Pound for Pound

The Best BBQ EVER

I was looking over our recipes the other day and could not believe that we did not have a pulled pork recipe on the board. As most of you recall The Black Pig Competition BBQ Team has been doing very well with our pulled pork, six different 2^nd place finishes. Always a bride’s maid I guess, never the bride. We have been tweaking our recipe just a bit and working on our timing which is seeing the scores get better and the last two have been just one point from 1^st place.

Well, Susan and I decided we are keeping that recipe for the team, however we do have another recipe that we started with that is just as fabulous.

First of all you have to decide how to cook it, on a smoker or on the propane BBQ grill. While the Weber Smokey Mountain (WSM) Cooker is my choice Susan has done it successful on the grill using Smokinlicious wood chips in her smoker box. My preference is chunk hickory, but found I have to back out just a bit to avoid too much smoke. Donna from Smokinlicious turned us onto Black Cherry Woodscuit, Fracken Awesome, well worth the additional cost.

On to the Meat

Just as there is angus beef there is also superiour cuts of pork. Throw in a heritage breed, some Omega 3 and make it all anti-biotic free and you have Willowgrove Hill Pork; I am so lucky in being able to source this product. Tell your butcher this is what you want or order yourself from the internet, well worth the investment of time. Healthy pork, oh yeah get some Willowgrove bacon, I tried this and it was a complete new adventure, but again that is another story. 

You have two choices for your pork cut, in competition we use both a whole shoulder and a pork butt, the butt is the top of a shoulder leaving the picnic roast behind. This is a long cook so do not expect to pull the roast out of the freezer in the morning and expect to eat it for dinner, you need two days for this cook.

Ensure all of the skin is off your roast and get yourself an injector $5.00 at wally-world. I have a $50.00 stainless steel injector and sometimes I prefer the cheap one, go figure. Inject as much of the broth as the roast will take and then cover with rub. Consider a light coat of mustard before the rub; it is a matter of personal taste.

Put the roast into a large zip bag or container and allow to sit over night refrigerated. In a competition, we can only let it mature for a few hours, I will take as long as I can get.

Let’s get cooking

Get you cooker or grill up to 230 (f) and your smoke flowing nicely. If using propane, light just one side as we will be using indirect heat. Put your smoker box right on the burner as you will need what ever heat you have to keep a good flow of smoke going. Keep a steady flow of smoke going for about 2 hours. Remember smoke is an ingredient not the main course.

I have never tried this in the oven, that is another story for another day.

The trick of this is to allow the roast to slow cook for 12-20 hrs depending on the size. This is one of those times where a digital probe is mandatory.

After about 5 hours the roast should be about 165, the smoke part is finished and the process turns to rendering the fat and the collagen. This may take 1 to 4 hours depending on the context of the roast. Also at this point you can take it off the cooker and wrap in tin foil, return to the cooker or put it in the oven at 250(f). The roast is done cooking when the internal temperature is about 185(f). Take it off and wrap it in a towel and put it in a small insulated cooler (no ice) to keep warm and allow the meat to rest for up to 1 hour.

Take the roast out and you will not need forks to “pull the pork” just get a pair of gloves and separate with your hands to desired pieces. Finish with your favorite BBQ sauce depending on your taste buds.

Once you get through your first pulled pork, you will wonder what all the fuss is about, perhaps we just nail it the first time out. If you all recall we hit 2^nd place at the Canadian Open BBQ Championship making our third pork shoulder ever (another 2^nd place… go figure).

Enjoy

Cheers from the Big Dog