Recipe: South Carolina Pork BBQ (slow cooker)

South Carolina Pork BBQ (mustard-based)

This is a lighter take on barbecue—it’s sweet mustard-based. It’s also done in a slow cooker to make things easier, which is the reason for the use of liquid smoke. The Splenda or Stevia is to make the sauce lower calorie and lower carb.

This is at first glance one of our more involved recipes, but take your time and walk through it. You will be glad you did, and your friends whom you choose to share this with will be amazed.

Equipment:

• Slow Cooker, 4-6 quart size
• Marinade Injector (optional) (something like this:
  Heavy Duty Meat Marinade Seasoning Flavor Injector, 7-inch (Pack of 2) )
• Pulled Meat Shredder Claws (optional) (you can use two forks, but if you do this a lot, then $4 for these claws are well spent: Flamen Wolverine Claws for Shredding Meat, Pulled Pork )

Ingredients (for the Roast and the Sauce, started separately):

The Roast:

• Pork Shoulder/Butt Roast (1 four lb. or so roast, bone-in. It’s easy to get the bone out later.)
• Liquid Smoke (this is usually near the steak sauce in grocery stores. That’s where it is at Karns, at least.) (1/3 cup)
• Onions (3/4 cup, chopped)
• Salt (2 teaspoons or to taste)
• Pepper (1 teaspoon or to taste)

The Sauce

• Yellow Mustard (the stuff you use on hot dogs) (2 cups)
• Apple Cider Vinegar (or white vinegar) (2/3 cup)
• Liquid Smoke (yep, again in the sauce) (1/4 cup)
• Molasses (Blackstrap is first choice, regular is second choice. Blackstrap is available on Amazon, of course. (1/2 cup)
• Tomato paste (or ketchup) (2 tablespoons)
• Splenda or Stevia (1 cup)
• Worcestershire sauce (optional) (2 teaspoons)
• Chili Powder, not spicy (1 tablespoon)
• Cayenne Pepper (optional) (1/4 teaspoon or to taste, to spice things up. I usually skip this.)

Directions:

The Roast:

(The secret to slow cooker BBQ is liquid smoke. Since the BBQ isn’t smoking in a grill, liquid smoke is crucial.)

1. Put the onions in the bottom of the slow cooker.
2. Take the pork roast and put it in the slow cooker. Fill the marinade injector with liquid smoke and inject the roast in five or six places (use 1/3 cup total) (Note: I put the injector into the pork and then fill it. The liquid will leak all over the place otherwise. Actually, it leaks all over anyway. But this helps. If you have no injector, just pour the liquid smoke over the roast.)
3. Season the roast with some salt and pepper to taste.
4. Put the slow cooker on low and cook for 7 hours or so.

The Sauce:

1. In a sauce pot, put in the yellow mustard on medium heat (use a sauce pot with room enough to add more ingredients). Once the mustard is heated up, turn the heat to low or simmer.
2. Add in the vinegar, liquid smoke, molasses, Splenda or stevia, tomato paste or ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, chili powder, and cayenne pepper (if using). Return the sauce to a simmer.
3. Now it’s a tasting game. I take the sauce pot spoon and drip some sauce out into my tasting spoon (or else I run through all of my spoons pretty quickly). Add Splenda, mustard, molasses, or vinegar to adjust the taste until you think it works.

Once the pork roast is cooked:

1. Using tongs or a rubber glove (or whatever you come up with), pull the bone out of the roast. It should come easily.
2. Take the shredder claws (or two forks) and shred the pork completely. Make sure to skim or crape off the fat layer (usually on the bottom of the roast) and discard it.
3. Once shredded, take half of the BBQ sauce or so and mix it in with the pork. Use more if you’d like, but make sure that there’s a bit of sauce left over to put in a side dish for folks.

Enjoy!