Cooking a pork roast to chop up for BBQ sandwiches, any good techniques?
How long to cook at what temperature in what type of pan and marinade for a melt in your mouth pork roast? Im going to chop it up for sandwiches.
Answer:
First of all, the very best cut is the Boston Butt or butt portion of the shoulder. The shoulder arm won't be as good. You need a roast with a lot of fat on it. Don't even think of doing this with loin.
Use a spice rub (google 'song of the south rub', it's by Big Daddy and I've used it, it's good. He has a BBQ site and I've tried several of his recipes, they're excellent. He also explains the technique for pulled pork.)
You can do it in the oven at about 250* for 8 hours or more or cook it over indirect heat on a BBQ or cook it in a smoker. Depends on the size of your roast as well.
The key to melt-in-your-mouth pulled pork is long, slow cooking and getting the roast to an internal temperature of 160*, that's when the roast will go from tough to tender.
There is a forum online called Cook's Talk at FineCooking.com. You might want to join that and do an advanced search on Carolina Pulled Pork. You can also find recipes at recipezaar. Look for recipes by Mean Chef..he's quite good. Lots of great recipes for spice rubs, mops and moistening sauces (vinegar based).
Most purists will tell you not to serve it with BBQ sauce, just moisten it with a vinegar sauce and pull. You can serve the sauce on the side.
Depending on what area you favor, there are several different types of sauces, vinegar based, tomato based, mustard and molasses based. KC, North Caroline, South Carolina, they all have different tastes.
Just cook it slowly and long enough so that when you pull on it with a fork, the meat comes apart easily.
You asked for it
Blue Ribbon Pulled Pork Sammiches
The instructions given here are for a standard 22” Weber kettle barbecue. Grilling times and vent adjustments will vary with different types of barbecues.
For the Barbecue Sauce :
1/4 cup unsalted butter
6 tablespoons minced yellow onion
1 1/3 cups cider vinegar
1 1/3 cups ketchup
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Melt butter in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and sauté 3 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and bring to boil, stirring frequently. Reduce heat and simmer until sauce is reduced to 2 2/3 cups, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Sauce can be prepared 1 week ahead. Cover and refrigerate
For the Dry Seasoning Rub :
3 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper
3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons coarse salt
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Mix all ingredients in small bowl. Can be made 1 week ahead. Store airtight
For the Barbecue Mop :
1 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup fresh cold water
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon coarsely ground pepper
1 tablespoon coarse salt
2 teaspoons canola oil
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Mix all ingredients in bowl. Set aside until ready to use
For the Coleslaw :
1 cup Hellmann's or Best Foods mayonnaise
6 tablespoons cider vinegar
6 tablespoons Barbecue Sauce [recipe above]
3 tablespoons sugar
12 cups lightly packed shredded green cabbage [about 2 small heads]
Mix first 4 ingredients in large bowl. Mix in cabbage. Season with salt and pepper. Chill at least 1 hour.
Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep refrigerated
Pork :
2 untrimmed boneless halves of pork shoulder [also known as Boston butt; about 6 pounds total weight]
4 cups hickory wood [smoke] chips
1 20-pound sack charcoal briquettes
12 soft hamburger buns with sesame seeds, warm
Method
Place pork, fat side up, on work surface. Cut each pork piece lengthwise in half, forming total of 4 long strips. Place pork on baking sheet. Sprinkle Dry Seasoning Rub all over pork; rub into pork, covering completely. Cover and chill at least 2 hours and up to 6 hours
Place wood chips in large bowl. Cover with cold water and let stand 30 minutes. Place handful of torn newspaper into bottom of charcoal chimney.* Top with 25 charcoal briquettes. Remove upper rack from barbecue grill. Place chimney on lower grill rack. Light newspaper and let charcoal burn until gray ash color, about 30 minutes
Open 1 bottom grill vent. Turn out hot charcoal onto 1 side of lower rack. Using metal spatula, spread charcoal to cover approximately 1/3 of rack. Remove 1 cup of wood chips from water and drain [keep remaining chips in water]. Scatter over coals [avoid using too many wet chips, which may douse the fire]. Fill foil loaf pan halfway with water and place on lower grill rack on opposite side of coals
Place upper grill rack on barbecue. Arrange pork, fat side up, on upper grill rack above loaf pan. Cover grill with lid, positioning top vent directly over pork. Place stem of candy thermometer through top vent, with gauge on outside and tip near pork [thermometer should not touch meat or grill rack]; leave in place during cooking. Check temperature after 5 minutes. Use top and bottom vents to maintain temperature range between 225° and 250°, opening vents wider to increase heat and closing to decrease heat. Leave any other vents closed
After 30 minutes, use technique described above to light an additional 15 charcoal briquettes in same charcoal chimney set atop bricks, cement or other nonflammable surface
When cooking temperature of barbecue falls below 225°, use oven mitts to lift off upper grill rack with pork and place on heatproof surface. Using tongs, add half of hot gray charcoal to bottom rack. Sprinkle about 1 cup drained wood chips over charcoal. Reposition upper rack on barbecue with pork above loaf pan. Brush pork lightly with Barbecue Mop. Cover with lid
About once an hour, light more charcoal in chimney and replenish charcoal and wood chips as necessary to maintain temperature between 225° and 250°, brushing pork lightly with Barbecue Mop each time grill is opened. Open grill only when necessary and cover as quickly as possible to minimize loss of heat and smoke. Cook pork until meat thermometer inserted into center of meat registers between 165° and 170°, turning occasionally, about 3 hours total
Transfer pork to baking sheet. Let stand 10 minutes. When cool enough to handle, shred pork into bite-size pieces, discarding any fat. Mix any meat juices accumulated on baking sheet into pork
Spoon pork onto bottom halves of buns
Drizzle with Barbecue Sauce
Top with Coleslaw and bun tops
*Available at many cookware stores and some hardware stores
Use a Crock Pot. Just dump the entire piece of meat in there with the sauce and cook on low all day. I use bottled bbq sauce and you can't even pick up the meat with a fork because it falls apart. Check out Allrecipes.com for marinade ideas.
