CLEVELAND, Ohio - Don’t look now, but Labor Day weekend is nigh. In ordinary times, we’d be stockpiling beer and burgers for that last big BBQ bash of the summer. But nothing, as you well know, is ordinary this year. So why not make this Labor Day memorable for something else besides stalking the grill, hoping that this time you’ll get it right and catch the burgers at that magic moment between semi-raw and hockey pucks?
How about a labor-less day, slow, sweet, and easy, in the backyard with family or a few friends, and some food that’s already been prepared and is relaxing in the fridge, the flavors melding, just waiting for its chance to shine?
Smoky pulled pork (or beef or chicken), crisp colorful coleslaw and a zippy vinaigrette-based potato salad are the perfect elements for this stress-free dinner. Prepared a day, or even two, before serving, these dishes just improve with age. Call it empathetic food. Maybe we’re feeling like we’ve aged a lot this year. Hopefully, we’ve improved as well. In any case, all of these recipes can be doubled with impunity.
Make enough to send people home with leftovers. Sharing is caring, on holidays and every day.
Pulled Pork Many Ways
There’s an infinite number of ways to prepare pulled pork. If you have the time, inclination, and a zen approach to meat preparation, then smoking is the way to go. It’s the gold standard that results in a pile of almost impossibly tender spice-infused shredded meat, with crisp-chewy bits and the telltale pink ring of smoky perfection.
Other techniques involve very long cooking times at low temperatures in the oven, or an eponymous slow cooker. Then there’s the relatively instantaneous Instant Pot method. The kitchen appliance of the decade, it pressure-cooks a 5 lb. pork shoulder into shreds in a mere hour (feel free to use the Pot’s other settings to make yogurt, hardboiled eggs, rice, oatmeal, strawberry jam, etc. with all the time you’ve saved). But all cooking methods involve a pre-cooking spice rub that deeply infuses the meat with flavor, and a finishing sauce that gives it additional sweetness, heat, and piquancy.
Find your chosen technique in the URLs below, and then come back for some more rub and sauce recipes further down.
Smoked Pulled Pork: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2019/07/real-barbecued-pulled-pork.html
Oven-Roasted Pulled Pork: https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a58254/best-pulled-pork-recipe/
Slow Cooker Pulled Pork: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020497-slow-cooker-bbq-pulled-pork
Instant Pot Pulled Pork: https://recipeteacher.com/best-damn-instant-pot-pulled-pork/
BBQ Pork Shoulder Spice Rub and Molasses Barbecue Sauce(for 4-5 lb. pork shoulder)
These recipes, from Toni Tipton-Martin’s exquisitely researched book, Jubilee, based on historical black cookery, recalls the spicing and “mop sauces pitmasters have used for generations to deeply infuse meat with flavor during the long, slow cooking process.” This rub, interestingly, does not include the customary brown sugar in most rubs, and the oil turns it into a paste that adheres well to the meat. The addition of molasses in the sauce adds a darker mineral tone that deepens the richness of the dish.
Rub:
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
¼ cup vegetable oil
Pat pork dry. In a large zip-top plastic bag, combine all ingredients and turn several times to insure even coating. Refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight and cook as desired. Serve with sauce below.
Sauce:
2 tablespoons butter
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons minced onion
1 1/3 cup ketchup
¼ cup cider vinegar
¼ cup molasses
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons yellow mustard
½ teaspoon smoked paprika
¾ teaspoon cayenne pepper
In a saucepan, heat the butter until sizzling. Add garlic and onion and cook over medium-low heat until tender, about 2 minutes. Stir in ½ cup water, the rest of the ingredients and ½ teaspoon each salt and freshly-ground pepper. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to a gentle simmer, cover, and cook for 20 minutes to allow flavors to mingle. Courtesy of Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking, Clarkson Potter, 2019.
Sweet Mustard Spice Rub and Sauce
This mustard-based spice rub/sauce combination, from the book Tailgreat, by James Beard award-winning chef, John Currence, is inspired by South Carolina-style mustard barbecue sauce. According to him, it is by no means intended as a substitute for traditional rub and sauce, but it makes for an altogether delicious-- and piquant--sandwich nonetheless.
