When it comes to cooking, there are those who absolutely hate it and there are those who enjoy it considerably. I don’t consider myself a foodie, or much of a chef, but every now and then, when the mood strikes me, I like to whip up something fun from scratch. Of course, the problem is, when your days and afternoons are busy, it can be difficult to dedicate a lot of time and energy to cooking something. This is why some recipes really appeal to me. The ones I tend to like the most have two things in common.
The first thing some of my favorite recipes have in common is that they are, when you get right down to it, insanely simple. It is amazing how many things you can cook in around six steps or less. The fewer steps to the process, the less anxiety inducing it becomes. The fewer steps in the process, the harder it is for something to go wrong. The second thing my favorite recipes have in common is that they don’t strike other people as being insanely simple. The final product is so impressive, people just assume you put in a lot more time, effort, and energy then you ever actually did. There is something deeply satisfying when people walk away from something you made, absolutely impressed, perhaps even a little bit jealous, and you never broke a sweat.
So let’s talk about pulled pork.
Pulled pork is insanely easy to do. It is also one of those things that people don’t really consider trying to make at home. Whether you share the secret, is up to you. So how do you do it?
You bust out the crock-pot or slow cooker. Then you run to the store and pick out a nice pork shoulder. Five pounds is as good a place to start as any, but if you can get more than that in the slow-cooker, you might as well go for it. The one I bought was nearly eight pounds! The rest is easy. You need some brown sugar, an onion, apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, and possibly a bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce.
The ingredients tremble in anticipation, but you can’t tell because this is a still photograph.
The first thing you do is take the pork shoulder and give it a nice rub-down with the brown sugar. Feel free to use as much as you would like. You want to do more than dust it, but you aren’t trying to candy the thing either. Next, you chop the onion into quarters and throw those into the bottom of the crock-pot and set the pork shoulder on top. Once the meat is inside, pour 1/3 of a cup of Apple Cider vinegar over the top of it.
After the vinegar, the step as it was explained to me is, “add copious amounts of Worcestershire sauce.” I’ve never quantified how much that is. I suppose just guess what you might consider a reasonable portion of Worcestershire sauce, and double it.
After that, you just set that bad-boy to low and let it cook for eight hours. Just remember, that after about four hours, you want to grab two forks and flip the shoulder over in the crock-pot. Once the time is up, you can move the meat to a plate and start shredding it with a fork, adding salt and pepper to taste.
The final product is delicious, and doesn’t actually require a sauce to go with it. If you return the shredded meat to the crock-pot, the liquid from the crock-pot does just fine on its own. On days I was feeling ambitious, I’d pour the liquid into a pan and cook it up into a traditional sauce from scratch.
If that sounds a bit too fatty for your tastes, you can just take a bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce and pour it over the shredded pork. Toss it on some hearty rolls, and you are done.
One of the nice things about the recipe is that it makes your whole house smell amazing. Another nice thing is that a few pounds of pork shoulder can go a long way. When I make a batch, it tends to last right around a week, and this is considering that nobody around the house can get enough of the stuff. A few years back, I made a batch to feed a decent sized Halloween party, and we still had extras for the next day or two. So enjoy, and feel free to share your variations or alterations to this recipe.
The next time I write about cooking, we’re making MARSHMALLOWS!
i realize I missed an opportunity to show some hometown pride, by using Montgomery inn sauce
Love this recipe David – sounds delicious! Something I do that might be helpful for some is that I use my stand mixer to shred pork and chicken when they come out of the slow cooker. I am not great with the two fork method, but 45 seconds on low in my mixer and it’s shredded to perfection.