Alton Brown's Brined Pulled Pork


 
I have used Alton's brine several times now and even did a blind taste test with my guests. They almost universally chose the brined one.

It did not seem like a better quality butt to me before I cooked it, but it's always possible that there was some variance in the meat quality.

I even sprung for the 5 gallon cooler for easy brining and draining.
 
I built one of his clay pot smokers years ago, when the episode first aired. I loved how easy it worked, and it turned out perfect each time.

But now that I'm in the cool Bay area, the temps never come up high enough to work. I still have it though, incase I want to smoke something, and finish it in the oven, or maybe do some almonds or something.



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Hi,

I'm new here (long time lurker, first time poster), but I've been barbecuing for the past couple of years. I got my start using both Alton Brown's clay-pot cooker and brined-pork recipe. Since discovering this site, I intend to buy a WSM for next season, so I can do more than one butt at a time (I've come close to running out of pulled pork the last couple of times I've had a barbecue), and I like the idea of running the smoker overnight.

That said, I'm planning my final barbecue of the season, and I'm tempted to try one of the other pulled pork recipes on the site. I'm curious to know if anyone has compared (either directly or indirectly) Alton's recipe to one of the other recipes on the site. Should I go with what I know? Or should I branch out and try something different? I'll be using the clay pot smoker and probably hickory, although I may try to find some other, more mellow, smoke woods.

Thanks for any insight you can provide, and thanks for this great community!

-Adam
 
Try Chris Lilly's Award Winning Pork shoulder recipe posted in this section. I've tried both and like both...but if you are looking for something new, it is very good...
 
Adam,

I have done (2) side-by side cooks using both "Mr. Brown" recipes:

-The one by Alton Brown, brined with Salt & Molasses

-"The Renowned Mr. Brown" from Smoke and Spice.

Did a test cook about 5 weeks ago with one of each, and repeated about 3 weeks ago for a family gathering, with (3) of Alton's & (1) of the "Mr. Brown" recipe.


Both times, I used bone-in shoulders that were between 4 & 5 lbs each. Used a mix of hickory & apple with Royal Oak lump. Both recipes cooked for around 9 hours and were foiled for 1-plus hours before pulling. "Doneness" was pretty much equal - so cooking these recipes two different ways works-out easily. All got a really nice "smoke ring".

The general opinion was that:

-Nearly everybody (even the kids) liked the brined recipe.

-Quite a few thought that the Mr. Brown recipe was too spicy. (Most of the guys, myself included, really liked it.)

We servded it on some nice Kaiser rolls with a drizzle of a ketchup-based sauce containing bourbon, cider vinegar, & lemon juice (a little tangy "bite" offset the smokiness nicely).

Some liked it with a little "slaw" on top, some preferred it without.

If you're doing a relatively large cook-out, I would suggest doing what I did the 2nd time.

If you had to make just one recipe - I would do the brined one.


Hope this helps
 
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