Making friends with pulled pork

Barbecue pulled pork and coleslaw on Panini bun 

A few posts back I mentioned buying some pork loins at a really good price. That left me one problem: how to use it all. Pulled pork came to mind. The only drawback was that I didn’t really care for pulled pork all that much. I had tasted it for the first time about a dozen years ago in North Carolina. I had been invited to a loading dock lunch with the crew who were working on the new building for which I was doing PR and communications. I felt it was an honour for a corporate type like me to be included. It should have been a great experience, right? I mean barbecued pulled pork was practically born in North Carolina and I’d been told a local caterer known for their barbecue was doing the cooking.

Well, maybe it was just a bad day for the caterer or maybe my Northern Canadian palate simply could not appreciate the legendary culinary offerings of the South. Either way, all I can remember about that lunch was trying to be polite as I ate the cold, greasy, fatty mess of pork plopped on my plate next to the oddly warm puddle of coleslaw and the hard white roll. Not good. Not good at all. In fact, it was enough to keep me far away from pulled pork even as it rose to fame over the next ten years of the foodie explosion and enjoyed increasing popularity with caterers in my part of the world.

Once in a while though, I follow my own advice and I decided to give pulled pork a second chance. I remembered my daughter Keeley telling me she’d made barbecue pulled pork in her slow cooker for a potluck and that she’d been asked for an encore of the dish for the next potluck. I called Keeley for her recipe. (I am so fortunate to have children who not only have grown up to be smarter than me, but to be great cooks, too.) Keeley couldn’t give me the exact recipe she used, because there wasn’t one, but she described her basic technique. I’ve incorporated it here along with the ingredients I used. I found the rub recipe at Steven Raichlen's Barbecue! Bible (he's written 28 books about barbecue so he knows what he's talking about) and the rest of the recipe is gleaned from a combination of recipes from several sites. The result was very, very tasty. I am happy to report that pulled pork and I are once again on the best of terms.

Every bite GONE!

This barbecue pulled pork makes a terrific suppertime sandwich served up on a pillow of a Panini bun with side of homemade coleslaw. As you can see in the photo above, I piled my coleslaw right on top of the pork and it was yummy. You can also serve it over rice or mashed potatoes. Any leftover pulled pork will mix well with baked beans (and I’ll be posting a recipe for making delicious baked beans in a few days).

MA’s Slow Cooker Barbecue Pulled Pork

3 lb pork loin roast

For the Basic Barbecue Rub:

¼ cup coarse salt (kosher or sea salt)

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ cup paprika

3 tbsp freshly ground pepper

1 tbsp garlic powder

1 tbsp dried onion flakes

½ to 1 tsp cayenne pepper

½ tsp celery seeds

Mix together the ingredients for the Basic Barbecue Rub. Put it into a jar as you won’t need the full cup of Rub to make this recipe. Store away from heat and light. It will keep for several months.

For the Slow Cooker:

3 onions, sliced

1 cup barbecue sauce, homemade or purchased

1 cup cooking liquid, either pop or broth or water (I used ginger ale, but read root beer is good, too.)

Rubbed pork the next day

Cover the roast with part of the Rub, massaging and patting it well into the meat.

Place the roast in a covered dish and put in refrigerator over night.

Into the slow cooker

  The next day, place the onions in the bottom of the slow cooker.

  Place the pork roast, fat side up, on top of the onions.

  Add the barbecue sauce and cooking liquid.

  Set slow cooker on low heat and cook for 6 hours.

Pulling the pork

  Remove the pork from the slow cooker and put into a large
  casserole. The meat may fall apart as you move it, so take care
  when lifting it out. Pull the pork apart with two forks. 

  Return meat to slow cooker and cook on low heat for 1 to 1 ½
  hours.

  Serve in sandwiches, over rice or potatoes, or mixed into baked
  beans.

Printable Recipe for MA's Slow Cooker Barbecue Pulled Pork

Beery Pork Stew

Beery Pork Stew

There was a very good buy on whole boneless pork loins at the grocery store recently. We bought two. If you do this, you’ll want to cut the pork loins into a few more usable cuts and freeze them for future use. If you’ve never carved up a pork loin before, Doctor BBQ has a great video on Youtube that shows you exactly how to do this.  Give it a try. It doesn’t take long. It’s not hard to do. And you’ll save yourself some money.

After playing butcher shop, stocking up the freezer and feeling pretty proud of myself, I looked for something to do with some of the smaller pieces of pork. I came across several stew recipes that called for beer. We always have a beer around, so I combined a few recipes and put together this beery pork stew using what was on hand. The beer was a lager, which explains the mostly beige pallor of the stew. Nevertheless, it tasted great - no beery aftertaste. I highly recommend serving it with some pumpernickel bread and butter (and your favorite beer if you are so inclined). It also reheats well for lunch the next day.

MA’s Beery Pork Stew

Ready to make beery pork stew

2 lbs pork loin, cut into bite-sized pieces

¼ cup flour

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp freshly ground pepper

1 tsp bacon fat or oil

1 to 1 ½ cups onions, chopped

1 or 2 cloves garlic, minced

3 ribs celery, chopped

4 potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

2 or 3 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks

½ tsp caraway seeds

1 bay leaf

1 cup chicken or turkey stock

1 10-12 oz bottle beer

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

2 tbsp brown sugar

In a bowl, mix together flour, salt and pepper. Add pork to bowl and coat well with flour mixture.

In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, heat fat or oil over medium-high heat. Add pork and cook until evenly browned.

Add onions and garlic. Cook until softened, about 5 minutes.

Add remaining ingredients to pan and stir with love.

Bring to a boil.

Cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 1 to 1 ½ hours or until the pork is tender.

Makes 6 servings.

Printable Recipe for MA's Beery Pork Stew