There are a few summer holidays where I just can't survive if I don't barbecue: Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day. So this Fourth I decided to smoke the first pork shoulder of the summer. It's the first time I've tried my final rub on a shoulder and I was super happy with the results. In this run I've also confirmed that 1.5 hrs per pound at 210-240 is my sweet spot in terms of cooking time. Want to geek out with me on specifics? Read on for a full run down. 

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The northeast is not known for its barbecue. Typically you find yourself wanting more real flavor from a joint in these parts... but Percy Street is onto something. Make no mistake, they have some killer 'cue right on South Street in Philly. Jumping at the opportunity to catch my Bruins in game 2 of the Flyers matchup with a Philly buddy of mine, we arranged for some pre-game barbecue festivities at Percy Street last night. Earlier in the week I had asked the folks at Percy Street on twitter what pit they use, and they responded with J&R, so I had a suspicion they'd know what they were doing. Here's what i found: 

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I currently find myself in southern illinois, learning the business of barbecue from "the legend" Mike Mills and his daughter Amy Mills. After a 10-hr day of full-on barbecue love-making, topped off with pork steaks, st louis ribs, and what must be the finest 23-yr old rum ever created, I got in the car to head back to the hotel. As I'm 5 minutes into the drive, I start thinking of the original 17th street bar still in operation I'm leaving in my taillights, and figure I'm a fool to not slip inside for a drink and a little more 'cue. Every once and a while I make the right decision... and tonight was one of those rare instances. I turned the car around, walked inside to find Amy, Mike, Chris, and the crew from Brother's Jimmy (in NYC) in there sampling half the menu. Here's my take on their chopped pork sandwich.  

Price: $8 

Appearance: The pic doesn't do it justice because I smashed the whole thing flat with my palm and then thought I should take a picture. But the meat here is chopped, not pulled. Lots of "smoke ring" coloring throughout, and just a few hits of bark. They serve with the slaw on the side, which I quickly dumped right on top. 

Pork solo: Perhaps the best smoke flavor I've had. Not overpowering, but fully infused. I learned today they smoke over wild cherry and/or apple depending on supply. The meat is very moist, and incredibly easy to eat in its chopped nature. Really good stuff. 

Bun: A big, flat, doughy, hamburger bun. Hard to complain on this one. 

Cole Slaw: Also chopped, with a serious vinegar hit. Tasty stuff, and cuts the richnes of the pork perfectly. 

Sauce: They tossed a little sauce on themselves, and I saw no reason to add any more. Honestly I couldn't discern it from the entire package, but based on the ribs i had the other night I'd presume the strong vinegar hit takes the heart attack out of the pork. 

Total package: A really great combination all around. Like serisouly REALLY great. I'm partial to a bit more crusty bark, but I'm grasping at straws to be critical here. This is one hell of a pork sandwich. Likely the best I've reviewed in this Pork-a-thon thread. Serisouly killer stuff. Get some. Now! 

 

I've been meaning to hit up Smoke Joint in Fort Greene for a good 6 months, and I happened to find myself in the area today for lunch so gave it a shot. They've done a bang-up job on the space... huge counter for takeout orders, and a killer bar area with untreated wood walls and tons of bourbon. Its a really great vibe inside and out. They even have a little outdoor smoker on the corner to lure passer-bys in for a taste:

That's gotta be illegal, but I love the idea! Ok then, onto my pork-a-thon review:

 

Price: $9

Appearance: A little smooshed and grey, but some nice looking bark. 

Pork solo: Tasty in an "i love any pork" kind of way, but very little smoke flavor. I saw the smoker there, so I know they smoke it... but the smoke flavor was incredibly subtle. Especially for a place that has a smoker out front to attract customers in! I think that little joint was generating more smoke than their actual cooker. Bummer. 

Bun: A nice buttery hard roll. Not quite a brioche bun, but definitely not your average hamburger bun. The bun was solid. 

Cole Slaw: An oddly yellow-ish slaw, turned out to be quite tasty. A nice tang/cream combo that was right at home in my belly. But the bigger story was the pickles next to the slaw. They've managed to make a sweet/sour pickle that's really great. Not too sweet, tons of sour kick, and even a little heat. I loved the pickles! 

Sauce: They packed up my to-go order with two sauce options. I loved that they didn't smother the sandwich itself and let me decide. But one sauce was a super sweet maple/tomato thing that was really out of place. And while the other was closer to my vinegar vibe, it had a really heavy spice level. Not heat really, but just actual spice. Almost like you could feel the texture of cayenne in the sauce. It didn't kill the sandwich, but it wasn't a huge help. 

Total package: Better than your average pulled pork sandwich, but from a place with "smoke" in its name I was left wishing for more smoked flavor. I thought the slaw and pickles were great, loved the bun, and the meat was juicy.... it just was missing that key smokiness.  

 

I've been smoking pork shoulder for about six years now, and have fallen in love with an applewood smoke-infused pulled pork doused in a carolina vinegar style sauce. But in recent cold months I've found it difficult to get the smoker up and running at a consistant temperature, so I thought I'd enter the realm of preparing pulled pork indoors. Armed with my wife's slow cooker (and hundreds of online recipes), I was determined to keep it simple but offer a relatively good winter substitute for the real deal. While the net result lacks the smoke flavor I love, in total its still a pretty killer pulled sandwich. Here's what i did:

Most recipe's called for a 3-4 lb boneless pork shoulder. Now I've always smoked bone-in shoulders, subscribing to the camp that meat cooked on a bone has more flavor than meat cooked off the bone... but considering this needs to fit in a smaller space, I figure I'll give boneless a shot. Turns out, every spot near me in Brooklyn only sells bone-in. My local butcher could get me a 3 lb boneless shoulder next week, but he had three pieces totaling 3.5 pounds on hand. I figure I'm going to pull the whole thing anyway and snatch them up.I decided the first step should be the same as usual, and prepared a brine of brown sugar + salt, and let it sit overnight:

