Pulled Pork

A very good friend of mine from Eh-Spain once told me his dream was to come to America, go to the southern states and eat pulled pork. Whilst most things involving porky delights is generally excellent, i never really understood his primal and somewhat strange urge towards pulled pork. To be fair the only memories of pulled pork that i really remember is from Hard Rock Cafe - acceptable but not the OHHH DIOS reaction that this Eh-spanish friend had, whom i shall address as P.

Anyway E, the roommate requested me to make pulled pork, so P, you had all the chicken rice but not the pulled pork (in joke).

The dilemma came about in whether to brine or not. Research has taken me to a route where it seems a brine will develop a more "hammy" flavor with a slightly different texture as from what i''m told, the brine denatures the proteins. Sure.

I opted out for the brine because that meant more work also the piece of meat i have has a nice layer of fat already in it so i'm not worried about it drying out - the main point of a brine i feel. So a dry rub was deployed. The flavor profiles was something I wasn't too sure about but looking it up most of the rubs out there more or less had repeating factors: cumin, rosemary or thyme, coriander, fennel etc. So in no particular amounts, i used a mixture of paprika, cumin, ground coriander, dried rosemary, sea salt, pepper, a little all spice and a little nutmeg - basically i threw in every dried ground spice i had in the cupboards. The pork was left overnight in the fridge and when i woke up in the morning i took it out of the fridge, got ready for school etc and then placed it in the oven at 225F when i left.

Came back after 4 hours, pork was on its way and got the bbq sauce ready. Used a bottle of the pumpkin spiced home brew, some extra water, left over spice rub, ground cinnamon, parsley stalks, ketchup, tamarind extract, siracha sauce, serrano peppers, light and dark soy sauce, salt and of course, pepper (peppercorns actually).

Basted it every 30mins for another 2 hrs and it was ready to be pulled though not after picking at it. Made a quick slaw of cabbage, onions, tomatoes, celery and parsley dressed with a little lime, olive oil and sesame oil. Served everything on a hoagie roll. Damn that was a fine dinner and its time for a nap.

 Oh yea, ever wonder what happens when you leave egg whites uncovered for 2 months in the fridge?!