Sous Vide Pulled Pork

August 8, 2010

Sous Vide Pulled Pork

Pulled pork is traditionally a smoker’s dish: a pork shoulder held at low heat for most of a day until the collagen breaks down and the meat falls apart at the touch of a fork. A water bath gets you the same result with none of the fire-tending. The shoulder goes into the bag raw, cooks at a steady 165°F (74°C) for a full day, and comes out already fall-apart tender - the smoker’s slow-and-low logic without the smoker.

That temperature is the one point nearly every sous vide source agrees on. It is well below the 195-205°F a smoker climbs to, but sous vide substitutes time for heat: held long enough, 165°F breaks down the same connective tissue a smoker reaches at 40 degrees hotter. A lower band, down to about 145°F, gives a firmer result that still pulls apart, and either works. Below roughly 140°F the pork turns sliceable rather than shreddable - a different dish, not a lesser version of this one.

The rub is a common barbecue blend - salt, brown sugar, smoked paprika, garlic powder, black pepper, and a little cayenne for heat - patted onto the pork before bagging and again after the bath. What happens after the water bath is the real fork in the recipe: build a bark by finishing the rubbed pork in the oven or on a smoker for an hour or two, or skip that step and shred straight from the bag. Both are legitimate; the bark adds char and a proper crust, while skipping it still gives honestly good, tender pulled pork with less hands-on time.

However you finish it, the shredded pork gets tossed with a sauce built from its own reserved cooking juices - either stirred into a barbecue sauce of your choice or worked into a tangy vinegar sauce in the Lexington style. It suits a backyard cookout or any casual gathering where you’re feeding a crowd, since one shoulder yields a lot of meat from a mostly hands-off cook. Serve it piled on soft buns with coleslaw, alongside cornbread, or straight off the plate with extra sauce on the side.

Ingredients

Serves 6-8

The pork

2.5-2.7 kg pork shoulder (Boston butt), boneless, trimmed and halved
15 ml hickory liquid smoke, optional

The rub

35 g kosher salt
50 g dark brown sugar
25 g smoked paprika
18 g garlic powder
7 g black pepper, freshly ground
2 g cayenne pepper (or red pepper flakes)

The sauce

barbecue sauce (tomato-based or Lexington-style vinegar), for serving

Directions

The rub

Combine the salt, brown sugar, smoked paprika, garlic powder, black pepper, and cayenne in a bowl. Set aside about a third of the mixture - you’ll use it again after the bath.

The pork

Rub the pork shoulder halves all over with the remaining two-thirds of the spice mixture. Place each half in a vacuum bag with half the liquid smoke, if using, and seal; or use zip-top bags and the water-displacement method, lowering the open bag into a pot of water so the pressure pushes the air out before sealing at the waterline.

Preheat the water bath to 165°F (74°C). Submerge the bagged pork and cook for 20-24 hours, covering the container with foil or plastic wrap to cut down on evaporation over the long cook.

Remove the bags from the bath and open them carefully over a bowl, reserving the cooking juices. Pat the pork dry with paper towels and coat it with the reserved third of the spice mixture.

To build a bark, set the pork on a wire rack over a foil-lined baking sheet and roast at 300°F (149°C) for about 1.5 hours, or finish it on a smoker or grill at 275-300°F (135-149°C) for 1.5-2 hours, until a dark mahogany crust forms. To skip the bark, shred the pork as soon as it’s dry and coated. Either way, shred it with two forks, discarding any large pieces of fat.

The sauce

Skim the fat from the reserved cooking juices. Stir a few tablespoons of the defatted juices into your barbecue sauce of choice, then toss the sauce through the shredded pork. Serve extra sauce on the side.

Notes

Temperature schools: 165°F (74°C) for 18-24 hours is the standard for fully shreddable pulled pork. A lower band, 145-154°F (63-68°C) for the same 18-24 hours, gives a firmer texture that still pulls apart - not a different dish, just a firmer point on the same spectrum. Stay above roughly 140°F (60°C); below that, long cooks produce sliceable “chop” pork rather than shreddable pulled pork.
Bark or no bark: finishing the rubbed pork in the oven or on a smoker builds the char and crust that “barbecue” implies, and is worth the extra hour if you have it. Skipping the finish and shredding straight from the bag still produces genuinely good, tender pulled pork - just without the smoke flavor and crust.
If you’re finishing on a real smoker rather than the oven, you can leave the liquid smoke out of the bag entirely.
For a Lexington-style sauce instead of a tomato-based one, whisk the defatted cooking juices with cider vinegar, a little ketchup, sugar, and red pepper flakes to taste.
Leftovers keep well. Reheat gently - back in a bag in a warm water bath, or covered in the oven - rather than in the microwave, which dries the meat out.