Insert single picture here. (I only took one at the end.)

There are many kinds of pulled pork with different cooking methods. Some people use smokers for hours on end, until the meat falls apart on its own.  Some people will toss it with a sauce right in a slow cooker and shred it when it's finished.  Quite often, when roasting meat that contains fat, the fat will melt away, basting the meat, and then either pool at the bottom of the pan/crockpot/foil or into the coals/fire. 

I decided that I wanted to make something with pork and barbacue, even if I didn't have a grill or smoker I could use.  I figured that I could use the oven, set it to a low 200-225F and just let it cook for a few 8-12 hours.  In the mean time, the sauce could be set in a slow cooker where the shredded pork would eventually be placed into. 

I also decided to try using the oven this time around, because I wanted to see if I could collect the drippings for another use. Because of this, I didn't season the meat like I normally would.  I was actually surprised that I didn't get much dripping, or rendered fat from the pork.  Next time I do this, I will add a dry rub ( a mix of spices and seasonings that has no liquid added) to the pork and let it sit in the refridgerator for 24 hours. 

There's something about any type of pulled pork that calls out for coleslaw, shredded or chopped cabbage with some sort of sauce.  There's different kinds of slaw, and the main two types of cabbage based slaw tends to be either a creamy slaw, or a vinegar slaw.  I went with a vinegar slaw.

Also, with barbacue pulled pork, another important ingredient is the sauce.  Some pulled pork use a vinegar based sauce, some use a mustard sauce and some use a tomato based sauce.  I went with a tomato based sauce for mine, which I made from nearly scratch.

The Pork

I picked it up from Kroger, just because it was the only place open at the time (11 at night when I finished working), and it was about a 7.75 pound piece with a bone, that set me back only $17.  The cut was the Boston butt (upper part of the leg) that has great marbling and a superb natural flavor that can be eaten without additional seasoning.  Some people like to cut away the fat, but I think it's where most of the flavor lies and when the cut is raised higher and the fat is allowed to drip away into a container, then I think it winds up doing the same thing.  Plus, the fat is rendered and can be used for other things, like flavoring.

At the same time, the fat means that the long cooking time, even at a higher temperature, will result in a moist flavorful meat.  I like pork tenderloin, however it's higher price and dryness when overcooked means tenderloin can be more difficult.
Seasoning:  A little bit of salt.
Process:  Stick on a slotted or wire rack above a deep pan and let it cook at 225 for 8 hours.
Easy enough, right?  No basting, no poking, no peeking.  At the end, let it cool for about an hour, then shred either using fingers, some forks, or a cleaver.

Next time, I'll add a dry or wet rub of some sort to really let it soak up some extra spice, but on it's own, it's still extremely flavorful and juicy and didn't even need that tiny bit of salt I tossed on top.  I was short on time and would really have prefered letting it cook for an extra long time (12 hours+) to really get it to just melt apart.  There were just a few pieces that were still firm enough to give me shredding trouble, but the part near the bone and the outer few inches came apart quite easily, enough that it was difficult not to keep snitching away pieces. 

Other things I can do with this pork

The Sauce

Quite often, I'll make my own sauces.  This time around, it was a tomato based barbacue sauce.  I started with several cans of tomato puree/sauce though sometimes I'll add in some tomato paste to make it thicker.  I tend to add juniper berries to my tomato based barbacue sauce because I like the flavor it gives.  I also added some thyme, garlic powder and onion powder, a bit of salt, plenty of molasses and a bit of cider vinegar.  I also added some paprika as well as some chipotle pepper powder I had on hand.  The result gives a nice sweet and tangy heat.  I did various additions, including adding some of the spice and molasses at the start, and some towards the end.  This way, there was a sweetness and spiciness that still stood out, and wasn't all mellowed in the background.
I wound up making plenty, so I put some into a jar and mixed the remaining amounts with the shredded pork.  I'll add the sauce whenever I reheat the pork, which will probably be all this week, and if I have any remaining, I'll use it as a sauce for something else.

Approximate ingredients:

4 cans of pureed tomato/tomato sauce
1/2 to 1 cup molasses
1/8th cup juniper berries (pulverized in a food processor preferred)
5 allspice berries (I really don't think this did anything, so I'd omit this next time)
1/4 cup cider vinegar
2 Tbs paprika
1 Tbs onion powder
1 Tbs garlic powder
1 tsp chipotle pepper powder

Approximate process:
I tossed in all the sauce, all the juniper and half of everything else in the slow cooker then towards the end of the 8 hour period for the pork, I tossed in the other half.  I did use a cornstarch slurry at the end (cornstarch and water) to try to smooth it out and add a little bit of extra thickness, but it didn't really do anything.  I'd prefer to have added some tomato paste instead, but I didn't have any on hand.

The Slaw
Vinegar based slaws tend to be pretty easy.  The most difficult part tends to be shredding the cabbage, which is made easier by the use of mechanical means.  I used my kitchen aid slicer unit (the unit that attaches to the front of a kitchenaid mixer) and fed chunks of cabbage through it and into a single slicer unit.  This produced nice shreds of cabbage.  I don't recall the weight of the cabbage, but the resulting shreds filled a gallon sized pot. 

I heated up some cider vinegar (approx 2 cups) just enough to dissolve some salt (1 tablespoon?) and some sugar (quarter cup?)  and I added some black and yellow mustard seeds (4 Tbs?).  I also added some olive oil (quarter cup?).  The result was much like a vinagrette that I added to the shredded cabbage. 

I mixed the cabbage up with a gloved hand, though I could use a bare washed hand if I wanted, since it was the easiest way to coat the cabbage and I modified the seasonings by adding a little bit more vinegar, both cider vinegar as well as red wine vinegar and a bit of garlic salt along with some freshly ground black pepper.

The result was a nice light slaw that cut through the strong barbacue spice.

Approximate ingredients:
1 large head of cabbage
2 cups cider vinegar
2 Tbs red wine vinegar
2 Tbs yellow mustard seeds
2 Tbs black mustard seeds
1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tbs kosher salt
1/4 cup sugar

Ingredients I'd change:
Omit yellow mustard seeds, go with black mustard seeds
Add celery seeds

Procedure:
Everything but the red wine vinegar went into a non-reactive pot and was warmed until the sugar dissolved.  This was then slowly drizzled over the shredded cabbage and tasted.  Because I wanted more bite to the slaw, I then dashed on the red wine vinegar.

And what did I drink with the entire dinner?  Well, I still have quite a bit of the IPA from my first 5 gallon batch that I was chilling and testing outside (the temperature had dropped enough to keep it cold) and it's cold, crisp flavor and strong hoppiness cut through the oil and spice rather nicely.