Rub:
3 tablespoons paprika
3 tablespoons garlic powder
3 tablespoons onion powder
3 tablespoons black pepper
1 tablespoon mustard powder
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon dried oregano
¾ teaspoon powdered cumin
¾ tablespoon red pepper flakes
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons ground coffee
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
¾ teaspoon celery seeds
1/3 cup kosher salt
2 tablespoons granulate sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
Combine all ingredients and blend together. Use as directed as a rub.
Sauce (for 5-6 lb. boneless pork butt):
4 cups yellow mustard
1 ½ cups brown sugar
2 tablespoons molasses
¼ cup honey
1 tablespoon Tabasco sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
½ cup strong brewed coffee
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoons liquid smoke
2 ¼ teaspoons salt
1 ½ tablespoons black pepper
Combine mustard, brown sugar, molasses, honey, Tabasco, Worcestershire, coffee, cinnamon, and liquid smoke in medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Remove from heat, cool briefly, stir in 2¼ teaspoons salt and 1½ tablespoons black pepper. Use as directed in recipe. Courtesy of Tailgreat:How to Crush It at Tailgating by John Currance, Penguin Random House, 2020.
Slow-Cooker Barbecue Shredded Beef
Barbecued shredded beef is commonly looked down upon as a less authentic experience than the more traditional pulled pork. But this recipe elevates it to a level that any pork sandwich would aspire to. The final skilleting is there to to replicate a bit of the smoked meat experience with a more accessible technique.
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup paprika
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon pepper
1 tablespoon chipotle pepper powder
1 tablespoon parsley flakes
3 pounds chuck roast
2-3 tablespoons prepared yellow mustard
½ cup Tangy North Carolina Barbecue Sauce (see below)
Sandwich buns and pickles, for serving
Add the brown sugar, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, chipotle powder, and parsley to a small bowl and stir to combine. Remove 1 tablespoon of dry rub and set aside for later.
Coat all sides of the chuck roast with the mustard.
Liberally coat the roast in the dry rub. You may not need all of the rub. Store any excess in a covered container for another use.
Place roast in a slow cooker on low for 8 hours.
Shred the meat with two forks and transfer to a large skillet. Sprinkle with reserved tablespoon of dry rub and add barbecue sauce.
Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring often.
Serve on sandwich buns with pickles, if desired.
Sauce:
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup yellow mustard
1 tablespoons onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Dash of Worcestershire sauce
Place all ingredients into a medium saucepan set to low heat. Whisk together to combine. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil.
Boil, stirring often, for 5 minutes or until the sauce has reduced by 1/3.
Remove from the heat and store in a one pint mason jar in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. from Buns in My Oven
Pulled Chicken Sandwiches
If you really don’t have time to cook, the pulled chicken recipe here, using a rotisserie chicken as a clever, well-seasoned, time-saving hack, is the way to go. To keep it even simpler, we’re recommending a good bottled barbecue sauce to cut down the time even more.
1 small rotisserie chicken
1 c. barbecue sauce (Sweet Baby Ray’s or Trader Joe’s Kansas City Style)
¼ c. red wine vinegar
6 soft buns
1/2 lb. deli coleslaw
Remove skin and bones from chicken; coarsely shred meat with two forks.
In 2-quart saucepan, combine chicken, barbecue sauce, water, and vinegar. Cook over medium heat 5 minutes or until hot, stirring frequently.
Spoon chicken mixture onto bottom halves of buns and top with coleslaw and top of bun. Serve with carrot and celery sticks. Adapted from Good Housekeeping
Very Best Coleslaw Ever
The original origin of my sister’s coleslaw is obscure, but suffice it to say that whoever tries it, even those who claim that creamy coleslaw is the only “authentic” version, never looks back. Among its many virtues is its keeping quality. It just gets better day after day, and will supposedly stay crunchy and delicious up to a week. In our house it never lasts that long. It’s also the most colorful coleslaw around, with almost equal amounts of bright green and purple cabbage and carrots, Most importantly, its bright piquancy plays very nicely with any kind of pulled meat in a sandwich.
