Pull-a-pig

My turn to cook again in the house of dreams. I have been cooking a lot of Italian recently so decided to change tack and went for an American diner classic - pulled pork. If you've never tried it (quite likely if you've never been to the states) it's basically a shredded shoulder of pork that is marinated in various spices and packs some real flavour. If you've ever had a "Pig sandwich" at the Hard Rock Cafe then you are on the right lines.

The best version I've ever had is in a place called Bodeans of which there are several in London. I was introduced to this place by an old flatmate who was American-born and loved it.

I first needed to get the meat coasted in the rub so it could marinate overnight. This consisted of light brown sugar, cinnamon, chilli powder, smoked paprika (you can be quite liberal with this as the sugar will help balace any bitterness and the smokyness is essential), mustard powder, coarse salt, pepper, a little corriander and some onion salt.

The next step is to coat the meat in this rub, you want to make a really large amount of the rub so that you can stuff into the crevice of the pork where the bony parts of the shoulder used to be. I have been deliberately vague with quantities for the above as its quite subjective ehat to put in, personally I love having a lot of cinnamon but this might not be to everyone's taste. As a rough guide use a LOT of the sugar and about half to a quarter that of everything else (except for seasoning) dependant on you taste.

After a good period in the fridge (at least 12hrs is good) you need to prepare the meat for its long cook. Find a baking tray for which you have a wire rack that doesn't quite fit the bottom. Add a few cups of clear apple juice to the tray ensuring that it doesn't come higher than where the rack sits. Place your meat on top of this and wrap tightly in foil so that you think that no steam can escape.

Cook at 150C for between 5 and 6 hours taking care not to unwrap it from is foil prison. Then remove all the foil and whack the temp up to 200C for 45mins. You should have a very well cooked bit of meat that is difficult to remove from the rack without it falling apart!

Using two forks, pull the meat apart into its fibres.

You then need to place it into a large frying pan or wok and add the apple/meat juice that is in the bottom of the tray. You want to reduce it to a sticky, sweet sauce and almost all of the liquid has evaporated. Incidentally, this is where this recipe really differs from what I have had to eat at Bodeans. Their pork is a much drier affair and so is quite different. I suspect that if you were to not do this last step but perhaps dry the meat out in a bit in a smoker you might have something closer to Bodeans.

In the meantime, fry up some American style fries. I find its best to cut the fries well in advance and put them in a bowl in the fridge to dry out ala Heston Blumenthall's chips only without the first boiling.

Now you are pretty much ready to go! Serve it with some toasted buns, your fries, and some coleslaw. You can the accessorise you sandwich however you feel fit; smoked cheese is a good start and add in a good BBQ or blue cheese sauce and you're all set!