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| Pulled Pork by The Hungry Dudes |
Our obsession began when a little place called Smokey Bones* opened up down the road from Big's office. Everyone we knew suggested the pulled pork platter, so that's what we got. And it was amazing.
It wasn't super overpowering with flavor, but it had enough that it was delicious alone. You bet your sweet ass they had a few different sauces for you to try. And those were really good, too.
We haven't been in years, so I don't know how they are now. But the pulled pork obsession has stuck with us. I make it all the time.
I never use the same recipe because I've never found one that really speaks to me. They've all been good, but I always think it can be better. And so I've been through recipe after online recipe trying to find something I like.
But, you see...I never actually follow the recipe. I find many online recipes quite bland, or at least not living up to my expectations, and so I'm always adding a dash of this, and a sprinkle of that. It's never been bad, but it's never been what I'm looking for, either. Bummer.
So, I said to myself, "Self, why don't we just try it their way this once, make note of what we'd do different, and keep notes somewhere." And voila! The pulled pork recipe review series was born.
For most of these reviews, I'll be using the exact recipe, start to finish, because I want to know what baseline tastes like. If I don't like it, I'll write down why, and maybe even try to fix it later. That one's still up in the air.
Starting with this recipe, which was the first link offered when I searched for "pulled pork pressure cooker." There are multiple alternative recipes on that page, but I didn't use any of them. Like I said, I was going for baseline.
I'm not going to be super thorough with the directions in these reviews, though I may discuss parts that I don't agree with, but did anyway for the sake of sticking to the recipe. I am going to include the ingredients, and here they are:
- 1 small to medium boneless pork shoulder or butt, about 3 to 4 pounds
- 1 tablespoon sweet paprika or smoked paprika
- 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- pinch cinnamon
- 1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 to 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
The recipe is insanely easy. You just rub the roast with the dry ingredients, put it and the wet ingredients in the pressure cooker and cook it for 20-25 minutes. So I cheated a little. My roast wasn't boneless because I didn't plan to do this until it was happening. And I like to cook my bone-in roasts for an hour. I find they fall apart more. But I let this one go for an hour and a half, and it still didn't attain that perfect, fall right off the bone and basically shred itself texture.
I did not sear the meat, though I really, really wanted to. The recipe didn't call for it and I decided that would be going too far.
What? It's my series. I get to make (and decide when to break) the rules.
Anyway, it was awful.
When I shredded the meat, I tasted some before doing anything else to it, like you do. The spices didn't get into the meat at all, and it basically tasted like apple cider vinegar. Blech. I didn't have any backups planned because I've never had a recipe go so wrong, so I decided to do some other stuff the recipe didn't call for.
Most of the other pulled pork recipes I've tried have you reduce the liquid, and put the shredded pork back in to cook for a few minutes. I figured maybe the spices would actually go into the meat that way. I also added some sugar, and a little more S&P. It was still really bland and vinegary, but edible, and almost decent with barbecue sauce. Big used Heinz Kansas City Sweet & Smoky, and I used Heinz Carolina Mustard Style.
So it can be fixed! Sort of. But if you're looking for something that you don't have to fiddle with, this ain't it.
Big's Rating: ⭐️⭐️
Little's Rating: ⭐️
highest possible rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Anyway, it was awful.
When I shredded the meat, I tasted some before doing anything else to it, like you do. The spices didn't get into the meat at all, and it basically tasted like apple cider vinegar. Blech. I didn't have any backups planned because I've never had a recipe go so wrong, so I decided to do some other stuff the recipe didn't call for.
Most of the other pulled pork recipes I've tried have you reduce the liquid, and put the shredded pork back in to cook for a few minutes. I figured maybe the spices would actually go into the meat that way. I also added some sugar, and a little more S&P. It was still really bland and vinegary, but edible, and almost decent with barbecue sauce. Big used Heinz Kansas City Sweet & Smoky, and I used Heinz Carolina Mustard Style.
So it can be fixed! Sort of. But if you're looking for something that you don't have to fiddle with, this ain't it.
Big's Rating: ⭐️⭐️
Little's Rating: ⭐️
highest possible rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
*None of the links in this post are paid for. I'm a bb blog. Who would pay me for advertising? No one, that's who. And also, I am not currently an affiliate with any company, so I don't receive compensation for sales made through links in my posts. That might change eventually (I hope). If so, I will be sure to let y'all know.↩
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