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Pullin' pork


joebabyny

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While on the subject, can anyone recommend a method to making this in a slow cooker?

Does it matter if I use a less expensive cut like shoulder or butt (lol yeah pork butt) 

 

I usually use pork butt, which is one half of a pork shoulder, the other being the picnic. The butt is the upper portion and a less worked muscle so it will be fattier. The picnic sold by itself is usually with the skin on and also has more bone, so the yield will usually be less than the butt. As far as flavor, it is personal preference, there are fans of both, and those that see no real difference, and some that prefer cooking whole shoulders and mixing it all together as pulled.

 

As far as cooking in a crock pot, I have no real first hand experience as I always use my smoker or grill, or oven before I had an insulated smoker. Plenty of people do it and there is a ton of info that can be googled to get crock pot pulled pork recipes.

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amazing looking photography & food Joe. When you have a passion for something you giveit a 120% effort and it looks to pay off.

speaking of pulling pork, you still dabbling in the porn industry?

hope you been keepin well

Holy sh*t! a joewilly sighting! how are you doing? hows the boat?
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I usually use pork butt, which is one half of a pork shoulder, the other being the picnic. The butt is the upper portion and a less worked muscle so it will be fattier. The picnic sold by itself is usually with the skin on and also has more bone, so the yield will usually be less than the butt. As far as flavor, it is personal preference, there are fans of both, and those that see no real difference, and some that prefer cooking whole shoulders and mixing it all together as pulled.

 

As far as cooking in a crock pot, I have no real first hand experience as I always use my smoker or grill, or oven before I had an insulated smoker. Plenty of people do it and there is a ton of info that can be googled to get crock pot pulled pork recipes.

 

Thanks for the info - I ended up getting two pork shoulders since I didn't want to have to deal with all the fat.

I put them in the slow cooker this morning at 4am and they should be ready to go around 2-4pm today. 

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Got some new photo gear and wanted to get some new shots of some of the food I make, so it was a good excuse to fire up the smoker and get some practice in. This was a boneless pork butt, with 2 competition sauces I make and my slaw.

pulledporka.jpg

pulledporkb.jpg

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Looks friggin awesome dude. Keep trying to get our guys to check you out one day but I got 7 other guys including my old man who have their tailgating habits. I'll get there this year though.

You do anything in the offseason?

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I usually use pork butt, which is one half of a pork shoulder, the other being the picnic. The butt is the upper portion and a less worked muscle so it will be fattier. The picnic sold by itself is usually with the skin on and also has more bone, so the yield will usually be less than the butt. As far as flavor, it is personal preference, there are fans of both, and those that see no real difference, and some that prefer cooking whole shoulders and mixing it all together as pulled.

 

As far as cooking in a crock pot, I have no real first hand experience as I always use my smoker or grill, or oven before I had an insulated smoker. Plenty of people do it and there is a ton of info that can be googled to get crock pot pulled pork recipes.

Looks great Joe!

 

And thanks for the clarification on body location of the pig. I was at a pig roast and they were making pulled pork and thats exactly where they were getting the meat from. the ass cheek lol they ripped it up put it in a huge pot and mixed bbq sauce with it.

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Looks friggin awesome dude. Keep trying to get our guys to check you out one day but I got 7 other guys including my old man who have their tailgating habits. I'll get there this year though.

You do anything in the offseason?

Thanks man. You are always welcome to join us.

I am looking into lining up a spot for the spring/summer.

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Looks great Joe!

And thanks for the clarification on body location of the pig. I was at a pig roast and they were making pulled pork and thats exactly where they were getting the meat from. the ass cheek lol they ripped it up put it in a huge pot and mixed bbq sauce with it.

The actual ass end is the ham. The pork butt is the upper part of the front shoulder, connected to the picnic at the bottom of the shoulder to form the full pork shoulder.

Depending on the schedule we will be doing a whole hog at a game next year, and it will be next-level sh*t yo!

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10K? that's crazy.

 

Why so much? Pork ribs seems to be then theme down there.

 

It is just a big to-do with that competition. In addition to the blind judging submissions, you also do on-site judging which is kinda like putting on a show for the judges. There is also awards for best party and stuff, where teams bring in whole stages and sets and it is a huge production, a giant party atmosphere.

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It is just a big to-do with that competition. In addition to the blind judging submissions, you also do on-site judging which is kinda like putting on a show for the judges. There is also awards for best party and stuff, where teams bring in whole stages and sets and it is a huge production, a giant party atmosphere.

 

 

It sounds like the Super Bowl of BBQ

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Holy sh*t! a joewilly sighting! how are you doing?  hows the boat? and dont bring up porn nowadays to Joe :)

Hey BP i'm fine man. Boats great! Been gettin pretty serious about fishin the last 2 years. So when ya comin to cayman??????? great to see a buncha familiar posters still here.  

 

I'll say it again.....the pics posted are amazing and i've no doubt the food tastes awesome.

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Hey BP i'm fine man. Boats great! Been gettin pretty serious about fishin the last 2 years. So when ya comin to cayman??????? great to see a buncha familiar posters still here.

Has Joebaby gone churchy on us? Sorry in advance Joe for askin but I was just curious how you were doin?

I'll say it again.....the pics posted are amazing and i've no doubt the food tastes awesome.

