Pulling pork

MartinB said:

What is this pulling pork thing?

I'm from the UK and to "pull your pork" is usually a non culinary
activity over here.
Well at least it is in my house!

Martin

It is barbeque as done in the state of North Carolina

MartinB wrote:
:: What is this pulling pork thing?
::
:: I'm from the UK and to "pull your pork" is usually a non culinary
:: activity over here.
:: Well at least it is in my house!
::
:: Martin

This is just BBQed pork that is pulled off the bone, as far as I know. We
get it all the time here in SC.

MartinB <[email hidden]> wrote:
|| What is this pulling pork thing?
||
|| I'm from the UK and to "pull your pork" is usually a non
|| culinary activity over here.
|| Well at least it is in my house!
||
|| Martin

Is pulling your pork and family activity? :-)

--
http://home.swbell.net/bjtexas/ss/

"And we think people who believe they can uncover the truth
about anything by surfing the Web are deceiving themselves in a
dangerous way." -- Paul Boutin Weblog

Quoted message said:

What is this pulling pork thing?

I'm from the UK and to "pull your pork" is usually a non culinary activity
over here.
Well at least it is in my house!

Martin

Martin, the cut of pork that is used for this barbecue is extremely fatty
with the meat buried in smallish pieces in the fat. After it is smoked for
several hours, the cut will be so soft and tender that a knife is not
needed. Instead, the cook allows the pork to cool and then uses his/her
fingers to pull the meat away from the fat (which is then discarded). If
the cook did not do this, there would be so much greasy fat that it would be
difficult and time consuming to eat a meal. Pulling the pork away from the
fat is simply a stage in preparation of the meal. Meat that is not so fatty
can be sliced with a knife, but you wouldn't want to try and slice this; for
one thing, it would move away from the knife and tear and soon you'd be
tearing your hair out.

Pat in TX

Pat in TX said:

Quoted message said:

What is this pulling pork thing?

BTW, once you've learned the method can can be done with
beef, chicken, pretty much any type of meat.

Quoted message said:

Martin, the cut of pork that is used for this barbecue is extremely fatty
with the meat buried in smallish pieces in the fat. After it is smoked for
several hours, the cut will be so soft and tender that a knife is not
needed. Instead, the cook allows the pork to cool and then uses his/her
fingers to pull the meat away from the fat (which is then discarded). If
the cook did not do this, there would be so much greasy fat that it would be
difficult and time consuming to eat a meal. Pulling the pork away from the
fat is simply a stage in preparation of the meal. Meat that is not so fatty
can be sliced with a knife, but you wouldn't want to try and slice this; for
one thing, it would move away from the knife and tear and soon you'd be
tearing your hair out.

With a knife meat is often cut against the grain so the slices
look speckled. Pulled meat is separated with the grain instead,
so it has the strings visible. Usually there are big chunks that
have been pulled with the grain to form lots of strings.

Do that with any type of meat that can be cooked slowly to
soften it. Since most cuts of pork get soft easily in cooking
pork is the easiest. Beef tends to harden at well done so it
takes low slow heat to move it past that point to soft again,
think stew textured chunks pulled into strings. I've seen
chicken done pulled but it seems like a lot of extra work to me.

If you're going to do pulled pork, my favorite way is Eastern NC
style. BBQ with a vinegar based sauce. The normal sauce has
vinegar, sugar, red pepper, probably other stuff. I wonder how
it comes out with no sugar as it seems to be better at places
that use less sugar. Other regions of the US have other
traditional styles of BBQ sauce and they are all good, but far
too many are heavy on the sugar to be low carb.

Doug, I finally experimented this week with a vinegar based sauce pursuant
to your suggestions for pasilla and ancho peppers. I had gotten some
powdered ancho and some whole dried Pasilla, New Mexican (aka Anaheim) and
Morita peppers. Put some of each in the blender with some vinegar, then
added some water and salt, cooked it just a bit. Poured it over some
boneless country style ribs I had cooked in the at 350º for about an hour.
It was quite good, not as hot as I would like it, will add some hotter
peppers next time, but I didn't want to get it too hot the first time. Will
definitely expand on this and try again.

In news:[email hidden],
Doug Freyburger <[email hidden]> stated

| With a knife meat is often cut against the grain so the slices
| look speckled. Pulled meat is separated with the grain instead,
| so it has the strings visible. Usually there are big chunks that
| have been pulled with the grain to form lots of strings.
|
| Do that with any type of meat that can be cooked slowly to
| soften it. Since most cuts of pork get soft easily in cooking
| pork is the easiest. Beef tends to harden at well done so it
| takes low slow heat to move it past that point to soft again,
| think stew textured chunks pulled into strings. I've seen
| chicken done pulled but it seems like a lot of extra work to me.
|
| If you're going to do pulled pork, my favorite way is Eastern NC
| style. BBQ with a vinegar based sauce. The normal sauce has
| vinegar, sugar, red pepper, probably other stuff. I wonder how
| it comes out with no sugar as it seems to be better at places
| that use less sugar. Other regions of the US have other
| traditional styles of BBQ sauce and they are all good, but far
| too many are heavy on the sugar to be low carb.