1 ½ lb. cabbage, mix of purple and green
1 lb. carrots, peeled and cut in chunks
4 medium scallions, sliced in ¼ in. rounds
3 stalks celery (optional)
1 cup white vinegar
scant ¾ cup granulated sugar
scant ¾ cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon celery seed
1 tablespoon dry mustard
Shred cabbage and celery (if using) thinly, by hand, or using a food processor with a ¼ in., or thinner, slicing disc. Grate carrots, by hand with a large-hole grater or with a food processor, using a medium grating disc. Put vegetables in large heat-proof mixing bowl. In the meantime, combine vinegar, sugar, oil, celery seed, dry mustard and 1 tablespoon salt in a small saucepan and heat to boil. Let boil two minutes and then pour over vegetables. Do not mix. Cover tightly and refrigerate overnight or up to two days. Toss well before serving.
Perfect Potato Salad
Another favorite recipe, the provenance of this one can be traced directly, via an excellent friend, to a vintage 1995 regional French cuisine cookbook. Originally part of a Lyonnaise recipe for Poached Sausages with Warm Potato Salad, it’s versatile enough to add a little class and gravitas to a pulled meat sandwich platter as well. It, too, has staying power, and will easily be deliciously serviceable for more than several days.
1½ lb. small red potatoes
¼ cup Dijon-style mustard
6 green onions, minced
Basic Vinaigrette (see recipe below)
1/3 cup parsley, minced
In a large saucepan cover potatoes with salted water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to simmer and cook until potatoes can be pierced with a fork. (20-25 minutes). Drain. When potatoes are cool enough to handle, slice about ¼ inch thick and place in bowl. Add mustard and toss gently to mix. Add green onions and vinaigrette and mix thoroughly. Add parsley and toss just to mix. Refrigerate, but best served at room temperature, so plan accordingly.
Courtesy of Regional French Cuisines: From Normandy to Provence Cole’s Kitchen Arts Series, 1995.
Basic Vinaigrette
¼ cup best red wine vinegar
¾ cup best olive oil
In a small bow, combine vinegar and salt and pepper to taste. Whisk in the oil, wait 5 minutes. Whisk again, then correct seasonings.
BONUS RECIPE: Sweet Potato Custards with Praline Topping
Sweet potato custard with praline topping, two sweet treats in one! (Beth Segal, special to cleveland.com)
This Jubilee-sourced recipe started out as pie, but for the pandemic, individual portions were deemed more hospitable. Plus, everyone seems to get more of the topping, which is really just a deconstructed praline sweet floating on top of a custard. It’s two classic southern desserts in one and the perfect end to a pulled pork backyard picnic.
1 lb. sweet potatoes, unpeeled
½ cup packed light brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
4 tablespoons butter, melted
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
½ cup half and half or evaporated milk
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground or freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla
Praline Topping (see recipe below)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Place sweet potatoes on a baking sheet and bake until fork-tender, about 1 ½ hours. When cool enough to handle, peel and discard skins. In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, beat together the potatoes, sugars, and melted butter on medium speed until smooth. With a wooden spoon, stir in the eggs, milk, vanilla, orange zest, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ¼ teaspoon salt until mixed. Pour filling into 4-6 ramekins or small bowls. Place on cookie sheet and put in oven. Bake 20 minutes, remove from oven, carefully spoon praline topping over custard and return to oven until topping is golden and filling barely jiggles, about 20 minutes more. Cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or chilled. Can be made the day before.
Praline Topping
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 egg
¼ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1/3 cup chopped pecans
In a medium bowl, combine sugars, flour, egg, and ¼ teaspoon salt until well-mixed. Stir in melted butter and mix well. Stir in the pecans.
The Link LonkAugust 31, 2020 at 09:59PM
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Labor less this Labor Day with a pulled pork feast - cleveland.com
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