South Carolina Pulled Pork in Upstate NY
Last week, for the 4th of July weekend, I made a South Carolina style BBQ pulled pork for my family get together. I’d been wanting to make this kind of slow cooked, fall-apart piece of pork for a while. And when I picked up the Summer Grilling 2010 issue of Cook’s Illustrated, I knew exactly what I would be feeding my family.
Cook’s Illustrated is THE definitive guide for cooking. Not only are their recipes perfectly detailed and explained, but it’s these very explanations and reasonings that make this a complete guide for any cooking hobbyist.
I started with the spice rub first. The recipe from CI called for:
- 3 tbsp dry mustard
- 1.5 tbsp light brown sugar
- 2 tbsp table salt
- 2 tsp ground black pepper
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 (4-5 lb) boneless pork shoulder roast (mine was 5.25 lb)
- 4 cups wood chip, soaked for 15 minutes in water
BBQ sauce recipe as per CI:
- 1/2 cup yellow mustard (I used French’s)
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup white vinegar
- 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tbsp hot sauce (I used sriracha)
- 1 tsp table salt
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
I made both the rub and sauce a few days in advance of the cookout. My only deviation from the CI recipe was to use sriracha as my hot sauce for the bbq sauce. It was a great choice.
The night before the cookout, I covered the pork shoulder in the spice rub, wrapped it tight with foil and refrigerated it.
For the actual cookout, first, I soaked 4 cups of wood chips in water. Then I wrapped them in a 15x12 inch slice of foil. I cut slits in the top of the foil and put it under a grate and over a burner in my propane powered bbq.
I let them sit there with all three burners turned to high for 15 minutes (lid closed of course). I could see and smell wood smoke emanating from my grill.
After 15 minutes, I turned two of the three burners off. I left on the burner with the chips over it and it was left on at high.
At this point, the pork was ready to say hello to the grill. I placed the roast away from the burner on the cool side of the grill and closed the lid.
The roast sat there soaking in the smoke for a good two hours. I turned it once at the one hour mark. The smell was unearthly good.
After smoking for about an hour and 45 minutes, I turned my oven on to 325 degrees F and let it preheat.
Once the roast sat for two hours on the grill, I removed it, placed it in a foil roasting pan and brushed about 1/4-1/2 cup of the bbq sauce on it.
It was then sealed tightly with foil and then allowed to cook in the 325 degree oven for a good 2.5 hours.
After this time was up, I removed the roast from the oven and let it sit for half an hour.
And then it was ready! I took my thongs and began to pull shards of the roast apart. They fell away with ease beyond my expectations. Once I made a nice mess of the roast, I dumped the bbq sauce all over it and tossed some more.
At last, it was ready to serve.
We ate our pulled pork sandwiches and drank vodka. And ate and drank some more. It was a historic meal for a historic 4th of July. I’ll be making this dish again soon and I won’t be changing one thing about it.
