Pulled Pork Questions

MM,

Quanity: You are fine with amounts you are looking at. Even if pulled pork is the only meat being offered, 1/2 lb. per person is a good size portion. And your shrinkage factor is fine if not a little conservative. I find mine to be more in the 60-65% range. But, better to have too much than not enough.

Pork: In your situation, I would go with the bonless butts. Even though I prefer bone-in butts, it would be safer to go with a non-injected piece of meat. One suggestion though. Talk with the meat managers at your grocery stores and ask what they are bringing in for pork. Sometimes they will get butts in but never offer them whole to the public. Rather they cut them up into steaks or country style ribs. They might have non-injected bone-in butts and they just may not put them out that way.

Pulling and holding: If possible, I would wait until you get to the location and then pull the butts if possible. If this is not possible, make sure you preheat the cambro with HOT water. This will keep the cambro from pulling heat out of the pork while it sits. After pulling, wrap the pan with food wrap and then foil to hold in as much moisture as possible. If you still find it to be dry when you are ready to serve, I use a 50/50 mixture of sauce and apple juice. You probably want to serve yours unsauced but sometimes it just is not possible.

Listen to John, he knows what he's talking about.

If you have a Cambro, you shouldn't worry about holding 1 or 2 hours. If you're really worried, I'd wrap them whole and pull them when I get there. If you foil, keep all juice and defat it and mix it in with the pork.

Also, reseason the pork after pulling.

I agree with John to wait until you are to serve the pork to then pull it, but you have to factor in the time it takes to do that. Pulling the pork takes a lot of hand work and it is intensive, probably 20 to 30 minutes of labor on a big shoulder, just as much on a few small butts.

Be sure to factor in the pulling time, for me, 30 minutes on a big joint. I also like to let the joint rest for at least an hour because it is so damn hot, after 20 something hours, it will be at the cooker temperature inside, but still, this makes the best pulled pork.

Myself, I use to regular table forks to tear away at it and shred it up. Works good for me.

Best method for pulling pork for me.

I buy cotton gloves (Restaurant supply has them in bundles of 20 for $10)

Put the gloves on, then pull on rubber FoodService gloves over those.

Butts take me 5 min to pull, but I'm experienced. The cotton gloves allow you to handle it hot. 2 hours in a Cambro, it will still be very hot to touch.