Pulled Pork

And lots of it!

• CuisineWestern
• CategoryPork
• CourseMains

Ingredients

• Dry Rub
• 6 tbspCumin powder
• 6 tbspGarlic powder
• 6 tbspOnion powder
• 4 tbspChilli powder
• 6 tbspSalt
• 4 tbspGround pepper
• 6 tbspPaprika
• 3 cupsBrown sugar
•  
• Brine solution
• 3 cupsSalt
• 3 cupsBrown sugar
• 1 cupDry rub
• 12 LCold water
• 10Bay leaves
•  
• 8 kgsPork (Boston Butt)

Preparation

1. Mix all dry rub ingredients together
2. Prepare brine solution by dissolving salt and sugar in cold water
3. Add some of the dry rub mix to the brine solution and stir
4. Take a ziplock bag and put pork pieces in it
5. Add brine solution and bay leaves and seal
6. Place in fridge overnight
7. Remove pork pieces and pat dry with towel tissue
8. Place in oven tray and rub dry run mix all over, tucking it into any flaps. Reserve some dry rub mix.
9. Rest for 1 hour
10. Preheat oven to 100°C
11. If the pork piece does not have a layer of skin, cover tray tightly with Al foil
12. Push thermometer probe into the pork piece
13. Place in oven for 8 hours, ensuring that the internal temperature rises to nearly 100°C
14. Rest it covered, inside the oven, for 2 hours
15. Remove from tray and shred with two forks
16. Sprinkle dry rub mix and some of the melted fat

One of the moreish dishes I like making is pulled pork. My go-to recipe is Kevin and Amanda’s pulled pork. The ideal cut for this is the Boston Butt. You don’t usually see this sold as such at Australian butchers but my friendly local butcher can be counted on providing it, once I describe exactly what part I am after and where exactly to cut it.

The Cub was turning 20. He wanted to hold a small party with 40 to 50 teenagers. Some kind of food was in order – possibly several pizzas. As I was walking around the shopping centre, I see one of the shops with a placard advertising Boston Butt for $9 a kilo. OK, universe, I can take a hint.

Each pack of Boston Butt was about 1.6 to 1.8 kgs. Five of these should give me a little over 8 kilos of pork. Not having cooked 8 kilos of meat before, I had a bit of a challenge coming up.

The first step was to make the dry rub mix. Lots of it. About six times the usual. Not being sure of the guests' ability to handle heat, the chilli powder and pepper were only four times the usual. Onion powder and garlic powder were a bit hard to find but I made do with onion flakes and garlic granules. I just had to pop them in the coffee grinder for a minute.

The next step was to brine all that pork. I used large ziplock bags (33x38cm). It was two pieces to a bag. I topped it up with the brine and popped in the two bay leaves.

I ended up with three bags of brined meat. The whole lot went into the vegetable drawer in the fridge.

I used 2 large foil trays (45x34x5.5cm). I could squeeze in 3 in one tray and two in the other.

The dry rub went on next. Pretty soon, most of the dry rub was gone. The pieces did not have the usual layer of skin and fat on top so I decided to cover them tightly with foil. I pushed the thermometer probe through the foil into the meat. The trays were a bit too big for the oven – so I had to fold the edges so that it would fit in.

Eight hours later, the meat was done. A couple of more hours in a switched off oven and it was pulled out. The meat sat in a pool of melted fat and fell apart quite easily.

All set for the party. The meat was shredded on to a big tray and sprinkled with the dry rub mix and a few spoons of the melted fat. You can see a tiny sample below. Cub went and got 3 bags of buns - a bit too much, I thought.

The party went off without a hitch (I am told). Of the eight kilos of meat, there was no sign - the only clues were aluminium trays of melted fat and a large pile of leftover bread. Word is they ate the pork in fistfuls and mostly did not bother with the buns.

So all that remained was a large pile of buns. And a large helping of pulled pork sneaked into the fridge before the party. So what is to happen with all that bread? In it went into the freezer in plastic bags. Omens are it will make its reappearance over the next week or two, probably in the form of a bread pudding.