I got this recipe from my grandmother Lail, a legendary cook in my personal opinion. I have this dream that one day I’ll own a smoker and have my own kick-ass BBQ recipe but until then I wanted to attempt to make the food that I miss the most from the South.
Here’s grandmother Lail’s email I got when I asked her:
“Jeff, I use Boston Butts They are pork. I also use a crockpot . I usually buy 6 to 8 pound ones. Put Butt into crockpot with fat side on top. Cook on High for 6 to 7 hours or until you can take a fork and strip meat from bone. Strip all meat from bone into a bowl to resemble strips of BBQ. Pour some of the drippings over meat so it will not be dry to taste. Salt according to your taste add your favorite sauce and ENJOY. “
So I ventured out to the store and of course they didn’t have boston butt. After looking around a bit, I decided to go with the pork shoulder that I had seen in other places on the web. I got a 10 pound pork shoulder ($9) and took it home along with what I thought was the best facsimile of NC BBQ sauce.
So I took the pork shoulder, defrosted and unwrapped it and the damn thing wouldn’t fit in my crockpot! I stared at the pork shoulder, stared at the crockpot, back to the pork, back to the crockpot. After repeating this ritual a few times, I came up with a backup plan. I put the oven at 300 degrees and tossed the pork shoulder in a pan. Then I left it in there for about 15 mins. After that, I pulled it out of the oven, deboned it, then threw the meat into the crockpot and discarded the bone in the shoulder and some of the fat.
I then let it cook in the crockpot on high for about 6 hours. I took it out piece by piece after 6 hours and chopped it into small chunks and served with onion rings and cole slaw.
The downside:
- If you don’t smoke it, you really miss out on the delicious crust and smoky flavor
- I did feel like this came out a little greasy. Maybe I should have taken out more fat.
- The sauce I bought was not the NC sauce I was used to. My parents brought some Hickory Smokehouse sauce up from NC last week, and it was so much better.
Not a bad way to make this dish, but don’t expect it to be the same, especially if you’re used to the good carolina stuff.
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