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Pulled Pork

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I cooked this recipe for a number of demonstrations for Big Green Egg.  Customers always wanted to know the ingredients for the rub that I'd applied to the meat.
I usually prepared the meat in two stages; first brining the meat overnight, then applying a dry rub to the meat to give a wonderful smoky, spicy flavour to the outside layers.
Brining pork is a process of soaking the meat in a salt and flavouring solution to impart moisture and flavour right into the joint. The flavour of the brine will soak right into the heart of the meat. You can skip this step if you don't have the time.
Cooking pork 'Low and Slow' works a treat and the Big Green Egg is perfect for this.
This pork is great in my Brioche Buns.
Pin Recipe
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 19 hours
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

Pork Rub Ingredients
Pork Brine Ingredients
  • 1 litre boiling water
  • 1/2 cup sea salt
  • 1 tbsp crushed black peppercorns grind them freshly in a mortar and pestle
  • 2 tsp cloves
  • 5 bay leaves
  • 1 litre cold water
Pork
  • 3 kg of pork shoulder skin removed

Equipment

Grill Temperature

110C temp_icon

Surfaces

Stainless grid
An icon of the Big Green Egg ConvEGGtor, which used to be called a plate setter

Method
 

Brining
  1. Bring 1 litre of water to the boil in a stainless steel pan.
  2. Add the salt, peppercorns, cloves and bay leaves to the water and dissolve the salt.
  3. Set the pan aside for five hours for the cloves and bay leaves to flavour the liquid. It will darken.
  4. Add the cold water and your pork joint to large pan. Cover the pork with more water if needed.
  5. Leave to brine for 12 or more hours (ideally overnight) in the fridge.
  6. Once brined, take out and dry.
Pork Rub
  1. Coat your pork with a thin layer of American mustard to create a binding layer for the rub.
  2. Mix all the spices together.
  3. Rub into the pork joint covering all sides.
  4. If you have time, put into a plastic food bag, tie shut and leave to marinate overnight (at least 6 hours) in the fridge. If you are short of time, just apply the rub then start the cook.
Slow cooking the Pork
  1. Get your Big Green Egg fired up with your ConvEGGtor feet up and the stainless steel grid on top.
  2. Adjust the rEGGulator and lower air vent to level the temperature at 110°C. I find 0.5 - 1cm of bottom air vent and the rEGGulator cracked to about 1 or 2mm. Yep that's all.
  3. Take your pork out of the fridge when you are ready to grill.
  4. Put the pork either directly onto the griddle or into a large cast iron pan (Dutch Oven). The cast iron pan will catch any juices and maintain more moisture within the joint. Leave the lid off though to allow the smoke to flavour the meat.
    5. Meat takes on smoke much better when it is cold and wet, so there is no need to bring it to room temperature.
  5. I cook a 3kg shoulder joint for 15 hours or more, often up to 19 hours. I tend to start the pork 24 hours before I want to eat it.
    6. Pork shoulder will stall at around 65°C, don't panic. Read up on the stall.
    You can wrap your pork shoulder in foil to speed up a cook. This is called a Texas Crutch. However you will sacrifice the bark, the dark outer layers of the meat. I try not to wrap my pork shoulders.
  6. The key to pulled pork is reaching an internal temperature in the meat of 88°C to 92°C. At this temperature the connective tissue in the meat melts, moisurises the meat and allows the meat to be succulent and pull. If you don't get to this temperature. the meat will taste dry and will be very difficult to pull.
    7. If it is ready early you can wrap it in foil and old bath towels, and place it into a cool box. It will keep it warm for hours.
  7. At least 1 hour before serving take your joint off the Egg, wrap in foil and allow to rest. Reserve the juices in the cast iron pan.
  8. Once rested pull the pork apart with two forks.
  9. Pour over some of the cooking juices to add flavour and moisturise or add some apple juice or warm BBQ sauce.

Notes

The key to pulled pork is reaching an internal temperature of 88°C-90°C where the connective (tough) tissue breaks down. This process moisturises the meat and makes it really succulent. If you serve your meat before this point it will be tough and dry.
We often speak to customers whos first attempt has been a dry joint that needed to be sliced. This is as the connective tissue hasn't yet melted, moisturising the meat, and making it succulent. It doesn't feel right that in order to get succulent meat, you need to cook it beyond the point where is is tough and dry. 
If you're up against it with time you can cook at 120°C. This will speed up the cook by several hours.
The other option for speeding up the cook, especially when your meat reaches the stall, is to wrap it in foil at this point, known as the Texas crutch.
If your meat is ready ahead of time, wrap it in good quality foil, then towels and put into a cool box. I have kept meat piping hot for 10 hours using this technique. Make sure you use old towels though, they'll smell of BBQ forever no matter how many times you wash them, you'll not be popular if you use the finest Egyption cotton ones.
Make sure you read up on the stall, the point during a cook where the outer layers of meat are drying out through evaporation. We're only talking a millimeter or so on the outside of the shoulder. Just like when we perspire, the evaporation cools the surface it is evaporating from, hence the temperature of the meat can stall (stay level or even fall). Don't panic, this is completely normal. 

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