Pulled Pork with South Carolina Mustard Style BBQ Sauce is a summer holiday favorite, piled high on buns with tangy sauce made from scratch.
Pulled Pork with South Carolina Mustard Style BBQ Sauce
by Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime
6.24.14
Pulled pork is at its best when cooked on a smoker, or using an indirect method of heat on the barbecue grill. It is not as difficult as you might think, with most of the work being maintaining a good temperature inside the smoker.
I know there are lots of recipes calling for making the pork in the oven or in the crockpot. Trust me. If you want TRUE barbecue smokehouse flavor, those recipes will not even come close.
When smoking the meat, an amazing thing happens, and leaves an outer pinkness to the meat called the smoke ring. BBQ purists live for this! When you see it, don’t be afraid that the meat is not done. It will be if the temperature inside is correct. The pinkness comes from the smoke, and that’s the magic in the flavor. It will only penetrate an inch or so and then goes no further, so you won’t have to keep adding smoking chips all through the process. When we use smoking chips, it is to add a special kind of wood flavor to the smoke already inside the smoker, and in this case, I like to use hickory. It is very Carolinas.
Also, sometimes you may see Boston Butt or Pork Shoulder roast smoked to the point of blackness to get what purists call the “bark” on the outside. Bark is great! It adds even more smoky, crispy flavor, but it need not be *black*. If you are patient and keep good control of your inside temperature in the smoker, the meat should be a nice deep, dark, brown, like espresso. Black is burnt no matter how you call it.
Another thing about making pulled pork is that while normally when cooking pork you opt for a much lower temperature, the temp inside the pulled pork will be in excess of 180F. While for other cuts, this spells disaster and very dry meat, for the roast, it means the meat will be starting to break down, which makes it very easy to “pull” or shred after it rests, and the meat will be quite juicy still.
The sauce I made for this is my version of the mustard style Carolinas sauce, which I know folks in North Carolina might get hot around the collar about. But further south where they still roast pig, there has been a heavy influence by German immigrant families which favor the mustard flavor. And it is good! The balance in mine is the best my husband has tasted, or so he says. You KNOW I like it or I wouldn’t post it. 😉
And I hope you enjoy as well. Perhaps this will be your choice for the upcoming Independence Day holiday? It serves quite a few for an outdoor picnic or cookout, provided you remember to give ample time to get the meat done. If your smoker is well regulated, you might be able to start it the night before. If you must use a normal grill and indirect heat, you might opt to smoke it in advance and serve it later. If you have a really large crowd, it might be an option anyway, if your grill and smoker is going to be overloaded with other items from the get-go and you need more food.
Do enjoy! And if printing the recipes, make sure you print all three if you need them.
~Sue
Boston Butt with Dry Rub
Smoked Boston Butt
Pulled Smoked Pork
Pulled Pork with South Carolina Mustard Style BBQ Sauce
Ingredients:
- 1 8-10 pound bone-in Boston Butt roast (pork shoulder roast)
- 1 recipe Bourbon Barrel barbecue dry rub or other barbecue dry rub (see recipe below)
- 1-2 cups soaked hickory smoking chips
- 2-3 cups South Carolina Mustard Style BBQ Sauce (see recipe below)
Method:
- Prepare bbq dry rub and rub all sides of roast; cover with plastic wrap and let sit out one hour at room temperature.
- Soak chips and wrap in foil punched with small holes or place in a wood chip smoker box.
- Place chips on coals and roast in smoker, fatty side up, and smoke for about 10 hours, or until internal temp reaches 190F, maintaining a consistent smoker temperature of 250-275F.
- You can choose to apply a mop, but I do not. I think it gives the bark extra crispiness.
- When the meat is done, bring it inside, pull out the bone, which should come out easily, and hack the meat up using cleavers.
- Serve meat with sauce as desired (I serve the pork on sandwich buns.)
Bourbon Barrel Barbecue Dry Rub
Bourbon Barrel Barbecue Dry Rub
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 tablespoons oak barrel aged SMOKED PAPRIKA or other smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon GARLIC powder
- 1 teaspoon ONION powder
- 1/2 teaspoon sea SALT
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse ground BLACK PEPPER
- 1/4 teaspoon ground CUMIN
- 1/4 teaspoon ground MUSTARD
- 1/2 teaspoon THYME leaves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground CAYENNE PEPPER
Stir mixture together and store in a sealed container in a cool dry place until needed.
South Carolina Mustard Style Barbecue Sauce
Method:
South Carolina Mustard Style Barbecue Sauce
Ingredients:
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It looks so yummy…
I used to live in South Carolina…these awesome photos are definitely bringing me back…YUM! 🙂
You always have such yummy stuff!
Thank you so much!