pulled pork

[vinotraveler]

I am going to fire up my oven next weekend for the last preharvest (grape) supper. I want to do pulled pork but most recipes are lame and call for some bottled or boring sauce. Does anyone have a GREAT recipe and tips for slow cooking a shoulder of pork? My friends are food and wine people and everything that i have pulled from my oven has been great so far.

[REE REE B]

Re: pulled pork

Pizza Oven Pulled Pork

1 2 3 4 5

Pig prep - 3-4#butt(no not the hammy rear end, the shoulder portion) thawed -

make brine - 1C kosher salt, 3/4C dk brown sugar or molasses or sorghum, (pigs like all sugar), bay leaves, quartered onion, smashed garlic, hot peppers, cumin, basil, oregano, 4C water/beer ---heat to boiling, cool - let pig swim in brine overnight in fridge

Pizza Day - Pig Rub -1/2C salt, 1/4 dk brown sugar, 1/4cup ground coffee, zest of orange-minced, 1 chipotle-ground, 1 ancho-ground, 1 guajillo-ground, cumin, 1/4C cracked pepper corns, oregano - mix together

Pull pig from brine pool, quick rinse and pat dry - place in aluminum (steamer table) tray and apply rub all over, let pig rest in cool area and crank up pizza oven to pizza making temp, make pizzas, entertain friends

After pizza fest (oven around 400F), push coals to back, add smoking wood if you like - allow wood to begin to smoke, make pup tent for pig in tray, add juice of zestless orange and a beer - put your pig in about the middle oven.

Close the oven with your insulated door - not your thin, bread-making oven door

Walk away, go to bed.

Pig Day - ~8hr later, get up and take your pig out -

Meat should be quite ready to pull - sauce not required

[Aegis]

Re: pulled pork

I used almost the same method only the oven temp was MUCH lower and slow cooked it. Here is a link to the thread and recipe I used. Read a couple of the posts for the entire recipe and the rolls that I also made. These rolls were fantastic with the pulled pork.
http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/25/p...tml#post134592
Let me know how it comes out.
John

[fretlander]

Re: pulled pork

I'm going to do my first shoulder roast for pulled pork this weekendto experiment I plan on putting it in after pizza stuff at about 400 to get a nice crisp skin add some smoke and then close it up after hour or so check it every couple hours and try to get the temperature down to 250 or so for about 8 hours. That is after brining and rub. My main question is, how many 8 to 10 pound butts can I do in a 3 ft x 4 ft fired oven? I will need to do 10 or so.

[Aegis]

Re: pulled pork

I'm going to do my first shoulder roast for pulled pork this weekendto experiment I plan on putting it in after pizza stuff at about 400 to get a nice crisp skin add some smoke and then close it up after hour or so check it every couple hours and try to get the temperature down to 250 or so for about 8 hours. That is after brining and rub. My main question is, how many 8 to 10 pound butts can I do in a 3 ft x 4 ft fired oven? I will need to do 10 or so.

I do my pork in a roasting pan and fit two in the pan. I guess I could put 6 or 7 roasters in the 42" round oven.
I never start it higher than 265 degrees F and ALWAYS get CRISPY crust! I Score the skin diagonally in a diamond pattern, and have one inch square crisp pieces of heaven! Put on the rub and then - Low and slow is the trick to great pulled pork, keeping the pork at 190 degrees F breaks down all the connective tissue.
Good luck and enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You have my mouth watering already!

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: pulled pork

I have smoked countless pulled porks in my smoker, but only two in my oven. The last one I did came out very close to the smoker version, but if this is your first time, there are some rules to getting acceptable results. Firstly, proper pulled pork is cooked low and slow, ideally at 228F. If you put your shoulder in the oven at 250-265F like Aegis, you will get the benefits of this age-old cooking style. You want to bring the internal temp of your shoulder up to 190F, and hold it there for two hours. At that point the collagen will have broken down and you're golden.

