This winter I made the unanimous decision (meaning I made it and everyone goes along with it) that once a week we'd make a big ol' batch of something: Chili, Coq Au Vin, Roast Beef, Roast Vegetables, various soups... So we'd have something easy and warm for lunches and dinners through the early part of the week. On Sunday I whipped up a batch of Ultimate Cheater Pulled Pork courtesy The Splendid Table's web site. It is NOT a replacement for a real BBQ but it IS a great sandwich fixing. Super easy, too:
In short, you drop a pork butt into the slow cooker, add dry rub and bottled smoke, close the cover, go away for a while, pull or chop the meat and pile it on a bun, add sauce, get out the pickles, open a beer. BOOM! That's barbecue, baby. Can you feel it? That's Ultimate Cheater Pulled Pork.
Tweaks I made:
- I used Steven Raichlen's basic rub recipe, because I had it on hand. We grill or roast meat with bbq rub all year, and I like knowing my rub hasn't been sitting in a tin somewhere, losing flavor.
- Dialed back just a bit on the liquid smoke. Just a smidge, not by much because we had a larger roast than the recipe listed. I can detect a sharper edge to that liquid smoke flavor and didn't want to risk the pork coming out with that metallic-y taste. Still came out "smoky" and the house smelled absolutely amazing.
Thoughts:
- Def. will make this again. It is a great sandwich fixing - rich, warm, flavorful. Simple and direct. Easy to store and serve. Ridiculously easy to prepare, and works well for the "serve yourself & save" set.
- This would have cost us two or three times as much had we ordered it from a restaurant, and it stretches nicely with shredded cabbage.
- If the other recipes in the "Splendid Cheap Eats" section are this good, I'll have to try them too.
Any recommendations you'd make to further tweak this recipe? Links to similar recipes? I'm all ears.
-Julia
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Julia Schrenkler
Interactive Producer
American Public Media
Minnesota Public Radio
Objects in Mirror
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Comments: 30
And thanks for the comments. We're glad folks are getting something out of the book. Keep on Cheatin'.
A little liquid smoke goes a long way. I may try a dash more next time, but really, I barely dialed it down. Any other recommendations from your book?
We appreciate the enthusiasm. We love our little book and so glad it's making sense to others. RB
Hmmmm did you post how you braised the turkey? It makes sense, but I've never done it.
Not frozen all natural turkeys on sale for 29 cents a lb - how could I pass it up? I bought a 21 pounder - unstuffed - I put it in a cold oven at 11:30 set it to 450 and went to work with instructions to turn it to 275 when it hit 450. At 2PM my twitter friends said it would take 9 hours unless you up the temp, so I called home and asked for 325. I returned from work at 4PM.
At 5:15 the internal temp was between 185.7 and 194.3 DONE
(actually, overdone) 4:30 to 4:45 would have been better, but I - slacker that I am - was napping! It was still moist in a beautiful bath of rich flavorful broth. I froze a breast and both legs, carved the meat for this week's food and put the rest of the whole mess on to make broth overnight on the back of the woodstove. Tomorrow I'll strain it and chill to skim off the fat and freeze tomorrow night. (5 qts of broth in the freezer now)
I made this on the gas grille this summer?
bacon explosion
Didn't you mention that before?! That bacon explosion dish is insane. Not sure I'd be up for that.
Meanwhile, thank you Julia for sharing your pulled pork tale. R.B. has some other great additions to what I would love to have as regular staples around here.
P.S. Sometimes a unanimous decision is exactly what's needed. ; )
Excuse me why I wipe up my drool.
Make it with ground lamb and Greek seasoning?
catch a twins game and get some of the best grub around
Bryants