Making pulled pork for barbecue sandwiches is not a complicated task. Anyone can do it with the proper equipment, the proper ingredients, and a little bit of barbecue pit-master know-how. First, the equipment.
To make real barbecue like pulled pork, a real barbecue smoker is required. There are basically three different styles of a smoker, an offset, vertical, or kettle type. They all use low, indirect heat. Many people already own a barbecue grill that can be used as a smoker, the kettle type grill made famous by Weber. This type of grill can be set up to be used as a smoker simply by building two small charcoal fires on either side of the grill, and placing the meat in the center of the grill, not directly over the heat. Remember, real barbecue is low and slow cooking, so the fires should not be built very big. If a kettle type smoker is not available, an adequate smoker can be purchased at almost any of the big box home improvement stores, or even at a store such as WalMart.
The cut of meat usually used for pulled pork is the pork shoulder. Many people will use just a portion of the pork shoulder, the cut known as the Boston butt. Contrary to what many believe, this is not off the "butt" of the pig, where the hams come from, but is off the butt end of the pork shoulder. Hence the term, Boston butt. Ask the butcher for one, he'll know what it is. This piece of meat should be rubbed all over with a mixture of spices called a barbecue rub. Most rubs contain salt, pepper, some type of sugar, and various different spices according to the taste of the barbecue chef. There are may recipes for barbecue spice rubs, and can be found all over the Internet, or even in a public library. Most rubs are applied liberally, and allowed to stand on the meat for a few hours prior to cooking.
The smoker is fired up according to whatever fuel it is designed to use, and wood or wood chunks or chips are used to make smoke in the smoker. The meat is put inside the cooker, and the temperature is maintained at what is known as "low and slow". The temperature most barbecue cooks aim for is around 235-240 degrees F for smoking their pork. Depending on the size of the piece of meat, it could take 6 to 12 hours to properly smoke the meat. Most barbecue chefs will use the internal temperature of their butt to determine the temperature at which their meat is finished cooking. They are satisfied when the internal temperature of the meat gets to 195 degrees.
After the meat is smoked in the smoker, it is shredded or chopped, and served with a little bit of whatever barbecue sauce is preferred by the chef. Again, like rub recipes, there are many different sauce recipes which can be found on the internet or other information locations. Most people will serve their pulled pork as a sandwich either on soft white bread (think Wonder) or on soft white hamburger type buns. Many times, coleslaw is served atop the sandwich or as an accompanying dish on the side.
This is a quick run down on how to smoke pulled pork for barbecue sandwiches. Anyone can do it with the proper equipment, ingredients and knowledge of the art of barbecue cooking.