Secondly, if you brine your pork (I always do), and cook it in a roaster, you must place it on a rack over water. I didn't do this the first time and the brine and rub melted into the bottom of the roaster and carbonized the bottom of the pork.

Thirdly, pulled pork benefits greatly from hickory and/or oak. I placed an expanded metal charcoal basket into my oven and lit one end of an 8" 'log' pile of lump oak charcoal, leaving the oven door slightly ajar. This provided the charcoal enough air to smolder, and I only had to replenish it twice in a 9-hour period.

Lastly, your cooking session will take some time. I always cook 10-12lb shoulders and they typically take 8-10hrs, depending. You may want to (foil) wrap your shoulder(s) once they hit 160-170F. They have absorbed all of the smoke they're going to at this point, and the radiation from the top of the oven is likely to burn the sugar in the rub in the top of the pork. Like Aegis, if you leave the fat cap on the top of the pork, it will self-baste itself beautifully.

Good luck, post pics.

John

[billgraney]

Re: pulled pork

I think everyone's wfo is different and the only way you'll get it down is through experimentation. I have to add the pork at the higher end of the temperature range if I want it done in the morning. If I start low, the heat will be down to the outside air temp in the morning and the pork butt will only have an internal temp of around 150 f and I have to finish it in the kitchen oven. Either way it comes out great but I prefer to get it all done in the wfo. My understanding is that the crucial time for very low temps is towards the end when you're in that 170-195 f internal temp range.

[Adda]

Re: pulled pork

I've done about a 1/2 dozen pork shoulders in my WFO. I make my pizza and then let the oven cool down to <500 degrees. While I'm waiting, I soak some hickory chips in water.

When the oven reaches the right temperature, I put the pork in, throw the wet chips on any remaining coals and close the door tight. 10-12 hours later, my oven is still around 225 and the pork pulls apart easily with a couple of forks.

I do recommend putting the pork on a bed of cut onions. It adds flavor and makes cleanup a cinch.

[billgraney]

Re: pulled pork

So Adda, you're putting the pork into the oven at around 500 degrees and your strategy is to start it hot and the wfo gradually cools as the pork cooks. Is that correct?
I've done it that way and I've been happy with the results but it seems to go against the grain of common practice.

[Greenman]

Re: pulled pork

Hello Adda

Sounds like a viable way of doing it. My only concern is that my oven (if it was fully saturated) would not drop more than half of the heat in that time. I expect that if it was allowed to cool even more so that I started cooking it at a lower temperature it would still work but there would be some trial needed to get the timing right.

[Adda]

Re: pulled pork

The last time I made Pork Shoulders I soaked the oven for about 6 hours before cooking the pizza and then then Pork. I ended up cooking the pizza at about 700 degrees and then waited for the oven to drop to 500 before putting he pork in.

I've got a very thick (> 6 inches) layer of concrete over the firebrick chamber that takes a long time to soak. I peeked under the insulation and took the temperature with my thermometer gun and the temperature was about 80 degrees after the 6 hours. The outside air temperature was 25F, so getting the oven heated up took a bit of work.

What I expect happens in this situation is that the heat built up in and around the chamber continues to migrate outward to the less cool concrete. This seems to result in the temperature dropping from 700 to around 400 in less than an hour. Checking an hour later, it hasn't dropped much and 12 hours later the chamber is still at 225.

Next time, I'll check the outer temperature under the insulation. I expect it will have warmed up to 90F or more.

Regardless, Pork Shoulder is a very forgiving cut of meat. I tried this same technique on some briskets and it hasn't worked as well.

[Laurentius]

Re: pulled pork

So Adda, you're putting the pork into the oven at around 500 degrees and your strategy is to start it hot and the wfo gradually cools as the pork cooks. Is that correct?
I've done it that way and I've been happy with the results but it seems to go against the grain of common practice.

No, he said he put the pork in when the oven is the right temperature! He didn`t tell you what the right temperature was. 500 degrees is much to high for a 10 hour cook!

[woodoveneats]

Re: pulled pork

Ree Ree B reply above sounded right on the mark: Brine, rub, low and slow.