I guess if you do a ton of it. But personally, I pull with gloved hands, and never pull more than what will be eaten right away, I prefer to keep my pulled pork intact until we consume it, too many chances for drying out.
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I got one of these for Christmas a few years ago. It isn’t perfect, but it’s still very helpful.Comment
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I've tried all the different ways EXCEPT this one. Used tongs to pull/shred, bear claws, etc. Finally have just come back to using my hands. Honestly, as bbqLuv and jfmorris said, it allows me to feel it better and I can pull out parts I don't want to leave in. Sometimes there's some thicker chunks of stringy fat that didn't render super well and mixing it in would leave at least one person with a yucky bite with a texture that is unpleasant.
Using a mixer, I think you could really quickly get to where it is pulled TOO finely. I don't want it truly finely 'shredded' where everything is individual strands of muscle fiber.
Honestly, I think this is part of what I really DISLIKE about a lot of pulled pork done in commercial operations, be it BBQ chain restaurants or grocery stores, etc. When you pull it and shred it SO finely that it is all so uniform and like mush, you really drastically reduce some of the experience of eating pulled pork BBQ. I have had absolute RAVES over my pulled pork with no sauce, no nothing. Just salt and rub - but I pull it apart and leave it a little 'chunky'. I want there to be some pieces shredded, but some more intact small chunks in there, like 1-2cm or so. This provides a good textural contrast from bite to bite, and it also really reinforces the experience that you're eating MEAT, not just some shredded up, blended, uniform and sauce-flavored MUSH.
EFF THAT!
The only really BBQ place in our town gets a lot of the catering gigs and they inevitably bring their pulled pork 'mush' which I loathe and detest. I am quite sure this is how they do theirs, with a mixer. It is WAY too uniform and very boring to consume, IMNSHO.
I think this is a trap many BBQ places, restaurants and grocery chains or other meat producing companies fall into - they are so focused on the volume of meat they have to produce that they switch to a mechanical means of 'pulling' their pork and it comes out with this uniform mush. Yes, you can do hundreds of pounds of it in no time, but it truly sacrifices the textural elements of pulled pork that I have in mine, which I honestly think contributes significantly to the experience and the satisfaction people get out of my pulled pork sandwiches. Like I said, people just RAVE about it, and I've always kinda scratched my head and thought, "Yeah, it's good, but... what's the big deal??" That's because I've been eating my own for so long, I'm truly "spoiled" by it. When I tried the local place's pork sandwich again after many years I realized the difference was theirs had this mushy consistency (not to mention the boring sauce) and now I am sure this is where it comes from.
Bottom line - I don't want my pulled pork to be 'uniformly' shredded, I want it to be essentially hand pulled into chunks and shreds and clumps and clods. It really just seems more like MEAT this way!Comment
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I hadn't thought about it, but I think you're exactly right. Yes....too finely shredded and especially with the additional sauce, and you're eating mushy pork. -
Well said!
I use my meat claws JUST enough to break up a hot steaming butt enough on the cutting board to where I can then use my gloved hands to pull and pick, tossing gristle or fat into the trash, while putting the manually pulled pork into a pan, crockpot, whatever. If I get long strands that are too long, I also keep a knife by the cutting board, and do a bit of chopping as well.
So I guess I combine the pulled and chopped methods sometimes. I can't see using the mixer coming out well.
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I have bear claws, I've used them twice. I prefer gloved hands.Comment
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