The best pulled pork of your life
Today I'm going to give you all my secrets so you can make the best pulled pork of your life.
To start, a mistake that people often make is to cook with time. The time in a recipe is only there to give you an approximate because with BBQ, in fact, you know when it starts, but you never know when it ends! So, rely on the internal temperature of your meat to know when it is ready rather than the cooking time.
Now that that's been said, get ready; crack open a beer, we're taking it low and slow while making pulled pork.
When it comes to making pulled pork, the most commonly used cut is the picnic shoulder. The best cut, however, is, in my opinion, the Boston butt. The Boston butt contains, among other things, the famous "money muscle", a part of the pork shoulder that is extremely marbled, extremely fatty and extremely delicious. It is, in my opinion, the best part of a whole pig. So choose your cut of meat wisely when you are about to make pulled pork, it will be the starting point for your success.
In a good pulled pork, you know, it takes sauce. Before adding sauce, however, you have to put a "rub" on the meat and, if you really want to spoil yourself and make the best pulled pork on the market, you have to inject it.
You don't have to inject, but if you do, you're going to amplify the flavor of the meat and make it juicier. In fact, I'll tell you that in competition, you absolutely have to inject the meat not only for those reasons, but also to keep the piece of meat warmer, longer. So, if you want to serve hot and incredible meat to your guests or judges, injection will do its magic. Indeed, by injecting your meat, it will keep more of its moisture, which will give it a bigger mass and make it heavier, which will ultimately make it stay warmer.
At BBQ Québec, we have a lot of injection mixes for pork that you can use. For example, the PORC-JECTION injection from What the Pork? and Sugar Daddy Bacon is completely sick. The brand products Sugar Daddy Bacon , What the Pork?, Kosmos Q and Butcher BBQ are also safe bets for pork.
You can even mix your injection with water, beer, Dr Pepper, apple juice, Jack Daniel's... go wild and have fun creating a flavor combination that will make your taste buds go crazy!
Obviously, if you want to inject your pulled pork, I advise you to equip yourself well to do so. The BBQ Québec injector is very effective, otherwise I recommend the BBQ Québec competition injector or the Butcher BBQ injection gun if your piece of meat is rather tough and massive.
As for the timing of the injection itself, I recommend injecting your meat the day before or at least 4 hours before cooking it.
Once you have injected (or not) your piece of meat and you are ready to (soon) cook it, it's time to season it! Dry marinades are what trap the juices, juices and flavor. So you absolutely have to put some because otherwise, it's clear that if the pork shoulder is put directly in the BBQ, it will not taste good at the end.
Be careful, you should always sprinkle the spices/dry rubs on the pork shoulder before cooking it and not do it too far in advance. I say this because if, for example, you use saltier spices, they will "cook" the piece of meat, so it is better to put them on at the last possible moment, i.e. while the BBQ is preheating.
As for what you can use, SJB Barbecue makes some great products. Their All Purpose Rub , for example, is an incredible rub. Simon Barbecue products are also great. I especially recommend the Applewood , Roasted Honey , and Jalapeno Maple rubs. Otherwise, What the Pork?, Sugar Daddy Bacon , and LL Prohibition are all phenomenal.
Obviously, at BBQ Québec, we also make our own products and we like as many people as possible to discover them. So I'm going to tell you that we have some very good dry marinades for pork. The Kansas dry marinade is a little spicy, a little spicy and really well balanced. I'm telling you, it's the bomb. It's even our most purchased sweet and salty dry marinade.
If you like your pulled pork on the sweeter side, that's okay, we've also created the sweet equivalent of Kansas, Sweet Kansas ! In fact, the recipe for Sweet Kansas dry rub is the same as Kansas, but Sweet Kansas has twice the sugar. That's the only difference.
Once your piece of meat is ready to be sent to the BBQ, make sure you have one essential accessory with you: a thermometer. Of all the accessories to buy and use for a BBQ enthusiast (and here, I'm talking in general, not just for pulled pork), the thermometer is THE essential thing. It's the one that does "all the work"; it will tell you if your meat is cooked enough, not cooked enough, overcooked... In the case of pulled pork, it's really important that the meat has an internal temperature above 200 °F (I recommend aiming for an internal temperature of around 205 °F), so the thermometer is really a "must".
