I have a recipe for Sourdough Ciabatta that I wrote a couple of years ago, so I won’t go into the details of that. But it’s a great recipe and as you can see from the picture above, it’s the perfect platform for BBQ pulled pork sandwiches. So, what I will focus on here is making the BBQ!

NOTE: I’m assuming that you have a smoker of some sort. I have a Traeger Century 22, which is probably the smallest Traeger. It’s a Costco exclusive that my wife bought me for Father’s Day several years ago. Anyway, let’s get to it.

Amazingly enough, I’ve found that barbecuing pork is one of the easier – and more forgiving – meats to smoke. Or maybe it’s because I’ve loved grilling or barbecuing pork for so long that I just know it well. Here I’ll just share my technique.

Pork Butt or Pork Picnic (shoulder)?

You can use either cut for pulled pork. The cooking technique is the same. But personally, I prefer cooking the picnic for a variety of reasons:

1. There’s less fat in the picnic. That doesn’t mean there’s no fat. But there is less fat than in the pork butt. There’s still plenty of fat for flavor. Personally, I prefer the higher protein content of the picnic.
2. Because there’s less fat, the final texture of the meat when pulled will create those nice ropes of meat which I prefer.
3. And even after a long rest in a cooler post cooking, the meat will not get squishy. It will maintain its texture much better.

The picnic usually comes two ways. With the skin on, in which case I will normally cook it like a lechon over an open fire or charcoal; or, it will come without the skin. But I have found that when it comes skinless, the butchers typically cut it up into three-to-four-pound pieces. That’s okay, as the cooking technique is the same. But each piece must be tied with twine, so they cook evenly. The 18-lb picnic I just cooked yesterday was cut up into five pieces and I had to truss them up. It wasn’t a big deal. It took all of ten minutes to do it. The only inconvenience with the picnic being in five pieces was I had to take the temperature of each piece individually. But that didn’t bother me.

Rub

I make my own rub that consists of a bunch of different spices. But you can use whatever rub you’d like. Just make sure that you’re generous with it and that the entire surface of the meat gets some rub. Some folks rub mustard on the meat first so that the rub will stick. i do this most of the time, but it’s really not necessary. I didn’t have any yesterday and just applied the rub directly on the meat.

Cooking

1. I set my Traeger to 250℉ and let it warm up for about 20 minutes before I cook.
2. Once it’s up to temp, I place the meat in the center of the rack or, if I have several pieces like I did yesterday, I make sure they’re evenly distributed on the rack.
3. I insert the Traeger’s probe into the meat.
   NOTE: A lot of people complain that the Traeger’s probe isn’t accurate. That has not been my experience. But what I have found is that you have to get the probe in the right place. To determine that, I use an instant read meat thermometer to get the initial temperature, then I place the probe in the same hole, at the same depth. The most variance I’ve seen from the instant read is three degrees. Why not use the instant-read thermometer all the time? Simply because I don’t want to open the lid unless it’s necessary, like spritzing.
4. I spritz the meat every 30-45 minutes for the first few hours with a mixture of 25% apple cider vinegar and pepper 75% water. After that, I spritz it every hour. This helps the meat absorb the smoke and helps with creating a nice bark.
5. Once the meat reaches an internal temperature of 165℉, I wrap the meat in butcher paper. I do this with both the picnic and the butt. I know there’s a lot of debate around this subject but I’ve been doing this for years with great results.
6. I place the meat back on the smoker, then use my instant read thermometer to find the sweet spot, then replace it with the probe.
7. I cook the meat until it reaches an internal temperature of 203-205℉.
8. Once the meat has come to temp, I immediately transfer it, wrapper an all, to a jumbo Ziploc or Hefty food storage bag. Then I put the bag in a cooler for a long overnight rest. I’ve gotten the best results with a minimum of a four-hour rest. But when I BBQ a picnic, it’s best to go a lot longer to ensure a full cook as it will continue cooking in the cooler for several hours.

So, for yesterday’s barbecuing, I cooked eighteen pounds. I put the meat on the rack at noon. I wrapped it at 7pm, and it came to final temperature at just after 10pm, then I transferred the meat to my cooler. I pulled it apart at 7:30 this morning. My final yield was about 11 lbs (yeah, you lose a lot during cooking). I put 6 lbs in the freezer for pulled pork sandwiches that I’ll make next Tuesday for a homeless shelter. I traded 2 lbs for a couple of jars of honey from a beekeeper friend, then kept 3 lbs for the family. It was a successful cook!

Today, I made a sourdough ciabatta (pictured above) and made a wonderful pulled pork sandwich with stinky Camembert cheese (if you can find Le Chatelin, it’s the best and the most stinky, yet flavorful Camembert). I sauced the meat with a light Kinder Gold BBQ sauce. It was spectacular. Sorry, I don’t have a picture of the sandwich because I forgot to take one. 🙂