I’ve been asked to make pulled pork for a graduation party. Having learned some lessons from my last catering effort, I got a head start cooking for the event.
While I would normally do pork butts (recently renamed Boston Roast) low and slow overnight, our weather has been so crazy lately that I decided to go with the hot and fast method – roasting them at 350°F, then foiling and braising them until tender.
The Big Green Egg will hold 4 butts at a time, so I cooked 2 batches. Here’s one batch seasoned up with Plowboys Yardbird Rub.
I set the BGE up for a 5 hour indirect cook at 350°F. This meant filling the firebox with lump and using a plate setter and drip pan to diffuse the heat. When the BGE was up to temp, I added some chucks of apple wood for smoke. When the smoke went from white (bad) to blue (good) I loaded up the butts, using an extended grid to give me some room and made sure to leave some space between them on the grate so they didn’t act like one big piece of meat.
I cooked the butts for about 4 hours at 350°F, until they developed a nice dark bark on the outside and hit 160°F on the inside.
I moved the butts off to a hotel pan and covered them tightly with heavy-duty aluminum foil. The pan full of butts went into the oven set at 350°F. I braised them for a little over 2 hours, until their internal temperature hit 210°F. Then I removed the pan from the oven and let them cool for another hour before pulling the meat.
My dear wife broke down the major muscle groups from the fat and connective tissue and I worked the meat over using a pair of bear paws to help remove all the remaining inedible bits and separate the meat into tasty morsels. I added a little finishing sauce while we were working with the meat to help keep it moist.
The finished pulled pork was put into one gallon zip-top freezer bags and stashed in the deep freeze until the big day.
I’ll follow up next month and let you know how it went. Wish me luck!
One year ago – Chicken & Chorizo Fajitas
Two years ago – Lemon Pepper Chicken
I used your method when I read about your last catering outing and I had fantastic results. You mentioned that you braised the meat in the oven but I didn’t see a comment on if you added some type of liquid before foiling. I used some apple juice mixed with water. Did you add anything? And as usual, thanks for this great site. I use it often for inspiration.
Good to hear you got great results and glad to hear you like the site, thanks!
Last time I added a cup of apple juice to the braise, but this time I didn’t add anything. There was plenty of liquid in the pans both times and I think this batch tastes great, so I don’t think it matters much. If I was doing only 1 or 2 butts, I would probably add a little liquid just because you wouldn’t have as much moisture coming off the meat.
While I like cooking my pork on the Egg start to finish, your method gives a consistent and quick way to do a bunch.
I want a Green Egg.
8 years now and I’ve loved every minute of cooking on it. The best deal is to find an Eggfest near you and arrange to buy one of the demo Eggs. They’ll only have cooked on a couple of times and usually hundreds cheaper than brand new.
Thanks – yeah, for one or two butts I’d do it low and slow, but we just got another 6 inches or snow and haven’t had enough consistently nice weather to do anything more than about a 5 hour cook.