2010 Cooking Club Week 48: Pulled Pork

The Black Oil · 03-01-2012 10:30pm

Phase one completed.

The Black Oil · 05-01-2012 7:33am

Left it ticking over overnight, it's done. It was bubbling a bit, so it left a big puddle on the counter.

Sparks · 05-01-2012 1:11pm

That's odd - does your slow cooker have a leak? It really shouldn't boil over...

reallyrose · 05-01-2012 9:23pm

It did it on me once too, I think I over-filled the cooker. I only had a little puddle though.

The Black Oil · 05-01-2012 10:01pm

I don't think I made much good of the sauce, but apart from that, as per the OP, mouth feel, mouth feel, mouth feel. :pac:

reallyrose · 06-01-2012 3:45am

I swear, every time this thread pops back up I start to look yearningly at my slow cooker and spice drawer.

nom nom

Sparks · 06-01-2012 12:49pm

Black Oil wrote: »

I don't think I made much good of the sauce, but apart from that, as per the OP, mouth feel, mouth feel, mouth feel. :pac:

Glad you enjoyed it, even if you've now made pork sound durty

The Black Oil · 13-01-2012 10:17am

Sparks wrote: »

That's odd - does your slow cooker have a leak? It really shouldn't boil over...

Tried a beef stew on low last night, not a drop on the counter this morning. This may be the way to go.

faigs · 05-03-2012 3:33pm

I've an old pot style pressure cooker at home that you use on the hob, could I use that at the lowest hob setting?

Sparks · 05-03-2012 3:49pm

faigs wrote: »

I've an old pot style pressure cooker at home that you use on the hob, could I use that at the lowest hob setting?

I've never tried that for pulled pork, but it's how I cook my chilli every time.

I'd guess that it'd work, but you'd have to try it to find out (let us know!)

I think you'd want more liquid than this recipe calls for. You want the pork to be immersed really; you're in effect braising it. It'll be interesting to see if it works in a pressure cooker...

Oh, and don't forget that if you're going to use the cooking liquid as the base of a sauce, because you use more liquid to make the braise work, you'll get a lot more sauce than you need; don't be tempted to let that reduce down to "just enough", odds are it won't taste right at all -- but hey, pull half it at the normal consistency, then reduce the rest right down and check; if it's okay, mix back in the half you pulled and reduce again, and use away. Might be awesome, might be unusable, but let us know either way

faigs · 05-03-2012 5:30pm

Thanks. I see your slow cooker is reduced to €7.99 in Argos at the moment so I might just buy that!

Edit:
Scratch that, it's sold out in most of them!

vibe666 · 07-03-2012 9:15am

definitely worth shelling out a few quid extra for the bigger one imho, you'll find a lot more uses for it than the smaller one, particularly if you cook ahead.

tomyr7 · 31-03-2012 11:30am

Would pork loin be ok to use?
I've followed this recipe before and cooked it with leg and it was superb!!
But Tesco only had boneless pork loin this time???

Sparks · 31-03-2012 6:20pm

I've never tried it with loin; do you mean the pork fillet? I don't think that would work so well; you need to have the connective tissue in the meat to convert to gelatin. If you don't have that, you end up with dry, stringy meat because after cooking, the meat fibres are all technically overcooked, but because the collagen's converted to gelatin, it tastes moist.

vibe666 · 31-03-2012 9:01pm

Sparks wrote: »

I've never tried it with loin; do you mean the pork fillet? I don't think that would work so well; you need to have the connective tissue in the meat to convert to gelatin. If you don't have that, you end up with dry, stringy meat because after cooking, the meat fibres are all technically overcooked, but because the collagen's converted to gelatin, it tastes moist.

+1 to this, i tried a similar recipe with a pork loin and it came out very dry, almost to the point of being sawdust, not good at all.

you really want a nice cheap cut like shoulder, something that will have all those connective tissues that would normally make it tough when cooked quickly, but will have plenty of time to break down in the slow cooking process.

tomyr7 · 01-04-2012 1:34am

vibe666 wrote: »

Sparks wrote: »

I've never tried it with loin; do you mean the pork fillet? I don't think that would work so well; you need to have the connective tissue in the meat to convert to gelatin. If you don't have that, you end up with dry, stringy meat because after cooking, the meat fibres are all technically overcooked, but because the collagen's converted to gelatin, it tastes moist.

+1 to this, i tried a similar recipe with a pork loin and it came out very dry, almost to the point of being sawdust, not good at all.

you really want a nice cheap cut like shoulder, something that will have all those connective tissues that would normally make it tough when cooked quickly, but will have plenty of time to break down in the slow cooking process.

It just worked out that it was the only meat I could get but tbh, it cooked fine. Left it for 8 hours and it was very soft and tender. But I've done this before with the one you recommended and it was better.

hattoncracker · 14-05-2012 1:39am

Made this for my bf's birthday party... No one spoke for about a half hour while they were eating!!!

