4 Levels of Pulled Pork Sandwiches: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious

I'm jerry and I'm a level one chef hi I'm kit and I'm a level two chef hi I'm saul I'm a professional chef for the last 18 years I love

pulled

pork

sandwiches

I'm Puerto Rican we love roasting

pork

let me tell you something about tulsa oklahoma we make a divine

pulled

pork it's full of vinegar it's full of flavor you're going to enjoy this I'm going to make a pulled pork sandwich but I'm going to make my own version, which will be an aguala cake, it's a pulled pork sandwich drowned in darbo chili sauce, which is delicious, so now we are going to prepare our pork, specifically pork shoulder, it has a lot of fat, but the pieces that are The leftovers are very tender.

I'm actually using boneless roast pork loin because it's faster to cook. It's a meal. Pork shoulder. It is a traditional breed. You can overcook this piece and it will taste delicious. I'm only going to use like five pounds of this. beautiful piece and the rest will be my lunch, you're basically going to cut wherever you want until you feel the bun, that's when you stop. I'm going to cut it off about two or three inches so it doesn't burn. so much time to cook I like to clean my pork, that's what my mom and grandma did.

White vinegar is not only great for cleaning, it's also good for tenderizing meat, so a score of two for the price of one, pour in the water, add our vinegar and then you wash the meat, drain it and dry it, raisin through all the cracks and crevices, now you really want to get involved with the meat, you touch the meat, you feel the meat, let's start with our salt. I like to use kosher salt. Its texture has a little more substance than regular table salt. Add a little pepper. Fresh ground pepper. I don't like too much spice, so I'm just going to give it a little pepper.

I know some people. They're going to keep me there, we don't use lemon in the carnitas, but guess what, I'm married to a Dominican, my mother-in-law makes the best pernil, so what I'm going to do is add a little bit of it. trick on my carnitas, rub it on the cutting board, so when you do this with your lemons, you don't need a lemon squeezer, you just need your hands, we'll use a bottle and a half of barbecue sauce and then I'm going to do salt, I usually use salt kosher to mix less salty and it's easier to control and we'll just make sure the entire surface of the pork is covered and then I rub it into the meat to tenderize it a little bit. a little bit and cut the sweets now I'm ready to sear my pork and I'm going to use a little bit of avocado oil it has a little less calories make sure the oil covers the pan the reason I choose to sear the meat is that it retains the flavors, sears each side for about a minute to two minutes, when you hear that sizzle, you know it's getting close, I just move it, just make sure and then you'll turn it over this other one.

On the other hand, I want to save that little bit from the extra half of the bottle because if I feel like this pork still feels a little dry, I can add a little more sauce at the end and now we're going to rub it. I'm going to add our chili powder, paprika, garlic, onion, brown sugar, sea salt. I like to mix this with the dry ingredients first because the Dijon is wet and then you will take this paste and mix it into the meat so you can take your time, it will get messy. Transfer to saran wrap and swaddle like a baby.

So now we're going to put this in the refrigerator for about four hours, let it sit for two hours and that's it. Thank you mother. -ley our pork is seasoned and ready to go, let's put this in our crock pot like this, let's put the rest of the excess sauce in there, we need a copper pot to cook the carnitas, I'll use five pounds of lard . because I'm going to cook the pork and its own fat so my lard melts completely and it comes it's already in 360. that's perfect because I don't want to burn down anyone's house now we're going to fry the pork, be real careful, okay honey, there Come on, I'm going to cook this first because I want to give it a nice golden color, there's no gold, wait, wait, wait, this is going to be really delicious.

My garnitas are delicious and go look. This beauty smells like pure love here we are going to chop some yellow white onion you can use Spanish onion leftover onion your favorite onion or without onion your recipe your way we are going to cut them into half moons you just want them small enough to Don't make them thick, just cut them into four cubes and we're going to add this to our pork. I'm going to sauté it in the exact same pan that I browned the meat in, yes. I know what that pork city sizzling sound is and then for the garlic, I don't need to peel the skin off the garlic because I try to be as authentic as possible and the last time I saw no lady making a carnitas that's what made now we are going to add a little thyme this is going to add a lot of aroma bay leaves if you don't have fresh dried ones mix it well now lower the temperature add some cloves now we are going to add a little sweetness, I add the whole orange, yes, I will cook this meat on each side for about a minute and a half, so you have to work quickly, this is like a cooking sauce, instead of adding water to your

food

, you will add a little. a little bit more, we'll start with some evaporated milk, I'll mix it well with equal parts red wine, one of my favorite things here, taste your ingredients, know your ingredients, cheers and you're thinking that might be a lot of alcohol.