Seriously, the best way to get really tender meat is to use a crock pot. Put the roast in, and cook it on low for 6 hours. I make killer beef stew that way.
For BBQ, you can add the sauce in while it cooks.
the only way to go is a slowcooker!
Season your roast then baste with BBQ sauce(your favorite kind), then cook in the oven at 325 for a few hours(really depends on the size of your roast. It should be cooked through and tender enough to pull apart with a fork. Mix the pulled pork with more BBQ sauce, personally I love it on a bun or on cornbread with coleslaw and sauteed onions (my secret is instead of mayo on the bun spread a little thousand island dressing.) wear a bib and have lots of napkins on hand! Nothing beats this sandwich on a warm summers day.
Ya'll are making me hungry...
Low and slow baby. Whether your smoking or have it in a crock... let it cook on low... for several hours till it pulls completely away from the bone. I like a lot of the dry rub seasonings that are available now... Great flavor!
Thank, now I have to go get that roast thawing so I can smoke it tomorrow!
First, buy one of three or four pounds. Rise it, and put it in a covered pot, and then set the pot in a pre-heated oven. Bake for an hour and fifteen minutes. Take out of the oven and allow it to cool to room temperature, then take a fork and start sticking and pulling, sticking and pulling - in a few minutes, your pork will be nicely shredded. Put it in a clean pot, stir in your barbecue sauce and re-heat the mixture. Serve hot on toasted hamburger buns. Y'want a real tasty barbecue sauce, buy Dinosaur Barbecue sauce. Yum, yum!
My fave easy to do is to coat the roast with mustard, just plain old yellow mustard, then pat on a coat of brown sugar as much as you can get to stick to the meat. Put it in a pan and cover it with foil, tightly. Bake at 300 for about 20 min per pound.
Just like good old southern pulled pork.
Ultra Quick recipe .
Use pressure cooker put your dang favorite sauce ! can add beer, onion, garlic pepper ,Pressurize for 20-30 . Take it out put in a tray & 400 degree in the oven for 15 mins .!Voila!
The most tender & succulent bbq pork sandwich ever!
Take a square of aluminum foil and place the pork roast in the center. Sprinkle lightly with teryaki sauce and a little brown sugar. Fold the foil up to form a tight packet.
Cook at 250 degrees for 6 to 8 hours, or until pork is done. You can also cook the roast at 350 degrees for 2 to 3 hours, but the lower temperature insures that the roast will be moist and tender.
When the roast is done, cool until the meat can be handled. Remove all fat, and shred the pork. Place in a Crock Pot with a bottle of your favorite barbecue sauce (honey is always good), half a minced onion, and a dash of Worchestershire sauce. (If you are using plain barbecue sauce, a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar are a delicious addition.)
Simmer on Low heat until the meat is heated through. The longer the barbecue sits in the sauce, the better it will be.
Put it in a crock pot and cover w/beef broth & cook on low for 8 hrs or high for 4 hrs. Take pork out and shred with a fork. Pour your favorite store-bought BBQ sauce(no one will know it's not homemade) over meat and mix and heat through in a 350 degree oven. YUMMM everytime!
Some of these answers are so long...I did not read them all. So if someone already mentioned, sorry to repeat. I would do the crockpot/slowcook method. And for really tender meat...try a little cocoa cola in your bbq sauce. Here is a cola bbq recipe for a 5 lb roast. Just mix the ingredients below, pour over meat and cook.
2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
3 tbsp dry mustard
1/4 cup Worcester
4-5 dashes tabasco sauce
1 cup ketchup
1 cup cola (not diet)
the only thing to rmember with roasting pork is to place the pork on a rack over water in the oven, this prevents your expensive pork from shrinking too much
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