The next morning I drained the meat on a cooling rack (first time i've done that, but its going to be a new part of my regular process. It works beautifully!):

I then coated all pieces liberally with my standard pork bbq rub:

Now came the time to make a decision. Many slow cooker recipe's call for searing a cut of meat first, and then dropping it in the cooker. While I'm worried about searing a rubbed meat with sugar, I figure I'll give it a shot because my favorite bites of smoked pork are the crust where the rub has caramelized to black packing an insanely powerful spice and smoke explosion. So I set to searing:

...but within a few minutes have a smoke filled house causing uncontrollable coughing to anyone entering it's confines. Crap. The rub is burning:

Figuring there's no turning back at this point, I continue with the process and set the partially burnt pork slabs into the cooker: 

Into the skillet I then toss a little apple cider and cider vinegar, thinking I'll scrape up some good pan drippings in the process. Then it hits me that those pan drippings are burnt. Crap 2. So I strain the liquid over a measuring cup, and end up with a 2/3rds of a cup of liquid (sans burnt chips) and toss it in the slow cooker with the pork, cover, and set it on low for 10 hrs. 

As the day progresses, the house begins to loose its cough-inducing quality, and is instead filled with an increasingly warming smell of pork and spice. After 10 hours, I find three pieces of pork which are incredibly moist, practically shredding themselves:

So i set to pulling: At this point I skimmed as much fat as possible from the juices left in the cooker, and mixed the remaining liquid in with the pulled pork. The pork alone has a very subtle flavor, but when mixed with the cooking liquid the flavor really starts to pop. Then its just a simple assembly line of cole slaw, pulled pork, and my carolina red sauce all piled into my favorite pulled meat vehicle, the hot dog bun: 
Here are a few shots of the final plates: I was really surprised by how much i liked this pulled pork. The missing smoke was, well, MISSED, but in the end the flavors of the rub and cider, combined with the slaw and carolina sauce really created a close second to my regular version. This was definitely better than most generic pulled pork sandwiches you get at any bar/pub, and got me kind of excited to try it again. The only thing I'll do differently is skip the searing process altogether. Since i never moved the meat while it cooked, it formed a bit of a crust anyway... and i might try to amplify it a bit next time by roasting it for 15 minutes after i remove it from the slow cooker. I'm not ready to share a recipe for this sucker yet as it needs a little perfecting, but I'm confident I've got a close runner up to a smoked pulled pork, and it'll be mad easy to make. 

 

 

A full Pork-a-thon review is included below, but I'll start this post by noting the end of the summer! This was in all likelihood my last Pulled Pork smoke fest of summer 2010, which is always a sad realization. I combined this pulled pork with a beef chuck roast smoke for some more beef chili (more on that later), and it was a long, sunny, smoke-filled day. This pork shoulder smoked for a good 14 hours and coming in at just under 10 lbs that was the right amount of time. I did almost zero preparation aside from my typical brine and rub, which was refreshing but proved significant when it came to the end product. Just H20 in the water container, and weak apple wood chips combined to give this pork a subtle flavor, which was a disappointment. Though the cole slaw was amazing, the sauce is always a favorite, and the hot dog roll were all a huge success. Still a great event, just not my best yet. 

A few shots of the prep and smoking results:

A few shots of the final pulled pork: And of course the assembly: I think the cole slaw on the bottom of the roll is absolutely key to the total package here. A solid sandwich (or do i need to call it a "roll" now?) that's insanely easy to eat. I threw back two, and easily could have done three. Mmmm... OK, onto the Pork-a-thon review: 

Price: Homemade again, but likely a $4 single / $8 double considering the hot dog bun "roll" approach. 

Appearance: This shoulder was huge (10lbs) so proportionality there wasn't as much crust to interior as I typically like. that said, the smoke color penetration was solid, and the whole thing was super moist. 

Pork solo: Crust was great as in recent renditions, though overall this pork had a noticeably more subtle smoke flavor. I was using apple wood "chips" this time as opposed to chunks, and I think it made a big difference in a lack of substantial smoke. I also had the water pan filled with, uh, water this time, instead of my usual cider/beer/vingar combo and I think there was some definite missing of flavor. It still had some solid flavor, but not my usual richness.  

Sauce: Still loving that carolina red! 

Bun: Ah yes, the pulled pork roll! I loved the top-split hot dog roll as the vehicle here. Its a perfect vessel for a layer of slaw, a heap of pork, and a good splashing of sauce. This is the future pf pulled pork for me. 

Cole Slaw: Lori's slaw kills it every time. 

Total package: I'm officially a fan of the hot dog roll for a pulled pork sandwich. Its soft, not too bready, can fit in a single hand, and is generally just easier to eat, and better yet, easier to actually taste the contents. Its sort of like that old Ortega taco shell commercial where the actor (same guy who use to say "Corinthian Leather" i think.... Fantasy Island maybe? I digress), anyway that guy used to ask a kid how his taco shell tasted. Then the kid would try to take a bite, and the whole thing would fall apart. So he couldn't actually taste it. This is how i feel about many pulled pork sandwiches... though no longer for BBQ Billys! Hot dog buns all the way from now on.  The pork itself was a bit more subtle than I've done recently, and I think it ended up lacking some key flavor. A good dousing of that sauce helped a ton, and if you packed a roll with a bunch of the crust you were good to go. I'm giving presentation a 10 of 10, but pork flavor a 7 of 10.