Pulled Pork Barbecue for a Crowd

I love pork barbecue...Some people crave burgers or steaks- my go-to is a bun piled high with smokey, spicey, sweet pulled pork . Nothing beats a bbq sandwich with all of the trimmings- mac and cheese, baked beans, coleslaw, etc. There are many different schools of thought on the subject- you have your Memphis, Texas, Carolina, and Kansas City varieties to name a few. I don't discriminate by any means but if I had to name a favorite, I'd say my preference would be the mustard-vinegar based Lexington/Carolina style barbecue. I've tried a few slow cooker recipes on a smaller scale but I decided I would try a new method for an event we hosted at our house Saturday for the Urology group at UK. We had 18 adults and a few kids to feed so I figured two pork shoulders (also known as "Boston butt") would feed the masses. Our guests all chipped in with side dishes and beverages to share which was perfect. I studied at least half a dozen recipes and morphed them into this one. It is a two day process- broken into three phases- but it really takes very little "active" cooking time. 1) The Brining Phase- I started with two, bone-in pork shoulders, approximately 5-6 pounds each. I made a brine in the largest stock pot that I own and soaked the pork shoulders for two and a half hours in the fridge. Brining ensures that the pork stays extra juicy and tender in the event you use the slow roast or smoked method of cooking it. The brine consisted of: 1 cup of flour 1/2 cup of sugar 1 tablespoon of whole peppercorns 4 quarts of water

2) The Spice Rub- I removed the pork from the brine and patted the shoulders dry with paper towels. (Removing any peppercorns that stick.) I rubbed them generously on all sides with a spice rub and placed them on a large roasting pan covered with tin foil to hang out in the fridge over night. (I covered the pan tightly with more foil.)

Spice Rub: 1/2 cup cumin 1/2 cup brown sugar 2/3 cup paprika 1/2 cup chili powder 2 tbsp cayenne powder 1/2 cup salt 1/4 cup black pepper, ground 2 teaspoons onion powder 4 teaspoons garlic powder *I didn't use all of the spice rub mixture so I saved a third of the mixture for later. It would probably be great on grilled chicken or pork tenderloin another day.

I also made a vinegar-based sauce the day prior and let it sit in the fridge over night as well. After much tasting and adjusting of ingredients, I ended up with a mixture of the following:

3/4 cup rice wine vinegar 1 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup molasses

1/3 cup yellow mustard 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Carolina style coleslaw is also typically vinegar based. I read that many people use this very same sauce to dress the cabbage so I poured roughly 1/3 cup of a sauce into a mixing bowl for that purpose. John prefers a mayo-based coleslaw so I decided to marry the two concepts together. I whisked the vinegar sauce together with about one cup of mayonnaise. The flavor was fantastic however next time, I would prepare the vinegar sauce without the cayenne and red pepper flakes first and take the 1/3 of a cup for the slaw before adding the heat. I like a kick to just about everything but I think the coleslaw should really have a cooling balance to the heat of the barbecue.

*I used one head of green cabbage and a generous 1 cup of baby carrots for the slaw. (This ended up being pretty carrot heavy.) I gave it all a rough chop by hand and then pulsed it into a course confetti like slaw in the food processor. I had to do it in three batches based on the volume. I poured the sauce over and tossed it all together before putting it in the fridge to set up overnight.

3) Sear and Bake the Pork- The next morning I set the pork out on the counter to come to room temperature - or for about an hour and preheated the oven to 325 degrees. I seared each shoulder over medium-high/high heat in a cast iron skillet coated with oil - rotating it every 90 seconds or so to get a nice crust on all sides. (You need some seriously sturdy tongs for this, its a little awkward to maneuver.) I had two of the flatter roasting pans covered with tin foil and I set one pork shoulder in each to bake. I wanted to give them space so that the heat could distribute evenly. (Make sure the oven rack is in the lowest of the three positions. Also check that your two pans can fit side by side on the rack before you put the pork on them. One large roasting pan might work as well- I don't have one.) I covered the pans with more foil and roasted the pork for 4 hours. Two hours in, I took the two pans out and turned them to ensure that they were cooking evenly.

I would start checking the internal temperature of the meat around 3 hours- you want them to 170 degrees exactly. (Insert the thermometer to the thickest part of the meat, avoiding the bone.) The baking time could vary based on the size of the pork, the position of the pork in the oven, etc. Let the pork cool for 30 minutes or so before removing the bones. You can then slice, chop, or pull the pork depending on your preference. I placed the pork in two large baking dishes and drizzled it with just a bit of the vinegar sauce to keep it moist until we were ready to serve. (I reheated it for a few minutes in a 350 degree oven- covered with foil - just before.) I will say that the vinegar-mustard sauce is quite tangy. I had a few bottles of different sauces for my guests to sample and I determined that the perfect combination was the vinegar-mustard sauce that I made mixed with a Sticky Fingers Sweet Carolina sauce.

Also- if you're a real Carolina barbecue believer, you know that you eat your coleslaw ON your barbecue sandwich. (I like a few pickle slices in there too.)

I would say the barbecue was definitely a hit. By the end of the night (countless sandwiches and some late night picking later) we'd polished all but a few scraps of the pork which was quite a feat. Fortunately John and I did get one more sandwich for lunch the next day. I might need to make up another batch to have on hand around the holidays!