Pulled Pork Experiments

The last time I smoked a pork shoulder, I finished the post with "But I'm not sure that it was 8.5 hours good though..." I've meant to do some more experimenting around that, since I suspected that there's more to it than I did in my initial attempts. So I did some searching and found two recipies that I wanted to try, one more lowkey and the other a bit extra. Perfect.

I mixed a batch of liquid that I injected into the pork and then let it marinate over night.

Needs moar garlic!

Shoulder #1 Marinade:
3/4 dl Apple Juice
1/2 dl Water
1/2 dl Sugar
1/4 dl Salt
2 tbs Worcestershire sauce

Shoulder #2 Marinade:
2 dl Coca Cola
1 dl Jack Daniels
1 dl Worcestershire sauce
1 tbs Cider Vinegar
6 chopped garlic cloves
1 tbs Tabasco
1 tbs Celeri Salt

The perfect tool for experiments.

I took them out of the marinate in the morning and dried them off and rubbed them with spices.

Shoulder #1 Spice Rub:
3/4 dl Sugar
1/2 dl Paprika Powder
1/3 dl Garlic Powder
1/3 dl Salt
1 tbs Chili Powder
1 tbs Cumin
1 tbs Black Pepper powder.

Shoulder #2 Spice Rub:
Galena Street rub from Penzeys (Thanks Magnus for shopping).

Then onto the smoker and once again injected with the marinades. The last time it took 8.5 hours to reach my target of an internal temperature of 95°C and this time it went a bit quicker. One shoulder was done after 7 hours and the other after 7.5 hours. Wrapped them in tinfoil and let them rest for an hour to let the juices redistribute themselves in the meat. Grab two forks, and if you've done it right, the pulling of the pork will go very easy.

Toothpick for identification.

The last time I figured that I missed a suitable sauce to use with the pulled pork, so the following was used:

2 dl Ketchup
1.5 dl Coca Cola
1 dl Jack Daniels
1/4 dl Tabasco
2 tbs Honey
1 tbs Soy sauce
Salt + Pepper

I have to admit that I was a tad bit sceptic when mixing it, but the result was amazing. A two punch taste, the initial with flavour and a second hit from the Tabasco. Great stuff, will be used a lot in the future.
   

Very, very tasty.

Serve it all in a bun and slather it with the sauce. Stuff of legends. The JD & Coke shoulder tasted amazing while the more normal one had a better smoke flavour, but still tasted great.

Well worth the time in the smoker. :)