Also if anyone is having difficulty locating blackstrap mollasses, I got it in a health food shop, so you should try your local one!!

Star Lord · 18-05-2012 1:11am

This is amazing. I have had 'pulled pork' sandwiches before, last one was in Hard Rock Cafe Manchester, and let's just say that it doesn't even deserve to be associated with food such as this. Nibbled on a couple of bits as I was pulling the pork, and it was so tasty, I couldn't get over it! Then add the sauce... This is going to become something that I treat myself with from time to time!!!

hattoncracker wrote: »

Also if anyone is having difficulty locating blackstrap mollasses, I got it in a health food shop, so you should try your local one!!

I found it along with the alternative diet (coeliac etc) stuff in Tesco.

Toast4532 · 27-08-2012 1:06am

Sparks wrote: »

Ingredients:

3 tsp Paprika

2 tsp Salt (NOT table salt, because the iodine in it will stain the pork blue…)

1 tsp Onion granules

1 tsp Chilli powder

2 tsp Cumin

1 tsp Smoked Paprika (if you can’t find this, just use another tbsp of Paprika)

1/2 tsp Garam Marsala (or just curry powder…)

1/2 tsp Cayanne Pepper

Would this marinade work on a small piece of pork loin that will be roasted?

Now when I say small, it's less than 1kg, not sure on the exact size as I bought a bigger piece and cut it in two pieces as there was too much for
two people in the one big piece.

Sparks · 27-08-2012 1:29am

Well, it's really a rub rather than a marinade; there are nicer recipes for roast pork. But in a pinch...

Toast4532 · 27-08-2012 1:42am

Sparks wrote: »

Well, it's really a rub rather than a marinade; there are nicer recipes for roast pork. But in a pinch...

Thanks Sparks.

Are there any rubs/marinades you can recommend? There are so many out there, I don't know which to go for.

I'd like something that has a BBQ or spicy kick, but won't burn my mouth.

quazzy · 27-08-2012 9:27pm

Hi all,

I've decided to try this recipe and I have a question.

I have a charcoal BBQ and I have hickory woodchips that I have used before to smoke some fish.

I want to add an element of smoking ( as per BBQ above) to the meat but at what stage in the recipe should I throw the pork joint into the bbq.

FYI - I dont have a slow cooker so I'll be using a big cast iron casserole pot in a low oven.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Regards

Q

Sparks · 27-08-2012 10:37pm

Sounds like you have one of these quazzy:

Thing is, that's not a BBQ. It's a grill. Yeah, we call it a BBQ, but that doesn't make it so. I mean, the English call that yellow stuff they put in trifle "custard", but that doesn't make it custard!

And you can't really do pulled pork in a grill (well, you can, sortof, if you really really babysit it, but it'll be second-rate at best). You could cook the pulled pork in the oven, pull it, then put it in a disposable roasting tray, and put that in the grill along with a foil packet of hickory chips for 10-15 minutes on very low heat; but honestly, I think you'd get better results adding some liquid smoke to the recipe and skipping the grill entirely.

quazzy · 28-08-2012 7:18am

Thanks Sparks.

I'll leave out the BBQ / Grill part and I'll post back when its all sorted.

Thanks again

quazzy · 28-08-2012 9:48pm

Day 1 is completed.
The shoulder of pork is in the fridge now.
One thing I couldn't find was onion granules for the rub.
I used onion salt instead. Hopefully it won't ruin it.

Toast4532 · 28-08-2012 10:00pm

quazzy wrote: »

Day 1 is completed.
The shoulder of pork is in the fridge now.
One thing I couldn't find was onion granules for the rub.
I used onion salt instead. Hopefully it won't ruin it.

Tecsos sell onion granules, they are around 1.30.

I got them recently, think I paid 1.34, but I could be wrong on that exact price.

quazzy · 29-08-2012 1:35pm

thanks for he heads up on the onion granules.

I'll be slow cooker the meat later today/tonight.

Is a CUP = 250ml?

I'll just assume it is.

Sparks · 29-08-2012 1:41pm

Yup, 1 cup = 250ml (on my measuring set anyway

)

This is the kind of recipe where a few ml more or less can be tolerated though - if it's a large hunk of pork, I'll usually add a little more liquid till it looks right (ie. looks like the photos).

vibe666 · 29-08-2012 2:53pm

i saw something recently (probably on lifehacker) where someone had used an old tin can and a soldering iron to turn their BBQ grill

into a smoker.

from what i read of it, it looked like it would do a decent job too if you were stuck.

Sparks · 29-08-2012 2:54pm

I'm guessing it was just a tube of some kind to take the smoke out from the grill to a different box where the food was so that it got hit with hot smoke but no direct heat?

2010 Cooking Club Week 48: Pulled Pork

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