Instant pot pulled pork?

[Bert2368]

The instant pot arrived. Darn near instantly... $60 from Amazon. And there was a 5 lb. + half pork loin in the fridge. So, it was "ask the internet time".

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00FLYWNYQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

(DAMN! Amazon jacked up the price since 2 days ago!!!)

https://sweetandsavorymeals.com/pressure-cooker-pulled-pork/

Then, I largely ignored the advice and did whatever seemed convenient.

So, the pork was trimmed of about 1 lb. of what I deemed to be excess fat. Saved that for the boerwers saussage campaign (I PROMISE, Michi! Soon!!!).

The little pressure cooker was washed, tested by pressurizing 1X with 3 cups of water. It worked.

Pork was cut into 3 pieces. 2 T of the pork rub I used previously on pork shoulders and sides of ribs was sprinkled over the meat.

12 oz. of beer ("Hazey Little Thing IPA" by Sierra Nevada brewery) and 1.5 cups of the strained & de fatted liquid from the sous vide pork shoulder were added to the instant pot, with 1 tsp. of liquid smoke and 70 grams of de seeded and minced serrono chilis.

I have set pot for 1 hour on high pressure, will allow it to cool naturally until pressure releases.

 

[Bensbites]

Maybe I am missing something, I didn’t think you could “pull” pork loin. Shoulders yes, but doesn’t the loin lack the connective tissue to render and tenderize?

 

[Bert2368]

Maybe I am missing something, I didn’t think you could “pull” pork loin.

Yes, this is indeed an experiment. I don't know W*T*F I'm doing, but I'm doing it annyhow...

 

[Paraffin]

Maybe I am missing something, I didn’t think you could “pull” pork loin. Shoulders yes, but doesn’t the loin lack the connective tissue to render and tenderize?

Right, that pork loin is WAY too lean. Might be salvagable and taste good, but it won't be pulled pork.

The point of pulled pork is that a *very* long cook time breaks down the protein in a cheap cut of meat like pork shoulder/butt and also melts the fat, so you can pull it apart in your fingers after it cools. It has to be a pork shoulder or something equivalent with lots of fat, and you don't trim the fat before cooking. Traditionally, you also want a spice rub on the outside that gets crusty for the "bark" if you're doing a real smoke BBQ to cook it.

These days I do a pulled pork shoulder as a 21 hr. sous vide cook with liquid smoke for fake BBQ taste, and then an oven finish for an hour and a half to finish for the outside "bark." That's cheating, but it works great if you don't have a real BBQ smoker setup.

I think you could do it in an instant pot gadget, but you'd want to use a pork shoulder with a spice rub and *long* cook time to break down the meat and melt the fat. And then an oven finish with another dose of spice rub to set the "bark" before letting it cool and pulling it apart.

There's nothing like it, if you do it right. Even with fake BBQ methods like I use. Pulled pork sandwiches on day one, and then use the leftovers for Brunswick Stew the next day. Pork heaven!

 

[Paraffin]

Here's what my fake BBQ pulled pork looks like, with the 21 hr sous vide cook and an oven finish for the spice rub "bark" on the outside. The crust is what adds flavor and texture to the softer meat when you pull it apart.

 

[Paraffin]

One more thing... at the risk of starting the usual forum BBQ Wars, I will say that in my family tradition -- not raised up in North Carolina but I have family there -- the only proper sauce to use on pulled pork is Eastern North Carolina vinegar sauce, with a touch of sugar. Adding any red tomato-based sauce on this would be sacrilege!

 

[Bert2368]

Please, could you give general recipe guidleines for that "tomato free" Eastern North Carolina BBQ sauce??? Don't have to share all your family secrets, just the basic framework... I have a great uncle and great aunt who we visited in up country South Carolina back in the 1960's and 70's, but they never made BBQ for us when we went there.

 

[Bert2368]

I have shredded the pork, soused it with a bit of the pressure cooker liquid and some pork BBQ sauce I made & canned earlier this year.

Is it the best pulled pork ever? No. I have had some that was better.

Is it edible? HELL YES. And it is head and shoulders above the pulled pork sandwiches I got at the last couple of town festivals and county fairs I shot fireworks at in late July & early August this year.

Sorry, St. Anthony FD and Renville county fair food stands, my first pressure cooker pulled pork was quite good, what you were pumping out was merely adequate. If I use pork shoulder, will it be better??? Tune in next week.

 

[parbaked]

I think this is a nice piece on how to cook and eat pig:

 

[Bert2368]

And since this thing is so freaking FAST, will I have time to do a batch of beef fake BBQ before bed time?

3 lb. of beef round. 2 T of the beef rub I used on last weeks brisket. 1 C of beer. 1 C of the strained & de fatted sous vide liquid from that brisket campaign. A tsp. of liquid smoke. I set it to 55 minutes at high pressure...

More as this story develops.

Update:

From the texture of the meat I just took out of the instant pot (and considering the speed), this is how I would do any quantity cooking of beef POT ROAST in the future. I'll continue to use sous vide/water smoker for BBQ brisket.

The instant pot beef I just made could be quite fine in a lasagne with a bolognese sauce as well, I may shred and freeze it for making this when I've got the time.

 

[panda]

marinate at least an hour, sear it hard on all sides, and then slow cook, let it rest 2 hours.

 

[Bert2368]

marinate at least an hour, sear it hard on all sides, and then slow cook, let it rest 2 hours.

