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My Favorite Pulled Pork, Meatheadified!

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    My Favorite Pulled Pork, Meatheadified!

    For about 13 years I have had a favorite go-to pulled pork recipe. Over the years I have tweaked around with it applying different techniques that I read in various places. On May 29th, 2016, I hit absolute perfection by "Meatheadifying" the process. I think I will be submitting "Meatheadify" to the Miriam-Webster for addition to the dictionary, defined as "applying Meatheads techniques and advice to create perfect BBQ".

    The go-to recipe is from the June 2003 issue of 'Cuisine at Home' magazine. It is a very rich dry rub, a vinegar based sauce that starts with a cup of root beer syrup. The cole slaw is made with green and red cabbage, spinach and a vinegar/mayo dressing. I can post the recipes if anyone's interested. Their method in the magazine calls for cooking on a grill three hours with some smoke in the beginning, then finishing it wrapped in foil, which I never understood that until a few later when I read about the stall and the Crutch on this website. After a couple of years I had acquired a WSM and this whole recipe got kicked up a few notches by just plowing through the stall.

    As I said, over the years I have tried a few tricks here an there with varying success and a few failures. Once or twice it came out too mushy after wet brining overnight. Several times I finished it in the oven wrapped in foil and ruined the bark. Once it was so salty that I didn't serve it.

    So, how did I Meatheadify the process and reach Nirvana? Simple. I followed your "Perfect Pulled Pork" method with a couple of substitutions:

    1. Dry brined the meat overnight
    2. I replaced the Memphis Dust with the rub recipe mentioned above, leaving out the salt. Brining took care of the salt.
    3. Fired up the WSM, started using Soo's Donut variant of the Minion Method. The temperature ran up to 260 but I was able to quickly correct it and it ran between 230 and 250 the rest of the day.
    4. In step 3, I replaced the beer, cigar and mint julep ingredients with straight bourbon
    5. Also in step 3, I substituted mowing the lawn and washing windows with planting tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, etc.
    6. Thankfully, my wife agreed the remainder of step 3 should be followed to the letter to ensure the success of the meal.
    7. No Crutch. After about 10 hours the meat hit 198 internal temperature.
    8. I let it rest 30 minutes then started pulling. The bone slipped right out and it had a wonderful crunchy bark. It pulled beautifully.
    9. For the first time since I have been using this recipe, it went on the table completely nekkid. I didn't mix in any sauce, just the juices form the meat made the whole thing deliciously moist.

    Aside from the expert advice from Meathead and the crew here, I also think that there were higher powers at work. We had perfect weather with just enough breeze to keep the edge off and the bugs away. I even think the breeze kicked up a bit anytime the WSM started getting a little too hot. We invited a bunch of people over for an impromptu BBQ and just a few showed up so it was nicely low key. A mound of pork, anointed with a small scoop of sauce and accompanied with a pile of cole slaw was absolute perfection. I had three. I do have a couple of pics to share that I will post later on.

    ...thanks for reading.
    Last edited by cdevito; May 30, 2016, 08:28 AM.

    #2
    Wow, it sounds as though the cook couldn't have been any better, cdevito . Hearty congrats on that. I'd love to see the recipes you used for the rub and slaw. They sound really yummy.

    I agree, any recipe, "Meatheadified" kicks it up a notch. I'm pretty sold on MMR with any pork product in my smoker, but should branch out a bit I guess.

    Thanks for the nice writeup. I particularly enjoyed reading steps 4 and 5.

    Kathryn

    Comment


    • cdevito
      cdevito commented
      Editing a comment
      Thanks! I'll post the recipes below...

    #3
    Rub:
    ¼ cup Kosher salt (omit if brining the meat)
    ¼ cup Black pepper, freshly ground
    ¼ cup Chili powder (I use McCormick Dark Chili Powder)
    1 Tbsp. Dried oregano
    1 Tbsp. Dried thyme
    1 tsp. Cayenne

    I find freshly grinding the black pepper gives a much more intense flavor. Also, I recommend pulverizing the dried herbs to a powder, they mix into the rub better that way.

    Sauce:
    1 cup Root beer syrup
    1 ½ cup Apple cider vinegar
    ½ cup Ketchup
    ¼ cup Yellow mustard
    2 Tbsp. Lemon juice
    1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
    1 Tbsp. Tabasco
    1 tsp. Kosher salt
    1 tsp. Black pepper
    2 Tbsp. Butter

    To make the root beer syrup, reduce a 2L bottle of root beer (NOT DIET) to 1 cup. I found a good craft root beer syrup which I prefer because it has no coloring or other weird ingredients. Also, sometimes reducing the root beer brings in a slightly charred flavor. However, if done slowly to avoid burning, you end up with a great sauce. If you have the syrup, put in a medium saucepan and start with step 2.
    1. If you start with a 2L bottle of soda, reduce it to 1 cup in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
    2. Add the rest of the ingredients EXCEPT the butter.
    3. Stir well to combine and simmer 20 minutes.
    4. Add the butter and simmer a few minutes. This gives the sauce a little extra body and a nice sheen.

    Coleslaw:
    ½ cup Mayonnaise
    ½ cup Vegetable oil
    ½ cup White wine vinegar
    ¼ cup Sugar
    1 ½ tsp. Dry mustard
    1 tsp. Kosher salt
    ½ tsp. Cayenne

    Whisk together and toss with:

    1 lb. Green cabbage, shredded, or cole slaw mix
    10 oz. Red cabbage, shredded
    6 oz. Fresh spinach, thinly sliced

    Let the coleslaw stand at least 30 minutes before serving

    Comment


      #4
      Thanks so much, cdevito !

      Kathryn

      Comment

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