collagen. This process makes the BBQ moist and “pullable”. If you want to slice the pork, cook to internal temperature of 180-185. A very important step in this process! The meat will climb quickly to an internal temp of 150-160. At this point, the meat will “hit a wall”. At about 170 is when the connective tissue begins to break down and the meat can sit at this temp for hours. This is where patience comes in. Don’t PANIC! This is the point where beginning BBQ’ers mess up. Just let the meat continue cooking until the internal temp is 195.
Once the meat has been fully cooked, it’s time to pull. Depending on your time frame, you can pull right away or wrap in tin foil and let the meat sit. Be careful, the meat will be very hot. Serve up with your favorite sauce or no sauce at all and enjoy.
I tried to make this cook seem very simple. Because in actuality, it is. Don’t over complicate it! Seriously, you can cook this meat with no seasoning, cook it the way I just described, and you will cook perfect pulled pork.
Left piece is Boston Butt, right piece is a Picnic
1/3 of the way!
Finished product, waiting to be pulled.
No Shave Never!
Paul
