Philly Style Pulled Pork
August 4th, 2012
Meat
butt 8.5 pounds
picnic 6.67 pounds
Picnic 9.16 pounds
Rub
Philly Style Dry Rub:
½ c. kosher salt
¼ c. black pepper (freshly ground if possible)
½ c. Italian seasoning (OR equal parts: basil, oregano and rosemary)
½ c. Minced Onion Flakes
2 tsp. chili powder
Mop
1 c. Worcestershire sauce
1 c. Soy sauce
Trimmed the fat
Mopped with equal parts Worcestershire sauce and Soy sauce.
Rubbed with my Philly Style Dry Rub
Into the pit prewarmed to 400°+ Drip pan in place, two quarts water are added to the drip pan and the fire has settled down. First hour, dialing the chamber temps to around 270°.
A few hours into the cook.
After about three to four hours into the cook, the pork was flipped, mopped and probed (sounds like a bad alien encounter)
Water is added to the drip pan to keep the drippings from burning up.
Pork reaches approximately 150° it is then foiled and placed back on the pit. Drip pans are removed, collected and refrigerated.
The Pork is removed at an internal temperature of 207°, but here is where it gets weird.
9 hours 19 minutes cook time for the 9.16 pound picnic, That's approximately 1 hour per/lb.
7 hours for the 8.5 Pound Butt 49 minutes per/lb
9 hours 55 minutes for the 6.67 pound picnic. 89 minutes per/lb
?????
The 6.67 pound picnic was the only one that was close to my normal cooking time per/lb, I did however run the pit at 270°.
Anyhow... the pork is double foiled, wrapped in towels and placed in the cooler.
Time to make the finishing sauce.
Drippings are removed from the refrigerator, fat is skimmed away and the finishing sauce is put on low simmer, I add about a cup of red wine and a tablespoon of McCormick's beef base. I usually strain the drippings but lately I have been using as is. There is so much flavor in the drippings so there is no need to add anything else.
After the last one out has rested an hour or so and the finishing sauce is reducing, the meat is ready to be pulled.
I decided on a coarser pull (finger pull) on this cook.
The Finishing Sauce is added.
Then the pork is lightly tossed.
A Sammie with a sauce I love.
This recipe was from an episode of Restaurant Impossible, I used this on my Fast and Hot ribs and the sauce is really hot, I had to tone it down a bit.
Robert Irvine BBQ Sauce:
3 cups ketchup
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup rice wine vinegar Substituted with Cider Vinegar
1/2 cup stone ground mustard We substituted with yellow mustard
1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons cayenne pepper "wow", really? I cut this down to 1 Tablespoon and is still hot!
1 tablespoon sea salt
In a bowl, whisk together the ketchup, sugar, vinegar, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, cayenne and salt in a saucepan over low heat. Cook for 5 to 6 minutes to blend flavors. Remove from the heat and hold until using. Yield: 1/3 gallon.
Closing notes.
I have been shooting for 270° on the pit when doing my Philly Style Pulled Pork, the fact that there is no sugar in the rub gives me the flexibility to increase the pit temps.
The Worcestershire sauce and Soy Sauce mop really give the pork another level of flavor and adds just enough sugar to promote a mild bark even with foiling.
The meat was tender to the point of a clean bite through the sandwich, nothing pulled out of the sandwich, in retrospect I should have taken a picture of a clean bite.
I prefer the Coarser Pull (Finger Pull) over the shredded pork, if the meat is tender it gives it more body on the sandwich and not a sloppy Joe type sandwich, don't get me wrong I like it that way too but prefer a chunkier pulled pork.
I will never again throw away my drippings or allow them to burn up, I also preferred the drippings as is and not strained as I have done in the past.
The finishing sauce is much better with beef base as opposed to beef broth, the beef broth adds too much liquid, there is already enough liquid from the pan. There is no reason to add more.
The cooking times have me baffled.
I really love the, "Tweaked" Robert Irvine Barbecue Sauce it doesn't over power the meat at all.
There was almost no nasty bits at all left on this cook, I could not believe how well everything rendered out.
Philly Style Pulled Pork
Linear Mode