Whatever your budget, you're sure to find a thermometer that will suit it (and you), whether it's the ThermoMax Jr. or the Thermomax .
And who says thermometer, says cooking. In fact, you can cook your pork shoulder on any BBQ (whether gas, charcoal or pellet) and at any temperature, preferably between 225 and 325 °F. The more time you have and the more beer you want to drink, the lower the temperature you should cook your meat. Little joke. 😉
As you might expect, the higher the temperature, the shorter the time you have to react to the cooking process. It is also possible that your meat will be drier if you cook it at a high temperature because the change in its internal temperature will happen more quickly, which means that the connective tissues will not necessarily have had time to "let go" and the collagen and fat will not have completely melted. The meat will therefore continue to "crust" on the outside, but will dry out on the inside as it cooks.
Generally, I recommend that people cook their pork shoulder at 250°F. Of course, you can do it at another temperature, but the important thing is that the temperature of your BBQ remains as stable as possible. At 250°F, it will take about 1 hour of cooking per pound of meat for your piece of meat to reach its desired internal temperature of 205°F. Arm yourself with a beer and let time (and the BBQ!) do its job.
Halfway through cooking, you may want to wrap your piece of meat. And then, it will be up to you to do your tests to determine if you prefer the end result when you use aluminum foil or butcher paper. Because yes, there are world champions who work (and win!) with one and others with the other.
In both cases, the papers are designed for cooking. Once it reaches 160-170 °F, your piece of meat may hit a plateau and stop cooking for a while. If you don't want that to happen and want to save time, wrap it in one of the two papers once it has a nice crust and its internal temperature is between 160-170 °F. By doing this, you will trap all the juices that would flow into the bottom of the BBQ with your meat. Obviously, close your paper upwards so that the juices do not leak. 😉
The characteristic of butcher paper is that it allows you to "steam" the meat without destroying its beautiful "bark" on the outside and that of aluminum foil is that if the meat is too crusty, it can soften it and make the meat and the "bark" tender. In the second case, on the other hand, you will also have to lower the temperature of your BBQ for it to work well.
If you are looking for a butcher paper that is beautiful, good and effective, I really recommend the BBQ Quebec Butcher Paper Roll . Honestly, this paper is so beautiful that you can even wrap your Christmas presents with it!
Once your pork shoulder has been injected (or not), seasoned, wrapped (or not), and is almost at its optimal internal temperature, it's time to add some sauce! There are actually three times you can add sauce:
When wrapping the meat (you can put sauce [a very liquid or slightly sweet sauce] directly in the paper);
When the meat is almost finished cooking (you can brush it on it so that a nice crust forms);
When you are done shredding the meat.
Be careful, though, because sauces often caramelize and char when they cook because of their high sugar content. So use sauces that are not too sweet or use a small amount.
As for my recommendations, SJB Barbecue's North Carolina Style sauce is delicious, Blues Hog's Honey Mustard sauce is very good and its taste is out of the ordinary, BBQ Québec's Champion sauce is a very good choice, BBQ Québec's Mamacita Douce Nuit sauce is quite classic and has a sweet, slightly spicy and fruity taste, and, BBQ Québec's Nashville sauce is really a must-have because it will allow you to make the best pulled pork of your life. Its vinegary, sweet and slightly spicy taste will delight your taste buds, that's for sure!
Finally, when it's time to shred your beautiful piece of pork, you can do it with a fork, but the ideal, especially when you have several nice big pieces, is to let the grizzly bear out by using the BBQ Québec Shredder . It's really a perfect accessory to save time and work safely. You can even use it to shred beef and chicken, so it's a great investment to make.
Once your pulled pork is ready, all you have to do is enjoy it alone or in your recipes. And then, let your imagination run wild, pulled pork goes in everything: nachos, burgers, tacos, salad, shepherd's pie, lasagna... have fun!
Happy BBQ!