Good to hear!! and good to see you here! The Cayman Islands are on the bucket list, so I'll keep you posted.
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Joe just out of curiosity, do you ever use phosphates? I think a lot of the guys at these competitions use them.

 

In competitions a few people use them for pork, and I would say most use them in brisket, whether they realize it or not. The top commercial injections out there are probably Butcher BBQ, Kosmo's Q, and Fab B, and they all contain phosphates. I have used some of the commercial injectsions and mostly didn't care for the flavor profiles. I am probably going to play around with adding some high quality phosphates to my own injection this season.

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Trying something new as I got a few great cuts at the butcher yesterday. Smoking a butt on Monday char siu style after marinating it for 72 hours. I'm going to pull it at about 170 and use it for steaks, right before the stall but long enough in to where it's tender. Fingers crossed.

are you going to cut the pork into smaller strips first or smoke it whole? I'd go closer to 185 internal to make sure most of the collagen has gelatinized. Good luck!

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are you going to cut the pork into smaller strips first or smoke it whole? I'd go closer to 185 internal to make sure most of the collagen has gelatinized. Good luck!

Cut into steaks prior to the smoker. About 2 inches thick a piece. I'm marinating it whole for the first 36 hours and then I'll cut it up and put it back into the marinade for the last 36. Char siu is so strong, I was a little worried about marinating 2 inch thick cuts for that long in the sauce. I figured splitting it up will ensure a very deep bark on the outside of the steaks and I can play it safe by not completely overpowering everything with the flavor. Truth be told I'm very nervous about doing it this way, because I've only ever grilled with char siu and one of the things I love about it is how the sauce caramelizes over the high heat. Actually got most of the recipe off of seriouseats.

I think you're right about 185. Good call.

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Cut into steaks prior to the smoker. About 2 inches thick a piece. I'm marinating it whole for the first 36 hours and then I'll cut it up and put it back into the marinade for the last 36. Char siu is so strong, I was a little worried about marinating 2 inch thick cuts for that long in the sauce. I figured splitting it up will ensure a very deep bark on the outside of the steaks and I can play it safe by not completely overpowering everything with the flavor. Truth be told I'm very nervous about doing it this way, because I've only ever grilled with char siu and one of the things I love about it is how the sauce caramelizes over the high heat. Actually got most of the recipe off of seriouseats.

I think you're right about 185. Good call.

 

Definitely let us know how it comes out. I think you are over thinking the marinade, i would have broken down the pork and then did 24-36 hour marinade at the most, the sugars can cure the meat if sitting there too long. Of course experimenting is the most fun with all this. Very curious to see how it works out. Good luck!

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Definitely let us know how it comes out. I think you are over thinking the marinade, i would have broken down the pork and then did 24-36 hour marinade at the most, the sugars can cure the meat if sitting there too long. Of course experimenting is the most fun with all this. Very curious to see how it works out. Good luck!

 

Well, it all worked out because we had some company over yesterday, more people than I expected and I found out about it prior, so I decided to smoke the butt a day earlier than planned and serve it with a roasted 6 lb lamb leg that I did. I did a huge spread and the pork was hands down the consensus highlight. After slicing, the meat only marinated as steaks for about 18 hours. A few extra hours might have made a difference, but I don't know, because this is hands down one of the best cuts I have ever done. The steaks smoked for 5 and 1/4 hours, then I boiled down the original char siu marinade into a thick reduction, brushed it on the meat, and smoked it for another 45. This gave the outer layer of the meat a nice barky/sticky texture and the meat tasted unbelievably sweet. Not breaking it down all the way into pulled pork allowed for the fat to still be present in every bite and it gave it a very rich texture. I will definitely be doing this regularly going forward. Especially if I'm grilling for a lot of people and don't want to wake up at 8 AM to smoke pork butts. Cannot recommend this enough for your tailgates, it's not only delicious but one of the easiest smokes I have ever done.

 

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Well, it all worked out because we had some company over yesterday, more people than I expected and I found out about it prior, so I decided to smoke the butt a day earlier than planned and serve it with a roasted 6 lb lamb leg that I did. I did a huge spread and the pork was hands down the consensus highlight. After slicing, the meat only marinated as steaks for about 18 hours. A few extra hours might have made a difference, but I don't know, because this is hands down one of the best cuts I have ever done. The steaks smoked for 5 and 1/4 hours, then I boiled down the original char siu marinade into a thick reduction, brushed it on the meat, and smoked it for another 45. This gave the outer layer of the meat a nice barky/sticky texture and the meat tasted unbelievably sweet. Not breaking it down all the way into pulled pork allowed for the fat to still be present in every bite and it gave it a very rich texture. I will definitely be doing this regularly going forward. Especially if I'm grilling for a lot of people and don't want to wake up at 8 AM to smoke pork butts. Cannot recommend this enough for your tailgates, it's not only delicious but one of the easiest smokes I have ever done.

 

10577060_10104828711195939_2357038529795

 

4nKalQD.jpg

 

Awesome, looks great! Char Siu is something I am planning on developing as a menu special for a project I am working on so I am looking forward to playing around with it. Your cook is pushing me to get on it next week when I am back up north. And yeah, slicing and chunks like you did is definitely the way to go.

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