The Recipe: Pulled Pork

Make this food truck favourite at home—just fire up the smoker, find a bucket big enough for brining, and pull!

The balanced flavours of both the brine and spice rub make this recipe, from Alton Brown’s Good Eats, one that will have you counting down the clock until it’s ready. The end result is absolutely worth those hours of agony as succulent smoke fumes waft and fill the air with meaty magic.

Pulled Pork

Ingredients:

Brine

  • 3/4 cup molasses
  • 1 ½ cups pickling salt
  • 2 quarts bottled water
  • 6 to 8 pounds pork (Boston Butt cut)

Rub

  • 1 teaspoon whole cumin seed
  • 1 teaspoon whole fennel seed
  • 1 teaspoon whole coriander seed
  • 1 tablespoon chilli powder
  • 1 tablespoon onion powder
  • 1 tablespoon paprika

Combine molasses, pickling salt and water in a six quart Lexan. Add pork, making sure it is completely submerged in the brine. Cover and let sit in the refrigerator for at least eight hours, ideally 12.

Place cumin, fennel and coriander seeds in a spice grinder and grind to a fine powder. Transfer to a small mixing bowl and add chilli powder, onion powder and paprika. Stir.

Remove pork from brine and pat dry. Sift the rub evenly over the shoulder and pat the meat with the rub making sure that as much as possible adheres. Wear latex gloves during application to increase the amount of the rub that sticks to the meat, rather than your hands.

Preheat smoker to 210 degrees F. Place the pork in the smoker and cook for 10 to 12 hours, keeping the temperature steady at 210 degrees F. Begin checking the pork for doneness at the 10 hour mark (you can do this using a fork to pull the meat—it's done when it falls apart very easily.

When the pork is done, remove from the pot and set aside to rest for at least an hour. Then pull apart the meat using two forks. Serve as is or with barbecue sauce, potato salad or coleslaw, as featured in our post on barbecue essentials.

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