Non-halal

Classes might as well have never stopped. Things are all well and good – except that I'm most definitely not going to be able to take that Intro to Logic course I'd been planning on forcing my way into. The professor made it eminently clear that if you weren't enrolled for real by Friday, you weren't in the class. Considering I haven't even made it on the waitlist yet, I've decided to throw in that particular towel. So I spent the rest of the class thinking about pork.

Pulled Pork and BBQ Sauce
in a crock pot. Delicious, cheap and easy.

Pulled Pork

Ingredients

1 pork shoulder roast
1 onion
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
Worcester sauce
brown sugar
salt
pepper

Quarter onion and sweat, then place in bottom of crock pot. Place roast in pot on top of onions, with the fat pack on the bottom. Add vinegar to pot, splashing some on the roast. Also add Worcester sauce, a bit less than the vinegar. Finally, pack roast liberally with brown sugar. Cover, and cook on low for 8 hours, flipping over halfway through if desired.

When finished, take pork from crock pot and put into new (large) bowl. Remove and discard excess fat, and shred with a pair of forks. Salt and pepper to taste (you will use lots and lots and lots of both).

Sauce

Ingredients

Drippings from crock pot
1/2-1/3 cup ketchup
1 tbsp liquid smoke
1.5 tbsp cornstarch
1 cup water
salt
other seasonings (cayenne pepper, garlic powder, etc.)

Take drippings from crock pot, ladle off excess fat and discard. Remove onions. Put remainder in saucepan and simmer. Add ketchup and liquid smoke, whisk into drippings. Mix cornstarch and water together well, and whisk into sauce. Reduce to desired consistency, then salt and season to taste. Don't season before the reduction, otherwise it will be over-seasoned when it's reduced. Use sauce to mix with pork for sandwiches or what have you.

This is in the pot right now. I've made more rudimentary pulled pork in the past, but I've decided to step it up a notch. I'm going to need to go down and pick up some more cornstarch seeing as I accidentally dropped mine out the (fourth story) window. Very exciting.