Tell me about pulled pork
What is pulled pork, how do you make it, and is it worth the effort?
I have a pork roast, bone in, basically from the knee down. It's about 10 to 12 lb and still has the rind on it. Can I make pulled pork from this?
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Use your favorite dry rub and coat the meat well, then refrigerate overnight. Bone-in, it will take 4-6 hours to cook over indirect heat or in a smoker at about 275 degrees F. Periodically brush it with a wet "mop" mixed with vinegar, brown sugar, crushed red pepper flakes and just a little canola oil. When the meat has a good crust and is cooked thru until it will shred easily, remove from smoker. Put it on a rimmed cookie sheet or on a large pan to shred so you don't lose the juices. We usually put it on the bun like this and add our sauce individually, but you can mix it with your favorite barbecue sauce before hand if you choose. And yes, it is worth the time!
Along the Carolina coast, they tend to barbecue the whole hog, mixing the pulled meat from all the different parts of the pig. The sauce they use along the coast is a very thin vinegar/brown sugar/chile/black pepper concoction and is a wonderful addition to the meat. As you move inland, you find more and more folks that use just the shoulder or "butt". Their sauce (or "dip") is much the same, but with a little tomato in it.
A properly served pulled pork sandwich will be served on a homemade potato roll with a little sauce, then topped with fresh creamy cole slaw. A dill pickle wedge goes on the side. If you'd like, I'll be happy to send you a few recipes for the pork, sauces and cole slaw.
How does a potato roll differ from regular wheat bread roll?
I noticed Penzys had a pulled pork recipe in the recent catalogue, which I have set aside to try. See http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/recipes/r-penzeysPulledPork.html
The pork cut you mentioned sounds like it would make a mouth-watering Bavarian pork roast with crackling crust--in other words, I think I would use a different, less expensive, cut for the pulled pork. Penzys' recipe recommends pork butt or shoulder. I think you want some interior fat to keep the meat juicy during long, slow cooking.
This was actually a dirt cheep cut, I got the whole leg (and much of the hip meat) for under $25, I think it was 99 cents a pound, which is really good for pork here. I took the 'ham' part and cut it into smaller roasts with the skin on top for crackling (we love pork fat in our house) and also cubed some for the freezer for either pork-a-dobo or for putting in the grinder later. But the left over roast, I guess it might be called a giant hock, part looked so traditionally ham shaped that I just left it as is and stuck it in the freezer.
I'm thinking of either making pulled pork or curing it or making pulled pork. I've never done either before, but it looks tasty.
I might pick up another leg today if they still have them on sale. Does pulled pork freeze well?