Smoked Pulled Pork -- The Kind of Cooking That Asks You to Stay

Labor Day weekend. Last year I wrote about Labor Day as a meditation on work — Danny's work, Terry's work, the pipeline work, the kind of labor that does not get holidays. This year Labor Day feels like it belongs to a different chapter, which it does. Last year Caleb was sitting on my couch watching football and eating queso. This year he is at Terry's house waiting for a court date and trying to stay off whatever he had been using and I am trying not to count the days the way you count the days when you know that counting can only end in relief or despair.

I smoked a pork shoulder. Eight hours on the smoker, low heat, over hickory and pecan. Pulled pork is not Cherokee and is not Mexican but it is specifically Oklahoma barbecue, the smoke tradition that runs through every county in the state regardless of who is doing the smoking, and I needed something that took a long time and required attention and would feed a table of people. I brought it to Terry's and we ate — me and Hannah and Kai and Luna, Danny and Terry, Caleb, Lily driving down from Tahlequah. Nine people around a table and a whole pork shoulder that fed everyone twice.

Caleb ate well. He has been eating better at Terry's, which I notice the way I notice all eating. He has been going outside in the evenings, Terry says — walking around the block, getting air. He is not himself. He is not the Caleb he was before, which is something I have to sit with: the Caleb before, and whatever Caleb comes after, and whether those are the same person. Danny watched him across the table and his expression was something I could not read, which means it was something Danny did not want me to be able to read.

I drove home Sunday night and sat in the kitchen after everyone was in bed and I just sat there for a while. Not cooking, not reading, not doing anything useful. Just sitting in the quiet kitchen that smells like whatever I last cooked in it, which tonight is still pork smoke, and letting the week be what it was without trying to process it into something else. Sometimes you just sit. That is allowed.

This is the recipe I brought to Terry’s that weekend—the pork shoulder that took eight hours and most of my attention, which was exactly what I needed it to take. If you have a day where you need something to do with your hands and a table full of people to feed at the end of it, this is what I’d tell you to make. It is not complicated. It just asks you to stay with it.

Smoked Pulled Pork

Prep Time: 30 minutes | Cook Time: 8 hours | Total Time: 8 hours 30 minutes | Servings: 12

Ingredients

• 1 bone-in pork shoulder (8 to 10 pounds)
• 3 tablespoons yellow mustard
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons smoked paprika
• 1 tablespoon coarse black pepper
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• Hickory wood chunks
• Pecan wood chunks
• Apple cider vinegar in a spray bottle
• 1/2 cup apple juice

Instructions

1. Prep the shoulder. Trim any loose or excess fat from the pork shoulder, leaving about a 1/4 inch fat cap. Pat the meat dry with paper towels and coat all over with a thin layer of yellow mustard. This helps the rub stick and will not affect the final flavor.
2. Season generously. Mix together the salt, smoked paprika, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, and brown sugar. Apply the rub evenly across the entire shoulder, working it into any crevices. Let it sit uncovered in the refrigerator overnight, or at least one hour at room temperature.
3. Set up the smoker. Preheat your smoker to 225°F. Add a mix of hickory and pecan wood chunks to the firebox or chip tray. Fill a water pan and place it inside the smoker to help maintain moisture and steady temperature.
4. Smoke low and slow. Place the pork shoulder fat side up on the grate. Close the lid and maintain a temperature between 225°F and 250°F. Resist opening the smoker for the first three hours. Add wood chunks as needed to keep a thin, clean smoke.
5. Spritz and monitor. After the first three hours, spritz the shoulder with apple cider vinegar every 45 minutes to an hour. The bark will develop slowly. Expect the internal temperature to stall around 150°F to 165°F—this is normal and can last a couple hours.
6. Wrap if needed. When the bark has set and the internal temperature reaches around 165°F (usually around hour five or six), you can wrap the shoulder in butcher paper with a splash of apple juice to push through the stall. Or leave it unwrapped for a heavier bark and longer cook.
7. Pull at temperature. The pork shoulder is done when the internal temperature reaches 200°F to 205°F and a probe slides in with almost no resistance. This usually takes about eight hours total, sometimes longer depending on the size of the shoulder and your smoker.
8. Rest before pulling. Remove the shoulder from the smoker and let it rest, loosely tented in butcher paper or foil, for at least 30 minutes and up to one hour. This lets the juices redistribute.
9. Pull and serve. Using two forks or your hands (with heat-resistant gloves), shred the pork into pieces, discarding any large pieces of fat or bone. Mix in any collected juices from resting. Serve as is, on buns, or however your table wants it.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 380 | Protein: 42g | Fat: 21g | Carbs: 2g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 620mg