Traditional cooking procedures produce some damn fine foods from my personal taste testings. I suspect that has as much to do with the sheer amount of experienc those cooks have as with the traditional methods they are using.

This little gizmo I'm playing with is fast. How good can it get and still be fast?

I'm an uncircumcised BBQ heathen. I don't need to respect generations of BBQ tradition because "we always did it this way". Just looking for results- Fast results.

 

[Bensbites]

My issue with SV “low and slow” is the lack of bark. I tried ribs early on and they were just mushy. After that the internet filled with spice rubbed barks and I never bothered. I like the bark formed on my KJ on chicken, pork or beef.

My favorite pulled pork recipe is as follows.
1) make homemade salsa. Char peppers, tomatoes or tomatillos, garlic, onion and cumin seeds. Blend, add salt, pepper and lime juice to taste.

2) rub a trimmed pork shoulder with salt, pepper, sugar, chili powder, cumin, and whatever else you like. Place in cookerrn at 250 ish until the bark forms. This will be 160-170 IT, when the bark does not scrape off with your fingernail.

3) add the pork shoulder to a DO omit other covered oven safe pot with a pound of salsa and a bottle of beer. Let this cook down in the oven or outdoor cooker until the liquid thickends and the pork shreds.

 

[Paraffin]

Please, could you give general recipe guidleines for that "tomato free" Eastern North Carolina BBQ sauce??? Don't have to share all your family secrets, just the basic framework... I have a great uncle and great aunt who we visited in up country South Carolina back in the 1960's and 70's, but they never made BBQ for us when we went there.

I can't give you an exact recipe, not because it's secret, but because my wife makes the sauce and she's out of town (visiting daughter in Osaka, eating better than I am, I'm sure!). Classic Eastern NC sauce is pretty basic as I recall, and you just do it by taste. Here's a starting point:

Take a cup of apple cider vinegar, then add just enough white or brown sugar to balance the acid (she uses white sugar). Then add a dash of crushed red pepper flakes or your preferred hot sauce, just a little bit, for a small background kick. That's it. There are recipes all over the Web if you search for Eastern North Carolina BBQ sauce (technically it's a "finishing sauce"). But that's the basic stuff, nothing complicated.

For a "real" pulled pork you do need a spice rub to form the crust. I use the rub before putting it in a 21 hr sous vide vacuum bag, then add it again after drying it off and putting it in the oven for another 1.5 hours to set the crust. Here's my recipe for the rub, and again there's a million ways you can go with this. I usually double the amount for a 3lb pork shoulder just to make sure I have enough:

1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon white sugar
2 tablespoons cumin -- ground
1 tablespoons black pepper -- ground
2 tablespoons chili powder
1.5 tablespoons paprika

My issue with SV “low and slow” is the lack of bark. I tried ribs early on and they were just mushy. After that the internet filled with spice rubbed barks and I never bothered. I like the bark formed on my KJ on chicken, pork or beef.

Well, sure... sous vide or instant pot won't do a bark. So you just use either method, then dry the pork shoulder and apply another coat of spice rub, and throw it in an oven for an hour and a half or so, to get a nice crispy bark. Check out the photos I posted above, that's the bark you get. Not as good as a real slow-cook smoker/BBQ for sure. But if you don't have access to that, or it's just the wrong time of year, this method is a reasonable way to fake it, I think.

Edit to add: I almost forgot! The essential element in "faking it," is that you add a splash of Liquid Smoke to the sous vide bag before the cook, then splash some more on the spice rub before the oven finish to set the bark. It's cheating, but it works!

 

[ian]

And SV is good even if you do have a smoker! I did some ribs recently first starting with a 24 hr SV at 135 F, then in the fridge for the night, then in the BGE at 230 or so for 4ish hrs. (No fussing with covering with aluminum foil or anything.) Best I’ve ever made, and plenty of bark.

 

[Bensbites]

But if you don't have access to that, or it's just the wrong time of year, this method is a reasonable way to fake it, I think.

I am confused by the concept of “wrong time of year”

 

[ian]

I recognize that snow...

 

[Paraffin]

View attachment 58670

I am confused by the concept of “wrong time of year”

I bow my head in respect (bowing) for those who do this in snow.

Up here in the coastal Pacific Northwest with storms blowing off the Pacific Ocean, it's not about snow, but whether the outdoor wind speed is under 20 knots. You get a nice blowtorch effect on the coals, but you have to work really fast! Which isn't ideal for a slow cook.

 

[Bensbites]

I bow my head in respect (bowing) for those who do this in snow.

Up here in the coastal Pacific Northwest with storms blowing off the Pacific Ocean, it's not about snow, but whether the outdoor wind speed is under 20 knots. You get a nice blowtorch effect on the coals, but you have to work really fast! Which isn't ideal for a slow cook.

Wind does make things harder, no doubt!

 

[Xenif]

My inner Canadian say +100 to this

 

[Carl Kotte]

My inner Canadian say +100 to this

If that is what your inner Canadian says, what does your outer Canadian say? (Sorry for the bad joke, couldn’t help myself given the picture of the snowy BBQ! [emoji6]).

 

[nevrknow]

Raised near Lexington NC and the wife is from Goldsboro. (Eastern NC)

Bleh on that vinegar stuff. Yes I converted her!

I get the sacrilege part too. Her parents? Well it took a few times before they would admit it was good. And I mean true dyed in the wool farmers. Thought her dad was going to shoot me a few times!