Finally, after many tests, we share with you our progress regarding the American barbecue style pulled pork recipe. It will be perfect inside a soft toasted bun, together with a fresh coleslaw, and shared with friends, since it is one of those classic preparations that cannot be prepared in small portions.
We leave you the recipe with all the steps: it seems complicated, but after a while you'll get the hang of it.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 whole cut pork neck
- salt
- sugar
- apple cider vinegar
- apple juice
- sauces of your choice for the final dressing of the pork (e.g. bbq sauce)
- carrots
- red and green cabbage
- mayonnaise
- plain yogurt
- honey
- mustard
- sandwiches
SPICES FOR THE RUB:
- 20g cane sugar
- 5g of oregano
- 120g of sweet paprika
- 20g of garlic powder
- 10g of pepper
- 6g of fennel seeds
- 50g of salt
METHOD
The previous evening:
Eliminate the excess fat visible on the surface of your cup. You don't have to be super precise, just remove the fat that you can clearly see on the surface, on all sides.
Prepare the brine. Take a container large enough to fit the cup, and immerse it in a solution of water (70%), apple juice (30%), 150g of salt and 50g of sugar. The doses of salt and sugar are for EVERY liter of brine.
The brine must completely cover the cup, then close with a lid and place in the fridge overnight.
This phase is essential because it will help make your meat juicy.
The morning after:
Turn on the bbq. For the first phase of cooking, a fixed temperature of 130 degrees will be needed.
Remove the cup from the fridge, discard the liquids and pat it dry.
Prepare the rub by mixing all the spices, making sure that the grain of the various spices is roughly the same size.
Rub the cup well over its entire surface, insinuating it well into all the openings.
If you have a charcoal bbq, wait for all the initial smoke to disappear, and once it reaches 130 degrees, place the chunks of wood on the charcoal (they will be used for smoking) and immediately after, place the cup on the grill, making sure not to cook it in "direct" mode (use a deflector between the embers and the meat).
I generally use 3 chunks for a 3-4kg bowl. If you don't have them, you can do without them but you won't have a "smoked" final result.
Close the oven and wait 6 hours WITHOUT NEVER OPENING.
Try in this first phase to ensure that the temperature remains fixed at 130 degrees.
At the end of the 6 hours open and try to touch the surface, it should have become quite dark and crusty (it will be your final "bark").
Remove the meat and, if necessary, give the embers a stir to prepare it for the second and final cooking stage.
Wrap the cup in butcher paper (or aluminum, if you only have that), and before closing, insert a good dose of apple vinegar and apple juice (beer is fine too). Close the package very well and insert a probe thermometer into the heart of the meat.
Put the cup back in the oven wrapped in butcher paper and close. Now you will have to raise the temperature to 140-150 degrees.
Again, DO NOT OPEN the oven until cooking is complete.
When the core temperature (which you are checking using the probe thermometer) reaches 95 degrees, the meat is cooked and you can remove it. It may take 2 to 4 hours.
At the end, remove the meat and let it rest (I waited an hour for 3.5kg of meat).
At the end of the resting phase, fray the meat with your hands (equipped with gloves) or with forks.
Season with sauces to taste (a common bbq sauce is fine) and enjoy like never before.
For the coleslaw, grate the carrots and finely chop the cabbage, then season everything with a vinaigrette made with plain yogurt, mayonnaise, a little mustard and honey, vinegar, salt and pepper.