Pulled Pork

Pulled Pork is one of those dishes that I never thought I could replicate well. I'm not sure why I held this belief. After all, it should just be pork and spices, right? I think it was more the fact that I've had good Pulled Pork at restaurants and I was worried that if I tried it at home, it would end up being a miserable failure. When we saw this recipe from Skagit River Ranch, however, we decided to give it a try.

First the Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 4 lbs of boneless pork shoulder
• 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
• 3/4 cup cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup catsup
• 1/3 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)
• 1/4 cup light molasses
• 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• salt and pepper

So how did we do on our goal to use local ingredients? Not very well, I'm afraid. We used olive oil from Napa and the cider vinegar, catsup, brown sugar, molasses, red pepper flakes, Worcestershire sauce, dry mustard, salt, and pepper were all purchased from the local grocery store. At least the catsup was organic. The yellow onion came from the Ballard Farmer's Market and the pork shoulder was from Skagit River Ranch. Well, I guess 2 out of 12 isn't as bad as 0 out of 12.

Now the process:

Cut the pork into several equal pieces. We had to use two pieces of pork shoulder in order to get 4 pounds, so I took the larger piece and cut it in half first. Head the oil over medium high heat. Brown the pork on all sides, about 10-12 minutes. Transfer the pork to the slow cooker.

Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of fat from the frying pan. Note: We had to skip this step. There was almost no fat in the frying pan. Oh how we love Skagit's meat. Return the pan to medium-high heat and add the onion. Saute for about 5 minutes until the onions are golden in color. Add the vinegar and use it to deglaze the pan, scraping up any browned bits of meat. Add the catsup, brown sugar, molasses, red pepper flakes, Worcestershire sauce, dry mustard, and some salt and pepper. Cook until the mixture begins to bubble, stirring occasionally.

Pour the sauce over the pork, cover, and cook on high 4-5 hours or on low for 8-10 hours.

When the slow cooker is done, transfer the pork to a dish and shred the pork using a pair of forks. Discard any large pieces of fat. Skim off any excess fat from the sauce (we had none). Return the pork to the sauce and stir.

We decided that next time we made this, we would add some bourbon to the sauce as well. The recipe encourages you to serve this over rolls, but we usually just pick up a loaf of bread from Tall Grass Bakery and have that on the side. The pork is also excellent cold, on a salad the next day.