Pulled Pork

I make pulled pork a lot. It's great on sliders, or on crusty rolls,..we have it for lunch often with rice and veggies. It traditionally pairs up with cole slaw....and it probably never tastes exactly the same twice in a row. Don't expect a thick, sweet, barbecue sauce version. This is a bit more complex, more spicy  than sweet, with interesting depths of flavors.

 As I have said, I am not a strict recipe follower, nor do I have any desire to be a test kitchen. I will sketch out here the process I follow and the variations you can put into play along the way. Try it once as written, then play with the ingredients to suit your taste. You will need:

• a large onion
• 5 large cloves of garlic
• a few bay leaves
• pork
• juice of one lime
• spices (cumin, chili powder. paprika, allspice, cinnamon, ginger or cloves...)
• salt and pepper
• cooking liquid (chicken broth, wine, water..)

At home in Maracaibo I buy whatever piece of pork I can find; usually a boneless piece of indescribable cut. Here I bought a "4.37 lb pork loin bone in loin end roast", because it was the closest in size and look to what I was used to. Obviously the bone-in part is different, but it won't matter.
Start out by finely slicing a large onion. The onion will be used to make a bed for the pork in the pot. It will cook up and become part of the sauce by the end of the cooking time. Thinner slices disintegrate into the sauce better. I also crushed and peeled 5 good sized garlic cloves. Again, you can add more or less according to your taste, but try it this way first. I also added several bay leaves to the bottom of the pot.

Clean most of the excess fat off the outside of your pork. It will all cook down into the sauce, so the more you take off now the less greasy your sauce later.
Place the pork on the bed of onions and garlic in a heavy pot with a tight-fitting lid. This pork will cook slowly for hours. The better fitting the lid the less moisture will seep out and the less you will have to replenish liquids.
Now for the seasoning. My pork roasts and pulled pork tend to be a hybrid of the first pernil recipe I got from my husband's Tia Nena about 40 years ago, and a great Caribbean spiced pork recipe I came across years later. Hers was sweeter, mine is now spicier, not hot, spicy. You can add or leave out seasonings as you wish. You will need some type of liquid (broth, wine, juice...I've been known to throw in a bit of black coffee), and a seasoning mix that you like.
Here's what I did.
When I put the pork in the pot I bathed it in the juice of one large lime. (Tia Nena used orange juice, sweetened as most Venezuelan orange juices were and are). Then I began layering on the spices. Just shake a layer of each over the surface of the meat. Cumin, chili powder (paprika, aji molida...), some red pepper flakes, allspice, cinnamon.  You can add ginger and cloves, but I didn't today. (I have been known to simplify things by using a creole seasoning mix in our everyday lunch pork at home, always adding a bit of allspice and cinnamon. It seems to me that a bit of cinnamon sweetens meat sauces without adding sugar.) You want a spicy, aromatic mix that YOU like...if you hate cloves, don't add them.

Tia Nena's recipe used a mixture of catsup and mustard over the top of the meat. I agree that a tomato, mustard mix is great. I use home made tomato sauce or tomato jam at home, but today I fell back on the catsup/mustard mixture. Just spread catsup over the top of the roast, add some mustard and spread it around. Salt and pepper well. There...

You need some liquid in the bottom of the pot. Not more than two inches. If I have home-made chicken broth I use that, with or without a bit of water. Today I added some white wine and water. The bone/in roast will make a nice broth all by itself as it slow cooks.

Place the pot on the stove. Bring the liquid just to boiling. Put the top on. Turn the heat down to LOW. Relax. We are going to cook this for hours. How many? Depends on the size of your pork and the temperature you're using. This roast went a little over 4 hours.You should check every hour or so, add liquid if it is drying out, and after a good while start giving the pork a poke with a fork. I had a tight fitting lid on the pot and so plenty of liquid throughout the cooking cycle. It's done when it falls apart and can easily be shredded.

Let the meat cool a bit, then shred it piece by piece using two forks. Put the shredded meat back into the cooking liquid and simmer for a while. If there seems to be too much liquid you can turn up the heat and reduce it as needed. You can taste the liquid now...and adjust to taste.

We enjoyed this pulled pork on open-faced, home made cheese biscuits, and there's still some left over for tomorrow!