Real Southern Style Pulled Pork Crockpot Recipes
Sure, there are more hotly debated subjects than this, but not by much. If you’ve been looking for pulled pork crockpot recipes, you may be a bit confused as to what exactly is a Carolina style sandwich versus a Memphis style sandwich. And what about Texas weighing in on a “Memphis Style” sandwich. Doesn’t Texas have one of their own? Then we hear from Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama each claiming their own original version, but they all seem vaguely familiar.
There is no agreement whatsoever on which region can claim which recipe. When I started comparing pulled pork crockpot recipes, I found many of the same ingredients and cooking methods claimed by a multitude of regions, states, and cities. If a dry rub is used in one recipe, I can find it used again in another recipe clear across the country, and again, claimed to be that region’s style of sandwich. If there are a million barbecue sauce recipes, then there are a million pulled pork recipes. Let’s narrow down a few ingredients or methods used to cook this sandwich and see if this puzzle can ever be solved.
Vinegar – Most homemade versions of barbecue sauce for a pulled pork sandwich will include vinegar. Memphis may claim this belongs to them, but South Carolina cooks say the same thing. The tangy element of vinegar seems to be a sticking point for almost all recipes in which you make a classic barbecue sauce.
Brown Sugar – Many dry rubs contain brown sugar to give the sweet flavor to the whole sweet-sour balance that a pulled pork sandwich should have. A simple concoction of brown sugar, vinegar, and a pinch of any hot sauce or seasoning is often found in barbecue places in Florida and Alabama. Whether this simple recipe originated there we’ll never know. Although, I can’t say I’ve ever seen a pulled pork sandwich seasoned like this in Memphis.
Dry Rub – Here again the boundaries blur. South Carolina recipes often stake claim to this method of seasoning the pork. The rub is made up of a variety of spices, usually including paprika, cayenne, and lots of black pepper. Some folks say this is the only only flavoring you add to the pork. That means no barbecue sauce is mixed in with the pulled pork, only served on the side as a condiment. As a matter of fact, some folks in Memphis shudder when someone refers to this beloved sandwich as a pulled pork barbecue.
Condiments – The most widely accepted condiment for a pulled pork sandwich is barbecue sauce. Even when there is no hint of barbecue sauce mixed in the pork itself, you’ll normally find a bottle alongside the sandwich fixings. From there, you can put out yellow mustard, hot sauce, and hot pepper vinegar sauce. But never, never put a bottle of ketchup on the table. That’s considered gauche. The one condiment that almost everyone agrees on its origin is cole slaw. Top your sandwich with a dollop of cole slaw and you’ve got a Memphis style pulled pork sandwich.
Cooking Methods – Even though using your slow cooker to make pulled pork sandwiches isn’t a brand new idea, it isn’t like the old fashioned methods, either. Your family’s cooking method depends on how you learned to cook pork. Perhaps you have an outdoor grill pit or a smoker. You may have always braised the pork or just oven roasted it. Any one region would find it difficult to claim that a certain style of cooking is their own and no others. If you’re walking Beale Street, you’ll most likely see lots of smoky grills going, but you’ll see those same scenes in other regions, as well. It’s hard to pin a cooking method down to one place.
If you’re reading this and thinking that debating over a bunch of pulled pork crockpot recipes is all a bunch of nonsense, you’re probably right. There you are sitting in South Carolina or Memphis or Georgia thinking “I know darn well that my Granddad created that dry rub” or some such thought, and you’re probably right. The fact is if your family has a recipe you’ve used for years, that’s your recipe and your region. Don’t let the debate dissuade you from making your recipe truly YOURS!
Take some time to pick out a few pulled pork crock pot recipes so you can start saving time and money by Crock Pot Cooking for your own family.
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