Carolina Pulled Pork
Pork shoulder rubbed and cooked low for six hours until it pulls apart in strands, dressed the Carolina way with a thin vinegar sauce rather than a sweet one.
Photograph credit: Easter dinner of pulled pork with Kansas City barbecue sauce, potato pancake with… by Daderot · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Pork shoulder is roughly a fifth collagen, and collagen only becomes gelatine above about 70°C / 160°F held for hours — which is why a hot, fast roast gives dry meat and a six-hour braise gives strands that stay moist. Carolina vinegar sauce is thin on purpose: it cuts the fat rather than coating it, so the pork tastes of pork.
Questions About Carolina Pulled Pork
How long does Carolina Pulled Pork take to make?
25 minutes of preparation and 6 hours of cooking, plus 4 hours 30 minutes of chilling, so allow 10 hours 55 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 10.
How to Make Carolina Pulled Pork
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Mix the rub ingredients. Pat the pork dry, score the fat cap in a diamond pattern and work the rub into every surface.
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Leave uncovered in the fridge for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight — the salt draws moisture out and then back in, seasoning the meat through.
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Take the pork out an hour before cooking. Heat the oven to 140°C / 285°F fan.
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Sit the pork fat side up on a rack over a roasting tin with 200 ml water in the bottom. Cover the whole tin tightly with foil.
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Cook for 4 hours covered. Remove the foil and cook another 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until a probe slides in with no resistance and reads about 95°C / 203°F.
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While it cooks, whisk the sauce ingredients together and leave at room temperature for the flavours to meet.
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Rest the pork, loosely tented, for 30 minutes. Do not skip this — it reabsorbs its juices.
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Pull the meat apart with two forks, discarding any hard fat, and toss with the pan juices and half the vinegar sauce.
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Pile into buns (optional) with slaw, with the rest of the sauce on the table.
Related guides: Prep, cook and total time · Ingredient substitutions.
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Worth Getting Right
- Overnight in the fridge, uncovered. Dry surface, seasoned through, better bark.
- Cook to feel, not to the clock. When the probe meets no resistance, it is done.
- Toss the pulled meat with the juices in the tin — that is where the flavour collected.
Pairs Well With
Cider vinegar slaw · Cornbread · An amber ale or sweet tea
Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Creamy Coleslaw, Philadelphia Soft Pretzels, 3 Ingredient Biscuits.
Leftovers and Storage
Refrigerate up to 4 days in its juices, freeze 3 months. Reheat covered with a splash of stock.
What's in a Serving
Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: an ingredient listed without an amount is not counted, so the figures run low. How the figures are worked out.
Gluten-free when served without the soft burger buns.
Your notes on this recipe
Cooked this? Keep a note for next time
Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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