Saturday, April 28, 2007

Many of you out there may not be aware, that even though I do spend most of my time honing my developer and tech skills, one of my other passions is cooking.  I love to cook a lot of different stuff, but my grill is my best friend.  I have two grills.  Well, technically, I have one grill and a barrel water smoker. I use my grills to cook a whole slew of things, but have been on a journey to make the perfect pulled pork.  I LOVE BBQ. I still consider myself a novice BBQ chef, but I must say I am enjoying my latest batch of pulled pork quite a bit.  I'll share the history of my journey to pulled pork perfection so that others may learn from my mistakes.  There are basically 4 parts to the pulled pork process; pork, rub, mop and smoke.

PORK

Of course to make pulled pork, you need some pork. I prefer a nice Boston Butt.  This is also known as a bone-in pork shoulder roast. I usually see them in the 5-7lbs range.

RUB

For the un-seasoned BBQ coinsurers, a rub is a mixture of dry spices that you “rub” into the meat before cooking.  I’ve read a lot of rubs and I’ve heard everything from claims that it’s the most important part of the process, to claims that it doesn’t matter that much.  Either way, I found a rub I like that I use on a lot of stuff including my pulled pork.  Here are the details:

·         ¼ cup brown sugar

·         ¼ cup paprika

·         3 tablespoons black pepper

·         4 tablespoons coarse salt

·         2 teaspoons garlic powder

·         2 teaspoons onion powder

·         1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Just mix all of this up in a container and keep it in your freezer.  I have a huge tub of it.  It’s great on chicken, and pork. 

Once you have the rub, pour a bunch of it on your butt and rub it in.  Then wrap up the pork in plastic wrap and let it sit for 4 to 24 hours.  If you let it sit for a long time, put it in the fridge.  Make sure you take it out so that the pork returns to room temperature before you cook it.

MOP

A mop is a basting sauce for use while you are smoking your meat in order to maintain some moisture and to add flavor.  I use a very simple mop sauce.  Here are the details:

·         1 cup cider vinegar

·         2 jalapeno peppers sliced thin

·         1 tablespoon brown sugar

·         1 tablespoon coarse salt

·         1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

·         1 teaspoon black pepper

The method to apply the mop depends on your cooking method.  I use my water smoker, so I simply pour this mop into the water bowl and then fill the remaining space with water.  If you are using some other cooking method, I would brush on some mop every hour or so.

SMOKE

Obviously in order to smoke a piece of meat you need a heat and smoke source.  As I mentioned, I am using an electric Brinkman barrel water smoker.  Many would cry sacrilege since it’s electric, but I am very happy with my pulled pork, not to mention the price of the smoker, and the convenience.

I have yet to experiment with many different types of wood so I can only tell you that my latest batch used hickory and it tasted great.  I started by putting about 4 cups of wood chips in a bowl of water for an hour.  Soaking the chips helps them produce more smoke and burn slower.  I then put these chips into some heavy duty aluminum foil packets. Cut a few slits in the tops of the packets so the smoke can escape.  I then put these packets right on the hot heating element of my smoker.  I turn my smoker on about an hour before I’m ready to get the water and smoker up to temp (about 220-250 degrees).

COOKING

Once the smoker is all set just put your butt on the top rack.  I like to use a remote thermometer to monitor the temperature.  I have a fancy remote thermometer that has a wireless receiver that reaches about 150 feet.  I’ll explain why I have this in a second. I also have an oven thermometer that I keep in the grill to monitor the smoker temperature.  My electric smoker runs pretty consistent at 220 degrees with everything in it.

If you thought making pulled pork was quick, think again.  I just finished a 4.5lb butt and it took 14 hours in my water smoker. One of the most important things I learned recently is about how a pork butt (along with other meats) hit a temperature plateau.  I almost got rid of my water smoker because I didn’t think it got hot enough.  I would cook my pulled pork and they would just stop rising in temp for a few hours.  I would panic and move my pork to finish it in a hotter oven.  This temperature plateau happens because all of the heat goes towards melting the fat instead of raising the temperature of the meet.  Just be patient and wait until it reaches a good temperature.  I cook mine until it is 195 degrees.

Cooking something for 14 hours takes some planning.  This is why I have a fancy remote thermometer.  I actually set everything up to start going at around 12am. Then, I go to bed.  My remote thermometer will sound an alarm when it hits a specified temperature.  I simply set the temperature to 195 and go to bed.  I then get up at about 5am to check on it and to get another set of chips soaking.  At 6am I put more chips in just to add some more smoke flavor.  Try to open the smoker as little as possible. This is another reason why the remote thermometer is so helpful. 

Once the meat is at temperature, wrap it in foil and let it rest for 20 minutes or so.  To pull the pork I just use 2 forks.  Stab and pull, stab and pull. That’s it!

Good luck with your journey if you choose to go down this path.  If you have any suggestions for my process I welcome your comments.