What Pork To Use For Pulled Pork

How to brand pulled pork

Sentinel our video guide to making perfect pulled pork:

What is the all-time cut of meat for pulled pork?

Pork shoulder is ideal for pulling purposes. Information technology has an optimum fat content that yields to create tender, melty meat, but it's essential you cook it slowly to allow the poly peptide to break downwards properly. Take it out of the oven also early on and you may as well dine on a pair of wellies. Americans prize the Boston butt cut of pork, which comes from the upper part of the shoulder, but whichever hunk of meat you lot use, it'due south upward to you whether information technology has the os in. Some people say bone-in helps the meat stay moist, but lots of off-the-shelf supermarket shoulder comes boneless, which is fine. As always, buy the best quality meat you can afford.

Try our easiest ever pulled pork reipe, with no tricky measurements or unusual ingredients involved.

Should the meat exist skinless?

Pork shoulder that'south due to be pulled should always be skinless to allow the flavours to permeate. You tin ask your butcher to do this for you, simply if you're removing it yourself, don't let the peel become to waste – roast it until crunchy and serve it on the side or as a snack. This pork crackling harbinger recipe gives timings and ideas for seasoning.

What is a dry rub?

You lot might be of the belief that marinade equals juiciness, but in the instance of pulled pork the tenderness and flavor is created using a dry rub of spices, sugar and table salt. Senior nutrient editor Barney gave u.s. a hot tip, direct from us – according to an erstwhile saying, "there isn't an animal on earth that isn't made better with one tertiary brown sugar, one 3rd salt and one third smoked paprika." Kudos to that. Need a quick recipe you tin can whip up in five minutes? Give our spiced meat rub a go, information technology needs just a handful of ingredients. Effort this technique on our maple-mustard pulled pork for actress-tender meat.

The heavenly triumvirate of salt, sugar and paprika gives yous a subtle flavour that allows the pork to sing with its ain pure flavour, and for you to get more creative with your serving sauces. However, if you want to ramp up the flavor during cooking, food editor Cassie recommends adding garlic pulverization, mustard powder, cayenne pepper or cumin to your dry rub. We also have a jerk pulled pork recipe, should you fancy the tropical sense of taste of the Caribbean.

Overnight tenderising

If you lot have the time, try mixing body of water salt and sugar in a bag and rub information technology over the pork before leaving information technology in the fridge overnight. Brand sure y'all rinse it off thoroughly earlier putting it in the oven with the spices of your pick or you lot'll have super-saline meat, and not in a good style. If you're cooking pulled pork in one go, American food writer Jennifer Joyce recommends searing the shoulder in a non-stick pan earlier calculation rub.

How to fix pulled pork

Jennifer Joyce positions her prepared pork shoulder onto a wire rack, which is then placed in the baking tin. Before putting it in the oven, she pours water in the bottom of the tin, so wraps the whole thing tightly in foil to allow a steamy micro-temper to form, safeguarding against dreaded dry meat syndrome.

Temperature and timings

The cookery team recommend cooking your meat for ii hours per kilogram on a super-low heat, around 140C, or gas mark 2-three. Barney says it's set up to exist taken out when it can be hands pulled apart using a fork.

Shredding the pork

If you've followed our recipes and tips to a tee, the pulling stage should be a doddle, but take a tip from the team and divide your cooked meat using ii forks, pushing the meat from the centre outwards. Discard any fat $.25 and be conscientious non to over-shred it, then leave some nice big chunks of meat intact to cater for personal preference.

Pulled pork sauces

If you lot've followed Jennifer's water bathroom technique, you should be left with some lovely cooking liquor from the h2o evaporating and meldling with the porky cooking juices. Drain this from the pan and exit information technology to cool, then skim off the backlog fatty and mix it with a piquant, US-fashion sweet barbecue sauce. Nosotros beloved this chipotle molasses sauce and our pull-apart pork with honey chipotle.

How to serve pulled pork

Assistant food editor Miriam says pulled pork is all-time served with sugariness breadstuff. Our bootleg brioche buns tin accept up to three hours to fully prepare, fully ascent and bake, but equally an enriched, slightly sweet, super moist bun, they can't be beaten. US-style cornbread would work as an alternative to a burger-style serving, and its dense, porous texture is great for soaking upwardly meat juices. We likewise love the idea of Mexican pulled pork tacos, with plenty of crunch and fiery flavours or our pulled pork with banana salsa served in soft flour wraps.

All that pillowy pork and bread needs to be levelled out with something with seize with teeth – enter coleslaw, everyone's favourite shredded salad. Nosotros take more slaw'spiration than you lot can shake a box grater at, merely here are some of our favourite versions…

Coleslaw with yogurt tahini dressing
Ruby-red cabbage & fennel slaw
Cheese & chive coleslaw
Healthy coleslaw
Celeriac coleslaw

Culling cooking methods

Pulled pork with barbecue sauce on plate

Nosotros mentioned earlier that fire pit cooking is off the agenda for most of us Brits – nosotros're lucky to get the barbecue up and running at all some summers. But if you lot're lucky enough to utilise the garden grill, you can use the flames to finish off pulled pork. Follow this clever James Martin recipe and set the dish in advance past slow cooking a rinded piece of pork shoulder for several hours in the oven. Once your barbecue is set up for cooking, place the slow-cooked hunk onto the grill for fifteen minutes on each side, giving it a deliciously smoky, charred cease. Exist careful non to let whatsoever of the meat slip between the grills and plummet fatefully into the white-hot coals.

More pulled recipes

Mexican pulled chicken with black beans in bowl with nachos and salad

Chicken, lamb and beef tin can all be 'pulled' too. Cassie's pulled pomegranate lamb definitely isn't authentically American, but information technology'due south treated in much the same fashion in terms of the cooking process, although she switches the sweet, smoky flavours of pulled pork for North African aromatics and a juicy fruit glaze. The all-time cut of beefiness for pulling is brisket – this deep, dark firecracker beefiness brisket is ideal for bonfire flavor as its treacley sauce tastes delicious over perfect baked potatoes. Pulled chicken is quicker to cook, merely there'southward a higher take chances of it drying out, and so always use the brown thigh meat as information technology has the highest fat content.