Southern Cooking - Pulled Pork

One of my favorite things to do is barbeque. So once the weather warmed up enough to make cooking outside tolerable it was the first thing that came to mind. I decided to make a smoked pork shoulder and Michael Rulhman's cornbread(Post coming soon).

To make the pork you need a 5-8 pound pork shoulder, apple cider vinegar, apple cider and a rub. A rub is a big part of bbq. Lots of people have secret recipes that are never shared. Well I don't have a problem sharing since all I do is mix the same spices together in whatever quantity I like that day. The essentials in my rub are: brown sugar, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, cinnamon, salt and pepper.

The night before smoking I inject the pork with a mixture of apple cider and apple cider vinegar to help keep it moist while it smokes. Then I put the rub on. Here it is ready to go marinate for the night. The next day I got an early start since it takes about an hour to hour and a half per pound. I used hardwood charcoal with applewood and mapplewood chips (soaked in water for 20 min before using). You want to kept the temperature in the 225 - 250 degree range. It took me 9 hours to get to 180 degrees. I let it rest for 20 mins and then pulled it. Here's the final product.

I served this on plain white rolls so that the bread doesn't effect the taste of the pork along with a North Carolina vinegar sauce (Apple cider vinegar, water, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes). Smoked meats are some of the best eats. I could eat this everday.