Bubba Tom's Barbecue
Submitted by prettyeyez811
Slow-smoked pork shoulder with oak and apple wood, finished in a Dutch oven with vinegar and red pepper flakes. Real-deal pulled pork barbecue, smoked 8 to 10 hours until fall-off-the-bone tender.
YIELD
1 recipePREP
20 minCOOK
8 hrsREADY
9 hrsThis ain’t no rush job. This is the real thing.
Pork shoulders smoke low and slow over oak and apple wood for 8 to 10 hours, building that gorgeous amber crust pit masters dream about. Whole heads of garlic roast alongside, perfuming everything with mellow sweetness.
Then the magic happens: the meat transfers to a Dutch oven with apple cider vinegar and red pepper flakes, braising until it practically falls apart at a stern look.
This is Eastern Carolina-style barbecue at heart. No thick tomato sauce, no sugar glaze. Just smoke, vinegar, heat, and time.
Pro Tips
- The two-to-one ratio of soaked wood to dry wood is critical. Wet wood creates steady smoke while dry wood keeps the fire burning. Get this wrong and you’ll either flame out or scorch the meat.
- Resist the urge to peek. Every time you open that cooking chamber, you lose heat and extend your cook time. Trust the process.
- Fat side up, always. The rendering fat bastes the meat as it melts down through the shoulder.
- Let the finished pork rest before pulling. Fifteen minutes gives the juices time to redistribute so they end up in the meat, not on your cutting board.
- Save the pot liquor from the Dutch oven. Mixed with a little extra vinegar and pepper flakes, it becomes your finishing sauce.
Ingredients
Directions
First, get yourself some pork shoulders or Boston Butt roasts, as many as your smoker will hold comfortably.
I use a Brinkmann Professional Pit Smoker with an offset firebox, but you can do this with a vertical Brinkmann water smoker as well.
The key is providing a moist, smoky, indirect heat for a long period of time.
What I do is put a bag of charcoal in the firebox, open the vents, light it, and let it burn down to coals.
Then I add wood (generally oak, since hickory is scarce up here)--two parts wet (soaked) wood to one part dry--regulate the dampers, and put the shoulders or butts, fat side up, in the cooking chamber.
Beneath the meat I put a drip pan half-filled with apple cider vinegar.
You must keep the heat between 180 to 260 degrees throughout the smoking process; the optimum range is 220 to 240 degrees.
Normally, I’ll add apple wood to the firebox as well, and I always add between 5 to 7 whole heads of garlic during the process.
Keep the firebox fed and a good smoke going for between 8 to 10 hours.
Do not open the cooking chamber to baste the meat--the only time you open the cooking chamber is when the temperature spikes above 260 degrees, and you open it only long enough to bring the temperature back in the proper range.
By the time the smoking period is finished, the outside of the pork will have a golden amber to dark brown crust.
Now, take the meat and put it in a covered Dutch oven.
If it’s too dark outside to continue, preheat your indoor stoves’ oven to just under 300 degrees; otherwise, just raise the temperature in the cooking chamber a like amount.
Get a quart-sized Mason jar; fill it halfway with apple cider vinegar, add one (or more) teaspoons of red pepper flakes, and fill the rest of the jar with water.
Dump this into the Dutch oven with the pork, cover, and cook until the meat falls from the bone, about 2 more hours or so.
When the meat is done, let it cool a bit.
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