Serious pulled pork question

I have eaten crock pot pork, and gotten sick because all of the grease upset my stomach. Could this be the problem?

Fire up smoker to 275F indirect. Place unseasoned pork butt in smoker. Cook for 3 hours. Wrap in foil. Cook for about another 2 hours. Remove when internal temp reaches 198F. Place in cooler or blanket and let rest at least 1 hour. Remove from cooler, pull, season and/or sauce as needed, and enjoy.

Better than any crock pot pork anywhere.

If you want to go all North Carolina, when you remove it from the smoker, place it over high heat coals direct and let the outside crisp up then put it in cooler.

I'd start there, then work over to some rub but I doubt it will need any. If you do use rub like Plowboys or some other rub with sugar, skip the hot coals, direct step.

^^^^^^ +1

Could you and your wife be sensitive to something your MIL uses such as MSG?

Could be a combination of excess grease and some type of seasoning.

This is really weird, but my wife has trouble eating any pork for some reason. It upsets her stomach, no matter what. Weird.

FWIW... http://medsavailable.com/articles/pork-allergy

bigabyte said:

This is really weird, but my wife has trouble eating any pork for some reason. It upsets her stomach, no matter what. Weird.

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Pork is a major problem for folks that have a gall bladder that is going bad. Could be that is the problem.

bigabyte said:

This is really weird, but my wife has trouble eating any pork for some reason. It upsets her stomach, no matter what. Weird.

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My wife is the same with beef. IBS is a bitch!

Crisp up the outside?? We crisp up the skin when there is a skin, not the meat on the outside of a butt :crazy:

Boshizzle said:

If you want to go all North Carolina, when you remove it from the smoker, place it over high heat coals direct and let the outside crisp up then put it in cooler.

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Could be that it wasn't cooked properly - get to 140 quick enough etc. It could also be the grease or the sauce she used - it could be a dozen different things.
Has your wife ever been able to eat pork? Chops perhaps? If yes and she had no side effects I say go for smoking a butt or shoulder.

double post

smokeyw said:

Crisp up the outside?? We crisp up the skin when there is a skin, not the meat on the outside of a butt :crazy:

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Some of you do crisp up the outside. :crazy:

In fact, the meat like that is either chopped or put on sammies and called "outside" meat. I worked at a place for over 3 years that did that when i was in high school. There are several ways of cooking NC BBQ. Not all of it is just overcooked, vinegar soaked, mushy chopped pork, though a lot of it is.

NRA4Life said:

Pork is a major problem for folks that have a gall bladder that is going bad. Could be that is the problem.

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Oh, I'm not likin' this at all. I've always commented that it's the strangest thing as much as I love pork, it disagrees with me regularly. When my mom was a few years older than I am now, she had her gallbladder removed. :shock: uh oh

Are you talking about bark? I'm curious, what part of North Carolina did you work in?

Boshizzle said:

Some of you do crisp up the outside. :crazy:

In fact, the meat like that is either chopped or put on sammies and called "outside" meat. I worked at a place for over 3 years that did that when i was in high school. There are several ways of cooking NC BBQ. Not all of it is just overcooked, vinegar soaked, mushy chopped pork, though a lot of it is.

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If it was her gallbladder pork wouldn't be the only culpret - any fatty food would do her in.

Not sure about CarlWayne's wife, but you're sure making me feel a little better, LM. :-D

smokeyw said:

Are you talking about bark? I'm curious, what part of North Carolina did you work in?

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Yep, it's the bark but we never called it that. The place I worked at was run by a family who brought their BBQ cooking method from somewhere in Western NC to Central VA. They opened the restaurant back in 1954. I worked there while in high school in the 1970's. They also had a Western NC sauce that was quite good too.

Whole unseasoned shoulders were slow cooked about 3'-4' directly over hot coals. As they cooked, they were rotated from lower to higher grates. After 12 hours, the heat would not only crisp up the skin it would also produce the most delicious natural bark on the outside and moist tender meat underneath. Some of the bark would be very hard and when people ordered it that way they would ask for "outside meat." The outside meat that wasn't used on sandwiches was chopped. I have had pork cooked on electric smokers that produce very similar results too.

The restaurant is no longer owned by the original family and the quality of the BBQ has suffered in favor of profit, IMO. I've eaten there a few times in the last few years. The meat tastes flavorless and reheated and there is no more "outside" meat to be found. I guess it's easier and cheaper to cook, refrigerate, and reheat than to cook 35 - 40 fresh pork shoulders every night.

The technique I listed above is a way to emulate what a long, low temp cook over direct heat will do to unseasoned pork shoulders. The flavor comes from the bark rather than the rub and, when served fresh, it is delicious.

Thanks Boshizzle for explaining. I understand what you are talking about now. I have on occasion had some of this "outside meat" that was very good but have also had some that was overcooked and got too hard. I come from the eastern part of the state where "whole hog" is the standard rather than shoulders or butts but I love all of it and all styles of cooking it. But I have my favorites too :becky: