2010 Cooking Club Week 48: Pulled Pork

Sparks

unkel wrote: »

There's zero fat in HP BBQ sauce

Yeah, I've tried that line with Herself Indoors before. She didn't believe it was healthy either

unkel

After a tip from a chef, I used some of the pulled pork (not in BBQ sauce) in a stir fry.

Fried up veg in wok on high (chili, garlic, mushroom, carrot, asparagus, spring onion, bamboo shoots), added boiled skinny rice vermicelli noodles, a dash of soy sauce and a good helping of hoi sin sauce. Add the cold meat, stir for a minute and there's a delicious and healthy 15 minute meal

oscarBravo

So I just spent the last hour pulling my pork, and I'm exhausted...


...wait, let me rephrase that... :pac:

My sister's coming home from the UAE for Christmas with a serious craving for the meat of the pig, and I'll be passing by the home place on my way to Colorado, so it seemed only appropriate that I surprise her with some BBQ pork goodness. I've managed not to "taste" too much of it before sticking it in the fridge; making sure there's some left by the time she gets home at the weekend will be quite the test of my willpower!

The Sparrow

To add to what everyone else has said, I made this last weekend and it was quality. Made a few slight changes but it was basically this recipe.

The only difference was that I used a shoulder of pork instead and left the fat on plus I left it in the slow cooker for about 22 hours. The bbq sauce with cider vinegar is amazing though.

unkel

The Sparrow wrote: »

I used a shoulder of pork instead and left the fat on

I was tempted to do this myself. Does anyone know will this improve the taste? I take it removing the fat after slow cooking would be at least as easy as removing it before?

Sparks

unkel wrote: »

I was tempted to do this myself. Does anyone know will this improve the taste?

Every american chef who's described how to do pulled pork has said that using the shoulder with the bone in and the fat on will give a better result (but they're also using barbecue pits which we don't have here and have you ever seen a whole boston butt? They're not small cuts of meat, especially with the bone in!)

The thing is, if you're doing this in the slow cooker, your braising liquid never evaporates away (unless you have some Hells Angels slow cooker that can evaporate the insides of a mouse at forty yards). The point of the fat in the barbecue pit is to act as a basting liquid (that's why the fat cap is placed upwards in the pit, so as the fat renders out it runs down into the meat) and so the meat never dries out and you get a long slow braise in the pit.

You just don't need it in the slow cooker (but need and want are different things )

I take it removing the fat after slow cooking would be at least as easy as removing it before?

Should be a lot easier, physically; but might well be a damn sight messier as well, and that's assuming it hasn't just rendered down and dispersed throughout the meat fibres, in which case you're not getting it out without a bit of work!

Sparks

Mind you, if you've got a Green Egg or something similar, ditch the slow cooker, get the whole butt and smoke it, it'll be amazing

unkel

Cheers for the insight, Sparks!

And funny you mention this:

Sparks wrote: »

have you ever seen a whole boston butt? They're not small cuts of meat, especially with the bone in!

The chef I referred to earlier who gave me the tip of using pulled pork leftovers in stir fries, insisted that instead of shoulder of pork with the bone in (that I used), I should use pork butt

I don't even know what that is, or how big it is. I'm entertaining the extended family on Christmas Eve and it was suggested I'd do the pulled pork. Perhaps I should consult my local butcher again - he kinda won my respect the last time when he produced the quarter pig and the hacksaw with few words

Sparks

unkel wrote: »

The chef ... insisted that instead of shoulder of pork with the bone in (that I used), I should use pork butt

Er. I don't quite know what he's on about - the "butt" is the shoulder (nobody seems to know exactly where the name came from, but the best guess is that they used to brine pork to preserve it before refrigeration, and you brined them in large barrels, which were called butts back then).

Maybe he thinks of the butt as a larger or smaller subset of the pig that includes the shoulder?

Nonoperational

Fantastic thread, only came across it now. Going to try this at the weekend.

unkel

Intriguing

The chef is from South Africa - I don't know if that has any impact on what part of the pig we are referring to

The Sparrow

unkel wrote: »

I was tempted to do this myself. Does anyone know will this improve the taste? I take it removing the fat after slow cooking would be at least as easy as removing it before?

It's actually even easier. You can just pull it straight off with you hand as if you are peeling an onion. It came straight off for me in one go.

TBH I think you're right, you probably don't need it. But because I was going to leave it on for a whole day, I was afraid that the liquid would evaporate and I wanted the layer of fat to keep it moist. But actually it didn't evaporate at all.

Next time I might take it off because it seemed a shame to throw the fat away when I could have fried it to make crackling.

emaleth

The Sparrow wrote: »

It's actually even easier. You can just pull it straight off with you hand as if you are peeling an onion. It came straight off for me in one go.

TBH I think you're right, you probably don't need it. But because I was going to leave it on for a whole day, I was afraid that the liquid would evaporate and I wanted the layer of fat to keep it moist. But actually it didn't evaporate at all.

Next time I might take it off because it seemed a shame to throw the fat away when I could have fried it to make crackling.

I've done it both ways and there was no difference in taste. I'd always remove the fat when using my slow cooker because as a braise it's going to be moist enough no matter what. My butcher sells me a shoulder for €7.99, skins it and will take it off the bone if I want. If I do have it off the bone (usually only because the shoulder is too big to fit into my giant slow cooker while still on the bone) then I take the bone home with me and use it as a trivet in the liquid.

unkel

Sparks wrote: »

Er. I don't quite know what he's on about - the "butt" is the shoulder

Maybe he thinks of the butt as a larger or smaller subset of the pig that includes the shoulder?

Yep, a bit of googling gives this:

A full shoulder can weigh 8 to 20 pounds and has two halves, the "picnic ham" and the "Boston butt". The picnic ham, which is not really a ham, runs from the shoulder socket through to the elbow. True hams come from the rear legs only. The picnic usually weighs from 4 to 12 pounds.

The top half of the shoulder, from the the dorsal of the animal near the spine through the shoulder blade, has too many names: Boston butt, pork butt, butt, shoulder butt, shoulder roast, country roast, and the shoulder blade roast. Calling it a butt may seem ironic because it comes from the front of the hog. No ifs ands or butts, it makes the best sandwich meat on the hog.

That's exactly the bit I got last time. And again today (another 2.5KG) for feeding the extended family on Christmas Eve

unkel

Forgot to say, the butcher recommended adding some Jack Daniels to the cooking liquid. I think I have a few measures left sitting in a bottle here for a few years. Who am I not to give that a go?

Sparks

Damn good idea. JD's a pretty good pick for a BBQ dish, but if you don't have any, any spirit would do - the ethanol will mostly evaporate way (well, about 95-97% of it will, according to the experts), but before it goes, it'll act as a solvent for some compounds that aren't water soluble and you'll get a tastier end result (especially if you use the braising liquid to make a sauce).

hdowney

So Santa procured me a slow cooker for Christmas. I CANNOT WAIT to do this

unkel

Go for it!

Made it again on Christmas Eve for the extended family. With JD this time. Also left all the fat in until after the cooking. I can't say it tasted of JD, but it was definitely nicer and smoother than the first time

Had a stir fry tonight with the leftovers. Easy, cheap, healthy and quick

Sparks

Glad to hear it worked unkel, though I don't think I'd leave the fat in - I've a bit too much on the midriff to be doing that

unkel

Sparks wrote: »

I don't think I'd leave the fat in - I've a bit too much on the midriff to be doing that

Ah no, I threw all the fat out after the cooking

Sparks

Ah, I see - well, nothing wrong with that *ahem* It's how you're meant to do it when you cook this dish in a proper barbecue pit...

unkel

That maybe because fat burns easily on a BBQ?

Sparks

unkel wrote: »

That maybe because fat burns easily on a BBQ?

I wouldn't have thought anything burnt in a BBQ pit - but I'm talking about actual barbecue, ie. this:



where the indirect heat is carried by smoke, rather than what we're more familiar with, where the food is basicly supported over very direct heat:

unkel

Aye. As you say in your OP "In Ireland, we don’t do Barbecue.". That would include me. I haven't a clue about proper BBQing

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I've spent the last hour reading through this thread and now there's no way I can't try this!

Few questions though.... are slow cookers versatile in what you can make? I don't want to go buying one just to make one dish and have it sitting gathering dust. Also, very tiny kitchen we have, have to justify every new purchase in relation to how much space it will take up

Also, do you have to reheat the leftovers to use again? Like if I make it for dinner but there's loads left over and I want to take some for lunch the next day is it okay to eat it cold, or will it taste greasier?

Oh, and just on the line of BBQ vs Grill - I saw on The Fabulous Baker Brothers on Channel 4 where they were hot smoking some salmon and they got little bags of flavoured/scented wood chips off the internet and threw them onto the hot coals under the rack and covered it with a steel lid and it smoked away fine and it was the smoke that cooked the fish, not the coals. Seems like sort of in between a proper BBQ and the ones we actually have.

oscarBravo

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Few questions though.... are slow cookers versatile in what you can make?

We just bought one here in the US ($16 in Walmart) to cook beef cheeks. It came with a little recipe booklet that contains something like 30 recipes, and I saw a book in the books section of Walmart (called something like "not your mother's slow cooker cookbook") that looked to be a few hundred pages.

They're pretty versatile; you can even (apparently) roast a whole chicken in one.

Also, do you have to reheat the leftovers to use again? Like if I make it for dinner but there's loads left over and I want to take some for lunch the next day is it okay to eat it cold, or will it taste greasier?

I'd heat it, just because it's sooo much nicer hot.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

oscarBravo wrote: »

We just bought one here in the US ($16 in Walmart) to cook beef cheeks. It came with a little recipe booklet that contains something like 30 recipes, and I saw a book in the books section of Walmart (called something like "not your mother's slow cooker cookbook") that looked to be a few hundred pages.

Yes, now you mention it I think I've seen slow cooker cook books too. Never paid any attention to them as we don't have one. I'll go browse some online bookshops to see what there is.

I'd heat it, just because it's sooo much nicer hot.

It's not always possible to reheat it at lunch time though depending on where I am, just wondered if it was edible cold or if it's completely disgusting?

oscarBravo

I remember sampling some from the fridge, just to, er, make sure it was still OK, and I thought it was still lovely.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

oscarBravo wrote: »

I remember sampling some from the fridge, just to, er, make sure it was still OK, and I thought it was still lovely.

Good to know, just didn't want any of it going to waste.

Oh and one last thing, just out of interest, the OP is very specific about not using Pepsi. Is there a scientific reason for that, or is it just a personal taste thing? I know a lot of people have weirdly strong feelings about Pepsi v Coke.

hdowney

I think Pepsi would change the taste of it - different ingredients in Pepsi to Coke and I am pretty sure their sugar contents are different etc (could be wrong) - and that'd annoy me. But I am sure Sparks will tell you why.

I swear this is so going to be the first thing I make in the slow cooker. I am going into my butcher tomorrow to get my beef for New Years Day, I am going to ask him about the shoulder of pork