Pulled Pork

Who loves pulled pork?  We do!

I first experienced the wonderfulness of pulled pork when my BFF and her husband were in Raleigh NC while he worked off his 7 years of indentured servitude as a post doctoral candidate in neurobiology.  I looked for recipes to make it myself, but they all called for hours of time over a hot grill.
I live in Las Vegas.  The desert.  The scorching hot desert.  Right now its 99F and climbing.  I will NOT be standing over/next to/in front of a grill for hours while I get heat stroke.  Not even for pulled pork.

What to do?  Well, several modified recipes later I have developed a pulled pork recipe that calls for minimal time on the grill.

You will need:  
3-6# pork shoulder picnic roast (bone in)
2-3 onions roughly chopped
1 bunch of celery roughly chopped
Apple cider vinegar
kosher salt
brown sugar
ground black pepper
paprika
garlic powder
red pepper flakes to taste (I don't use any for now--Things1&2 can't take the heat yet)

In a large crock pot, place the onions and celery.  Add vinegar to a depth of about 1 inch and turn on low.
Mix the dry ingredients together and rub it into the pork until it is well coated.

Turn on the grill (or wait while the charcoal gets hot) and place the seasoned meat in the center of the grilling surface.  Sear for ~10 minutes and turn over.  Baste generously with vinegar.  Sear that side for ~15 minutes (to cook the same amount will take slightly longer because you don't have the benefit of a freshly heated grill).

Remove the meat from the grill and place in the slow cooker on the bed of onions and celery.  Pour ~1 C more vinegar over the meat.  Cover and cook on high, turning over every 30-60 minutes until done.   Baste frequently with the cooking juices and vinegar This seems to be about 45minutes per pound.  Bone in cuts of meat cook faster due to the heat conduction along the bone, cooking both from the outside in and the bone out.

Once the meat is fully cooked, not only to a safe internal temperature (160 F) but when the meat is shredding away when you manipulate the roast, remove the meat and place on a cutting board or other working surface to rest for ~15 minutes.
After the meat has rested for ~15 minutes, pull the pork using your hands (I use a pair of dishwashing gloves that are dedicated to cooking) or bear claw "pullers".    Serve with the cooking juices or "sop" on the side.  You can use your favorite barbeque sauce too, and I won't even judge you, Philistine.

This post is dedicated to my paternal grandfather Lloyd, the best cook I ever knew.

  Lloyd cooked in a restaurant when he and Leta were first married and ran an Army kitchen in Fort Riley KS during WWII.

Lloyd's boys at Ft Riley.  Note the Japanese Americans from the internment camps.   Uncomfortably interesting, eh?

While Leta had all the recipes, he was the cook.  He used to say "Leta cooked for the first 50 years we were married, then it was my turn".  They were married 73 years.