Pulled Pork with Eastern NC Sauce

Pulled Pork Barbecue

Making pulled pork barbecue is simple and easy, but it does take time to do it in the traditional manner. My sister makes a version using the crock pot, and I have tasted it and it was delicious. But it did lack that certain something that long hours on a low smokey fire brings. The following is my way of making pulled pork. There are several steps and I will list the ingredients and directions for each.

Brining

This process allows the meat to absorb some moisture and better prepare it to endure the long smoking process. I bought a used pickle bucket from a local sub shop (Firehouse Subs) and I use that for all my pickling and brining. It is food safe plastic and far cheaper then buying a commercial food safe plastic bucket at the kitchen store.

Brine Bucket

Ingredients

      16 ounces or 1 1/2 cups molasses
      24 ounces pickling salt
      4 quarts water
      3 6 to 8 pound Boston butts

Directions

1. Mix molasses and salt in 2 quarts of very hot water and stir to dissolve salt.
2. When all salt has dissolved, fill a 2 quart container with ice and then add water to make it about 2 quarts of mostly ice and water.
3. Add the ice and water to the brine and stir to mix.
4. Place the butts in the bucket of brine. Place a plate or other something on top of them so that they are all fully immersed in the brine.
5. If you have a spare fridge in the garage, place the bucket of butts and bring in there, if you do not, place the bucket in a cooler and fill the cooler with ice. This will keep the butts cold so there is no spoilage while they brine.
6. Let the butts sit in the brine for 12- 24 hours. I usually just do 12 hours.
7. Note: Now is a good time to make the vinegar sauce that is listed below...
8. Note: Now is a good time to get out the wood chunks or chips you are going to use in your smoker and place them in a bucket of water so they will be nice and soaked when the time comes to use them.

In a cooler with ice

Prepare for Smoking

The reason I usually only brine for 12 hours, is all about timing. If I get the butts in the brine by 3PM then I can get up at 3AM to get the butts prepared for the smoker and get them on the smoke by about 4 AM. With 11-14 hours (more for bigger butts) on the smoke, that means that I will be taking them out of the smoker about 4 or 5 PM. That is about the right time for a 6:30 or 7 PM dinner.

Ingredients
      16 ounces of Pork Rub (any good commercial rub will work)
       Prepared Yellow Mustard.

Directions

Just starting out

1. Go out and setup your smoker. I have a Brinkman gas smoker, so I need to set the racks, fill the water pan and bring around the soaking wood chips. Set it to about 225 degrees.
2. Remove the butts from the brine one at a time and rinse them each in cold water.
3. Place them on a pile of paper towels or a large clean kitchen towel and pat dry until very dry.
4. Place the butt in a container that will keep the rub from going all over the place. I use a plastic tub.
5. Squeeze a good amount of prepared yellow mustard on the butt and slather it all over.
6. Liberally apply 1/3 of the rub to the butt, making sure there is a good even coating on all the meaty exposed parts. You do not need to put as much of the fat cap.
7. Place the rubbed butt to the side and do the same to the other 2 butts.
8. Place the butts in your smoker with the fat caps up, if possible.

Smoking

This is the easy part if you have a good smoker, and the painful part if you do not. If you have a Big Green Egg, or a gas or electric fired unit then it is a matter of setting it and letting it do it's thing. If you have something else, you will need to monitor the temperature in the smoker. Make sure it does not get above about 250 or below about 190. With my smoker, I have to check the water pan about every 3 hours and add more. At the same time, I add some additional wood chips to the fire to give some additional smoke. Follow your manufacturer's directions on this.

Directions

After about 10 hours

1. Cook the butts in the smoker set to 225-250 degrees for about 11 to 14 hours, more if they are large. The time will depend on the size of the butts. After about 6 or 7 hours, you can remove them, wrap them in foil and retun to the smoker. This will reduce the cooking time by a good deal. No need to add any more wood chips after they are wrapped in foil.
2. Insert a remote meat thermometer after about 9 hours of cooking and monitor the temperature.
3. Remove each butt as the internal temperature reaches 195-200 degrees. You should measure each one individually because variations in size and position will cause some to be done before others.
4. Place the butts in a stainless steel bowl and cover tightly with foil, if you wrapped them in foil, remove that before placing in the bowl, careful they will be hot!
5. Allow the butts to rest at least 1 hour before going on to the next step.

Resting the meat

Pulling and Saucing
After the butts have rested and cooled a bit it is time to "pull" them. 

Ingredients (Eastern NC Style Vinegar Sauce)

      2 cups Cider Vinegar

      1/4 cup brown sugar

      2 Tbs Sea or Kosher salt

      1 Tbs Crushed Red Pepper Flakes

      1 Tbs Cayenne Pepper

Directions

1. Mix the vinegar and spices together.
2. Put the mixture in a jar or resealable bottle.
3. If possible, make this early, as the longer it sit the better it gets.

Directions for "Pulling"

10 pounds pulled

1. Give yourself plenty of space to work.
2. Place a butt in your work space and use a knife to remove (and reserve) any of the "bark" that is on the butts. This is the dark, possibly crunch outer surface of the butt. Also remove any big chunks of fat that did not render out.
3. Using 2 forks or other utensils, pull the pork  If done to the correct temperature, the meat should pretty much fall apart.
4. Take a knife and cut the "bark" up into little pieces and add it back into the pulled pork and toss.
5. If there is some juice left in the bowl that the butt was resting in, you can add some of that too, but be careful you do not make the pulled pork too soggy or greasy.
6. Add some of the Eastern NC Vinegar Sauce you made and toss the pulled pork well, adding more to taste but making sure you do not make it too wet.

Serving

We always serve this on buns with additional sauces (some like a tomato based sauce). We always serve cole-slaw with it, as a condiment to place on top of the meat in the sandwich.

  

If you have left-overs, this freeze very well, just remember that the vinegar in the sauce will react with aluminum, so be sure to line your foil pans with parchment or use large heavy duty zip locks to store it.