I don't want to get drunk, this is cooking, it will burn, it will be fine, so the dr pepper will add a little caramelization and sweetness, this really takes a lot of the guesswork out of it, you can literally walk away. put it here and trust the gods, the kitchen gods, to take care of your pork, it's delicious, so you're going to pour the water, your juices right there, grab the aluminum foil, let's cover it, let's cook this on high for about four or five hours and we're going to put this in the oven for about two and a half hours at 300 degrees, now I turn the temperature down and let it cook in there for about two hours, two and a half hours until it's nice and tender, nothing happens. with the pulled pork sandwich pretty much like coleslaw, we're going to use our premix here, it's just green cabbage and carrots.

I like to cut the cabbage myself. I feel like whenever you make

food

, it should be fresh. I like to start. the green one now let's do slow Mexican let's start by pickling our red onions we're going to do a julienne cut julian basically means thin strips of whatever you're cutting and you always go slow because we want to keep our fingers. to blind my eyes you're seeing this don't make this at home so there you go lean onions we're going to need three times as much red so that the red cabbage is a little sweeter and the green really gives it the kick we want them to sweat a little so we're going to add a little salt and limes like black pepper and I'm going to put a little Mexican oregano for some reason the one from Mexico is a little flakier with more flowers because it goes in the sandwich, I'm not going to do as much, but if it comes a lot of people either want it as a side dish or you're just a big head of coleslaw, you go crazy, it's time to char my cabbage when you load up a vegetable the flavors come out even better basically we're going to make wedges a little vegetable oil a little fresh red onion in half and we cut it in half again and then we cut it like we would one of the cabbages and now we're going to start adding the rest of our stuff to our bowl.

Nothing builds coleslaw like mayonnaise. I'm a big believer in a vinegar-based coleslaw because mayonnaise isn't my thing. Juice of three limes for our cabbage. I would like to make my coleslaw quite saturated in this mayonnaise, but mix it to your liking, it seems to be dispersed quite evenly. I like to drink soft sugar. Celery seeds. Caraway. Apple cider vinegar. A pinch of pepper. I'm a little sensitive to spices so I'm just going to add a little bit and on the other hand make sure the grill is really hot just put a little bit of oil on the towel and wipe it off, if you see a lot of smoke it's done , let's put this one here when You make nice marks so two or three minutes and look how beautiful it looks so we'll cook it for three more minutes and that's it and now wait patience and faith and finally we'll add our avocado oil look how beautiful it looks it looks semi-cooked because we want to keep it crispy so now we're going to cut it into thin strips aka julian oh my goodness I've got you again I've got you a good mix all of this is very light it's very fresh our onions look a little pinkish purple we are not using mayonnaise we know we don't use any of that and for the cilantro let's just do the leaves don't cut the cilantro because when you cut it it turns black this coleslaw is it looks pretty good, cover it.

I'm going to put this in the refrigerator for about an hour to let the flavors blend and then it will be ready for that sandwich dinner almost ready so now for the sauce this mixture will really add. a lot of flavor to our pulled pork sandwich, so I'm going to add a little more of the sauce that we had left over before you can buy barbecue sauce, but why can you make it? It's very easy and you have everything at home, I promise you it's simple, you take your tomato sauce, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar and then I like to stir it because if you don't, the brown sugar will start to clump, no we want lumps, we want it to be smooth, so the sauce I'm making is not the classic salsa cake because normally people make the sauce with just chili or herbs but that's too spicy for me and for you just a little bit of oil .

I'm going to start with our guajillo chili, remove the seeds. Chipotle is very difficult to chew. This is one of my favorite peppers because it is not that spicy. I think it's creamy, tangy and smoky for spiciness. I'm using herb chili, so this is the hardest pepper of these three. There is no need to remove the seeds, make sure the oil is not too hot and we are going to throw them in, start with the garlic chili, now the chipotle chili, by toasting the peppers you will get the stronger pepper flavors. and when this is happening we are going to add onion here we go tomato here we go the garlic we are going to crush it a little add salt and water now we are just going to boil it for 20 to 30 minutes let's go I'm going to add a little beer, I want to preserve the sauce a little more and I will also add a little bitterness to the sauce.

I'll add salt, don't forget the paprika, cayenne pepper for a little spice and last not least some cumin, you're only going to cook this for about three to five minutes but you want to make sure there's no leftover lumps and here is my homemade barbecue sauce. I would definitely be willing to try let's cook it for 20 minutes everything is soft now we're going to make it soft we start slow, slowly but briefly and now I'm going to make a horseradish sauce and you're like why are we making all these sauces? There is a method to my madness, sour cream base first. a little bit of Dijon mayonnaise and fresh horseradish is the best and this is what will bring it all together just one last pinch of salt it needs a lot of salt mix it up this is what was going to make this sandwich the best sandwich open the lime with just a squeeze I'll stir the sauce is ready, the reason I strain it because I don't want it to contain any of the seeds from the peppers.

