The forecast for the weekend calls for clear skies and warm temperatures, which means it a perfect weather to fire up the barbecue. Two weeks ago, I applied the “low and slow” method of cooking to a beef brisket with great results, but I think this weekend I’m going give pork a try. I decided to use the same cooking technique to make pulled pork.
Pulled pork is generally made from a cut of meat known as the butt which, as the name clearly suggests, is cut from the shoulder of the pig (a common and completely unfounded misconception is that pork butt comes from the rear of the pig).
Like brisket, pork butt is not a naturally tender cut of meat. There is an abundance of connective tissue in pork butt that require high temperatures and a long cooking time to break down into the flavorful and tender meat we all enjoy. After cooking, the meat becomes very tender to the point it can literally be pulled apart by hand, hence the name pulled pork.
Pulled pork is a very common dish in Hawaii so I thought making it was especially applicable for a blog whose name sake is a Hawaiian word. In Hawaii, pulled pork is called “Kalua pig” or “Kalua pork” and is often the center piece of a luau where it is cooked in an underground pit called a “imu.”