FOB said:

Doug, I finally experimented this week with a vinegar based sauce pursuant
to your suggestions for pasilla and ancho peppers. I had gotten some
powdered ancho and some whole dried Pasilla, New Mexican (aka Anaheim) and
Morita peppers. Put some of each in the blender with some vinegar, then
added some water and salt, cooked it just a bit. Poured it over some
boneless country style ribs I had cooked in the at 350º for about an hour.
It was quite good, not as hot as I would like it, will add some hotter
peppers next time, but I didn't want to get it too hot the first time. Will
definitely expand on this and try again.

Excellent. While the sauce for Eastern NC style BBQ is almost clear,
the sauce I've blended up a few times over the year is between red and
black with enough mashed pepper mush to be between water and
bottled BBQ sauce in consistancy.

The nice thing about blending your own peppers (if your local stores
stock them) is once you know the various types you can control the
heat with your blending process. More Pascilla for milder, add a
habenero for much hotter, many levels in between.

So how long did you soak or marinate the ribs? I tend to do this
on a weekend but still never seem to have over an hour for the
pre-oven soak.

I didn't marinate them at all, just spread them out on a big sheet pan and
stuck them in the oven.

In news:[email hidden],
Doug Freyburger <[email hidden]> stated
|
| Excellent. While the sauce for Eastern NC style BBQ is almost clear,
| the sauce I've blended up a few times over the year is between red and
| black with enough mashed pepper mush to be between water and
| bottled BBQ sauce in consistancy.
|
| The nice thing about blending your own peppers (if your local stores
| stock them) is once you know the various types you can control the
| heat with your blending process. More Pascilla for milder, add a
| habenero for much hotter, many levels in between.
|
| So how long did you soak or marinate the ribs? I tend to do this
| on a weekend but still never seem to have over an hour for the
| pre-oven soak.

In article <[email hidden]>,

Pat in TX said:

Quoted message said:

What is this pulling pork thing?

I'm from the UK and to "pull your pork" is usually a non culinary activity
over here.
Well at least it is in my house!

Martin

Martin, the cut of pork that is used for this barbecue is extremely fatty
with the meat buried in smallish pieces in the fat.

What cut of pork are you referring to? Most people, myself included, use
Boston Butt pork roasts (AKA "pork butt"😉 to make pulled pork. It is a
fatty cut of meat, but I would hardly describe it as "smallish pieces of
meat buried in fat"! It is actually a substantial piece of meat.

Quoted message said:

After it is smoked for several hours, the cut will be so soft and
tender that a knife is not needed. Instead, the cook allows the pork
to cool and then uses his/her fingers to pull the meat away from the
fat (which is then discarded).

If a Boston butt is cooked properly, most of the fat renders out over
the 8-12 hours of cooking, so there is hardly very much fat to bother
with discarding.

Quoted message said:

If the cook did not do this, there would be so much greasy fat that
it would be difficult and time consuming to eat a meal.

See above...

Quoted message said:

Pulling the pork away from the fat is simply a stage in preparation
of the meal. Meat that is not so fatty can be sliced with a knife,
but you wouldn't want to try and slice this; for one thing, it would
move away from the knife and tear and soon you'd be tearing your hair
out.

Wrong. When it's hot, the meat is so tender that it tends to pull apart
naturally, even with a sharp knife. It is possible, though, to cook it
to a point just before being "pull-able", where it is still quite tender
and easily sliced, too.

I smoked a pork butt last month and put it in the freezer. Took it out
this past weekend and thawed it. We slice it with no problem while it's
cold and then heat it up the microwave. Of course, once it's heated,
it's so tender you can cut it with a fork. 🙂

--
Stan Marks

A waist is a terrible thing to mind.

Stan Marks said:

Pat in TX said:

Quoted message said:

What is this pulling pork thing?

Quoted message said:

Martin, the cut of pork that is used for this barbecue is extremely fatty
with the meat buried in smallish pieces in the fat.

What cut of pork are you referring to?

When I lived in NC I saw some places that used a cut called
"whole hog". I don't know if the feet had been removed along
with the guts, but the ribcage, skull, and most of the skeleton
was visible when I ate at the buffet at one place. So at least
in theory I figure any cut could be used but the description
sounds like any part of the hog other than the popular ones
with the big muscles.

Quoted message said:

Most people, myself included, use
Boston Butt pork roasts (AKA "pork butt"😉 to make pulled pork. It is a
fatty cut of meat, but I would hardly describe it as "smallish pieces of
meat buried in fat"! It is actually a substantial piece of meat.

If I picture the piece correctly, there are a lot of small muscles
running in various directions, but the whole thing is indeed
muscle? A big piece of meat would yield longer threads. So
to me it's how soft it's been cooked not if the fat has drained
off or not.

I usually do picnics because they go on sale for 0.99 per pound, and
there is a sizeable fat layer under the skin that I discard, but it's
not small chunks of meat in fat.