North Carolina Pulled-Pork Barbecue

Ingredients for North Carolina Pulled-Pork Barbecue

• 850ml cider vinegar (20 fluid ounces)

• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

• 1 1/2 tablespoons hot red-pepper flakes

• 1 (8- to 10-pound) bone-in pork shoulder roast (preferably butt end) with skin

Bring vinegar to a boil with sugar, red-pepper flakes, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 tablespoon pepper in a small nonreactive saucepan, stirring until sugar has dissolved, then cool. Set aside 475ml vinegar sauce to serve with sandwiches.

While sauce cools, score pork skin in a crosshatch pattern with a sharp knife (forming 1-inch diamonds), cutting through skin and fat but not into meat. Pat meat dry and rub all over with 1 tablespoon each of salt and pepper. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before grilling.

Prepare grill for indirect-heat cooking over low heat, leaving space in middle for disposable roasting pan.

When coals have cooled to about 149°C (45 minutes to 1 hour; when most coals will have burned out), put disposable roasting pan on bottom rack of grill between the 2 remaining mounds of coals, then fill pan halfway with water. Add a couple of handfuls of unlit charcoal to each charcoal mound, then put grill rack on so hinges are over coals.

Oil grill rack, then put pork, skin side up, on rack above roasting pan. Grill pork, with lid ajar (for air, so coals remain lit), basting meat with sauce and turning over every 30 minutes (to maintain a temperature of 250 to 135°C, add a couple of handfuls of coals to each side about every 30 minutes), until fork-tender (a meat fork should insert easily) and an instant-read thermometer inserted 2 inches into centre of meat (avoid bone) registers 88°C, 7 to 8 hours total.

Transfer pork to a cutting board. If skin is not crisp, cut it off with at least 1/4 inch fat attached (cut any large pieces into bite-size ones) and roast, fat side down, in a 4-sided sheet pan in a 177°C oven until crisp, 15 to 20 minutes.

When meat is cool enough to handle, shred it using 2 forks. Transfer to a bowl.

Serve pork, cracklings, and coleslaw together on buns. Serve reserved vinegar sauce on the side.

Avvertenza

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