This is the fun part. Let's take out the pork. We will use two forks. It comes well. through the cream of the cream, crumble it, it's actually quite satisfying, you add about a tablespoon of Worcestershire here, take that sauce we made, put it here on the pork, it's hot, now I have to turn this into something amazing. pig assembly, that's an Avengers thing, okay, so I'm using potato buns and I put seeds in them. A potato roll would be nice, but a brioche roll will hit it out of the park. One of the most important things about this given cake is the bread. something that is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside like my heart and I'm going to cut it in half I have something better than butter this is my butter this is the leftover carnitas from before I'm going to call it It's my Mexican butter, my bread ready.

I start with a little horse and by a little I mean a lot on the bottom bread and then on the top mud the carnitas, our pulled pork. I like to add my sauce at this stage. It will make the pulled pork a little more tender. I like something with a little crunchy chicharrón. It's pigskin. It has been dehydrated for several hours and then fried. What is better than pork? More pork. Our next step is our nails. Yes do it. nice make it pretty sharp cheddar cheese top it with some pickles and hot peppers ooh baby cut it in half at the moment of truth add this amazing sauce and let's smother this cake and this is my pulled pork sandwich and this is my pulled pork sandwich and this is my purple sandwich aka cake let's dig in it's going to be so good I hate to be complimentary but that's a treat even the sesame seeds on the bun really add a crunchy touch to this sandwich that I'm really enjoying Oklahoma Meats coming to New York. together in this dish full of love it is spicy it is sweet the chicharrón when you chew it is like eating French friesI'm honestly not kidding oh sorry I forgot a pulled pork is a quintessential southern dish there are so many options to make this sandwich yours let's see how each of our three chefs made theirs.

Jerry used a boneless pork shoulder for his

sandwiches

. Pork shoulder comes from the bottom of a pig's front leg, it is sometimes called a picnic shoulder and is a little leaner than Boston butt which is higher up on the front leg, the pig needs this muscle for locomotion, so it's a little sturdier with connective tissue that works well with slow, moist cooking methods. The kit chose a pig's butt, also called a Boston butt, it is a shoulder cut from the top of the front leg, rectangular in shape. It forms and contains several muscles and the shoulder bone, it is a set of muscles widely used in the pig, so it has a lot of connective tissue and lends itself to low and slow cooking methods that gradually break down the fibrous connective tissue and proteins . bone-in pork shoulder mule shank is a very rare American breed of black pig named for the distinctive solid unclit hoof that resembles the hoof of a mule.

This type of pig is a good gatherer and valued for its ease of fattening. get great tasting meat and lard, this is not a juicy tasting jerry pork you used a slow cooker to cook your pork because the pot or crock is made of ceramic, it retains heat and distributes it fairly uniform, but you may have a few hot spots here and there there is usually a recommended liquid level to avoid uncontrolled heating, so the pork is essentially steamed in the crock pot, which is a great method of moist heat for this tougher cut of pork.

This is a convenient appliance that allows you to leave the pork alone while it cooks. Leave it and believe it, the kit seared the pork before putting it in the oven, which will add greater browned flavors and add a roasted quality that Jerry didn't get with his slow cooker, making it even juicier. The soul cooked with his fork in a copper pot. which is a very traditional way of cooking pork in Mexico. They say it adds a lot of flavor. Honestly, I'm not sure. Copper has been used as a cooking vessel in many cultures for thousands of years.

It is an excellent conductor of heat. Spreads more quickly and evenly on copper than traditional pots and pans. Fun fact: Copper cookware has an antibacterial effect because copper is toxic to many bacteria. Both Kit and Soul use soda to cook their pork kit and they also added red wine to the mix, while Saul chose beer. The soda has a very low pH but does not have a bitter taste because a lot of sugar is added; Sugar is a flavor enhancer and balances some of the acidity of the vinegar in the case of kits and lemon juice and sours ross, why is beer so good for softening?

For meats, the alcohol will add flavor and release alcohol-soluble flavor molecules into the meat and seasonings, most of the alcohol will evaporate but some may remain as both the kit and the soul cooked your meat from pork at lower temperatures, one of the most important elements of a pulled. pork sandwich is the sauce horseradish adds a spicy flavor is a root that gives a distinctive spicy flavor from the isothiocyanate compound allele that is activated by enzymes once the root is grated or chopped or when you start chewing is a delicious addition to kit The Pulled Pork Sandwich Saul combined three dried chiles to make his sauce.

The main physical difference between dried and fresh chiles is the amount of water they contain. More water means the spicy capsaicinoid compounds can move more easily in your mouth, giving you a spicier dining experience. However, dried chiles must be rehydrated before you can taste the heat, so it's hard to know which one will give you the spiciest experience the next time you feel like making pulled pork sandwiches. We hope you follow some of these tips from our three. wonderful chefs