INGREDIENTS:

5 to 10 lbs. Boston Butt aka pork shoulder
Wild Bill's Meat Rub
Yellow prepared mustard

WILD BILL'S MEAT RUB

INGREDIENTS: 

3/4 cup paprika                           1/4 cup ground black pepper
1/4 cup salt                                  1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons chili powder           2 tablespoons onion powder
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper*     1 tablespoon garlic powder

Mix spices in a bowl and store in airtight container in a cool dark place.  *I use 90K heat rating of cayenne pepper; most stores carry only 35K,  therefore  you might want to increase the cayenne pepper to 2 tablespoons (to taste).

NOTE: Rub or sprinkle on meat 30 minutes to an hour before grilling.  This is my standard house seasoning for beef, chicken, pork, venison, wild turkey and about anything else you want to super charge. 
 

ANSON COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA "CITY SLICKER" BBQ SAUCE

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 cups ketchup
1 tablespoon dry mustard
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon Liquid Smoke (Colgin) brand
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Cayenne pepper
1/4 cup Molasses
1/2 cup Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey or 1/2 cup Jim Beam Bourbon or Early Times Whiskey (optional)

Mix above BBQ sauce ingredients in a sauce pot and bring to a boil making sure sugar dissolves and simmer for 30 minutes.  Let cool and store in a glass covered container in  refrigerator.  This BBQ sauce is referred to as the Piedmont, Western North Carolina or Lexington, NC style sauce with the main ingredients ketchup and vinegar.

OVEN METHOD

Coat entire Boston Butt with yellow prepared mustard and rub into the meat.  Apply a good coating of Wild Bill's Meat Rub to Boston Butt allowing to sit 30 minutes or more or you can place in a large sealed bag or wrap in plastic wrap and place in refrigerator overnight to marinate.  Place Boston Butt on a broiler pan uncovered fattest side up.  Add several cups of water or apple juice and liquid smoke to the broiler pan and place in an oven or smoker at 225 degrees for 6 to 8 hours or until internal temperature is at around 190 degrees F. and meat easily pulls from the bone.  If you want to turn the meat every few hours that is ok too but if you are looking, you are not cooking!  See my BBQ page for pictures.

Visit my pulled pork uds page for updated procedures.

NOTES:  When using my regular outside gas grill,  I wrap/cover the Boston Butt in heavy gauge aluminum foil leaving a small vent hole in the top reducing the cooking/smoking time while retaining a lot of moisture and is more or less "steam cooking" the pork shoulder which renders some excellent non-traditional BBQ.   This type of BBQ has the grill/smoker temperature running around 350 degrees F. for three hours which in essence will have the Boston Butt just about cooked;  then remove the aluminum foil and place the Boston Butt onto the grill rack and reduce the temperature back down to around 275 degrees and let the pork shoulder dehydrate (melting most of the fat content) making sure the internal temperature is about 190 degrees F and pork nearly falls from the bone.   To get the hickory smoke flavor,  place a pan of smoldering hickory sawdust on one end of the grill which produces an excellent smoke BBQ flavor.

I highly recommend the usage of a good quality digital thermometer that allows you to leave the probe inserted in the meat while it is cooking in the grill, smoker or oven.  Personal Health, Safety and Welfare is Paramount when handling any food item and any meat that is slow cooked at low temperatures and high humidity! 

Once the Boston Butt has cooked to the proper internal temperature of 190 degrees F.,  remove from the grill and/or smoker and place on a pan and allow to set until cool enough to handle.  Pull off and discard any skin, fatty tissue, gristle, bone and membranes from the meat and shred into bite size pieces using one or two forks placing the pulled pork onto a platter or large bowl. 

I  mix a good amount of the above BBQ sauce with the pulled pork prior to serving to help marry the flavors.

To serve, pile a very generous portion of the pulled pork onto the bottom of your favorite bun and add additional BBQ onto the pulled pork and add your favorite white or red slaw on top of the pulled pork and cover with the bun top.

Above pulled pork prepared on 09-02-14 and was "off the chain good" and cooked and smoked in my Ugly Drum Smoker for 8 hours at 275 degrees F.

"PREACHER MAN" BBQ - LILESVILLE, NC 1970s

My most memorial experience with pulled pork BBQ was in the middle 1970s and made in Lilesville, NC and sold from an old red tobacco barn.  The owner went by the "nick name" of Preacher Man and one of his daughters helped him sell his BBQ from a tobacco barn which was close to Highway 74W.  He used the old timey traditional method of BBQing  using hickory wood embers and slow cooked the pork shoulders and/or Boston butts and the best I have ever had.  The Preacher Man later sold his operation to "Zip"  Whisnut and they opened a BBQ shack behind the Hub Restaurant in Wadesboro, NC but his production BBQ was not as good as when he made it in Lilesville, NC at the Red Tobacco Barn.  He served his BBQ with a hot pepper slaw called Preacher Man slaw and it was "off the chain good."  His BBQ sauce was of the Piedmont or Lexington, NC style.  According to my brother Allen Porter, he used Ms. Butterworth pancake syrup as his main sweetener as evidenced by the number of empty Ms. Butterworth containers on the premises and by the sweet taste of his BBQ and sauce.  If the building is still standing, I will go by and take a pix and post it here.

I rode to Lilesville, NC today, 01-03-13 and took a few pixs of where the Preacher Man made and sold his BBQ.  There were at least half dozen or more old tobacco barns still standing and believe the first pix is where he sold his BBQ back in the 1970s.  Not  exactly sure which barn but this is the location anyway.....grin if you must!

Thumbnail sequence pixs follows.  Click on each thumbnail for a larger view:

I placed the dry rubbed Boston Butt onto a roaster pan with water added covered with heavy gauge aluminum foil and punched a hole in the top of the foil to allow moisture to escape and an exit for my digital thermometer probe lead.  The oven temperature was set at 350 degrees F. left the Boston Butt in for three (3) hours and the internal temperature was 176 degrees F.  Removed the Boston Butt from roaster pan and transferred to my regular outside grill and and ran the temperature at 225 degrees F. for three hours and cranked the temperature up to 275 degrees to get a nice crust or bark on the Boston Butt.  You can run the grill or oven at a constant 275 degrees if you desire.  When you see the meat cooked and separated from the bone as in the above pixs, it just doesn't get any better than than!   The internal temperature of the above Boston Butt didn't increase that much and was still fully cooked at around 180 degrees F.,  cooked more than enough to easily pull from the bone.  This Boston Butt was on the small size weighting between six and seven pounds and made a good helping of pulled pork.  I like to mix the BBQ sauce with the pulled pork prior to serving especially if the BBQ sauce is not over powering.

Visit my Ugly Drum Smoker page for additional information and techniques for pulled pork.

OPTIONAL EASTERN NC BBQ SAUCE RECIPE BELOW:

BOYCE'S BBQ SAUCE

INGREDIENTS:

1 gallon apple cider vinegar
2 boxes (1 lb. ea.) dark brown sugar
2 small cans ( 1 1/4 Ozs.) cayenne pepper
Juice from 3-4 lemons

Pour vinegar in large pot and bring to a boil;  add sugar, pepper and lemon juice.  Stir. Let simmer and pour back in vinegar bottle. Mop on meats when ready to grill.   Use on chicken, pork, beef or venison.

Recipe from Boyce Adcock.

I will post updated sequence pixs at a later date.

Web published by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 06-16-12 and updated pixs added on 09-02-14.

LEAVING ON A SPIRITUAL NOTE