Pulled Pork (Kevin and Amanda)
Is the cook time worth it?
I revisit this recipe to give it a proper analysis
Time: 10 hours 30 minutes (excluding brine time)
Difficulty: 1/5
Ingredient Availability: 5/5
Anytime you’re making a big piece of meat, whether it be beef, pork, or turkey (not so much chicken), low and slow is the way to go. This is just the easiest way to get tender and juicy meat. Pulled pork is no different. I don’t have it too often, but when I do, I of obviously want the long waiting time to be worth it. This time, I had a slightly smaller pork shoulder than usual, as I removed a pound of it for another recipe (Joshua Weissman’s Kung Pao Pork). I knew that this recipe would still take most of the day to make, so I made arrangements to have it in the oven while I was at work. As for why I chose this recipe, I had made it before and really enjoyed it. Plus, it has a 5 star rating on the website. I like to share things that I know are good with you guys.
Key Ingredients and Omissions:
The pork had been frozen, as I used a pound of it for a different recipe. The onion powder isn’t in the picture.
I used everything this recipe called for. There really aren’t any unique or stand out ingredients.
Tools:
Big Bowl for Brining
Roasting/Baking tray
Cooking Analysis:
Brine prep: 25 Minutes
Before you can even make the brine, you need to make the rub, which goes in the brine. The rub is pretty simple, a tablespoon of each ingredient except for brown sugar, which is a half cup. I used a bowl to mix all the ingredients. One thing I wanted to mention is that I had some trouble breaking down the brown sugar I had in one of the containers, so It took a little longer than it should have. After the rub was made, I filled a bowl with cold water and dissolved a half cup of salt into it. It sounds like a lot, and it is, but for a brine, it is pretty useless if it isn’t salty. I added the rest of the ingredients to the brine and added the pork shoulder. I then left the brining pork shoulder in the refrigerator to brine overnight (about 11 hours).
Rub + Bake: 7 minutes + 10 hours
I woke up early the next morning to remove the pork from the brine, pat it dry and sprinkle all the sides with the rub. I had a pretty good amount of rub left over, so there will be plenty of it for larger shoulders. The oven I used has some smart features and a built in thermometer, so I took advantage of that. I set the oven to turn off when the temperature of the pork reached 200 degrees Fahrenheit. That happened while I was at work, but the pork was meant to stay in the oven to cool anyway, so it was no big deal. The cooking time for my pork shoulder was about 10 hours.
Shredding: 10 minutes
I had some other things to do after work, so I left the pork in the oven a little longer than what the recipe called for, letting the temperature drop to 130 instead of 170 degrees Fahrenheit. Some areas were easier to shred than others, but it was overall pretty easy. I think the cooler temperature was responsible for that.
Analysis:
The only negative about the final result this time was that some parts were a little on the dry side. Most of it was moist and tender, but those few parts certainly were noticeable. Other than that, the flavors were outstanding. This pulled pork really doesn’t need any sauce at all. The rub is plenty to infuse every bite with plenty of flavor. The parts that were on the outside of the shoulder are flavor bombs that add some variety to everything, as I didn’t make this into sandwich. Every now and then, I did get a little hit of spice, which I didn’t mind as it wasn’t overwhelming at all. As far as oven made pulled pork goes, I can’t really ask for much more. I’m giving this recipe a 9/10. The only thing holding it back was the unfortunate bits that were in the dry side.
Yes, I used forks to shred this
