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
Rantings of an Amateur Chef 
You DO make it sound easy! And yummy!
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DO IT. It’s that easy. And plenty if leftovers. Freezes great also!
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I love the technical tips. Now I need to convert to Celsius.
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I will have to leave that to you. I am horrible at math.
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As a fellow Egghead I must say that this is one of my favorite cooks. You can make it a lot more complicated with injections and the like, but why? I have found simplicity works best. Just get a rub you like and let it go. Nothing gets the neighbors drooling more than a 14 hour butt cook 🙂
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I have cooked with injections and all that, but I still prefer the less is better method. The taste of the meat is what I love. Butts have so much natural flavor.
Great to meet another egghead. Went on over to your site and checked it out. I like it.
Thanks
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Put this pulled pork in the homemade tortillas with a little avocado, yum.
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I don’t use homemade, tho I will need to make my own since you said to. One of my favorite meals is BBQ, egg over easy, small bit of sharp cheddar and BBQ sauce in a tortilla. Awesomeness.
The avocado! Definitely gonna try that. Good call
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My mouth is watering just looking at the pics! Fantastic!
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Correct – low and slow is the name of the game!
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Mmm looks delicious.
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One of America’s great gifts to the world! One of my favourites – I’ll bookmark this for later…
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