I have been on a mission for the last five years, ever since I heard the siren's cry of the southern specialty know as pulled pork. I tasted this delicacy for the first time back in 2004. Prior to this occasion I knew barbecue as dry ribs and store-bought hamburger patties and had little interest in it. That all changed when my dear friend Bear decided to take me to lunch at a little shack called "The Rib Doctor-Bodacious BBQ". The sign sported a very happy looking pig, the irony of this happy animal who was certainly unaware of his position as main course was not lost on me. I ordered the large pulled pork sandwich platter with baked beans and french fries. 
The beans were not the strange mushy mess you get out of a can, they were robust and sweet and full of flavor. The pork, oh the pork, it was like no other pork I had ever tasted. It was smoked to a crisp perfection, dry and yet moist with fat at the same time, and the sauces were there to add to the flavor, not as the sole source. I was hooked from the first bite.
After moving away from Kentucky, I was determined to find this culinary delight elsewhere. I soon discovered that there were many bad barbecue impostors out there! In Memphis they boiled their meat and served it drenched in a mediocre sauce. It was nothing like the perfectly pulled masterpiece I remembered! In Denver the meat was similar, but of a lower caliber. In Atlanta I encountered "chopped pork" with a sickeningly sweet, vinegar based sauce that disappointed me greatly. I ended up finding a few contenders along the way. Daddy Dz in Atlanta made a mean pulled pork sandwich, complete with rich backed beans and potato wedges (my scientific standard). I also encountered a near replica of the Rib Dr. at a barbecue festival in Alabama, the contestants were from Northern Tennessee.
Now that I am living in the North East, I have discovered too huge shortcomings in the culinary repituar of New York City: Mexican Food and Barbecue. The mushy, saucy, sweet mess they call barbecue is not only revolting but expensive too ! Granted, there are a few places I have not tried, which I have been told are pretty good, but so far it has been an unpleasant experience.
Which brings me to my recent trip to Fort Campbell. My girlfriend picked me up from the Nashville Airport with a glint in her eye. She told me she had a surprise in the car. I smelled the smokey goodness even before I saw the Styrofoam container! She brought me some leftover beef brisket, baked beans and cornbread. It wasn't pulled pork, but it was good! She was thrilled to have her BBQ buddy back in town and we were on a mission! Sadly, the fools who ran the Rib Doctor decided to move to an out of the way location and promptly when out of business, truly devastating news. We were determined, however, to go on an all out barbecue bonanza that weekend.
On the way back from visiting a school in Martin, TN we decided to stop at the first pig-emblazoned restaurant we saw. This so happened to be a place named "The Keg". Their restaurant was painted with a huge menacing looking pig, so we figured it had to be pretty good. Upon walking into the smokey establishment (oh yes, there are none of those pesky non-smoking laws in the south) I had my doubts. I smelled the fryer and not much else. Our pork sandwich platters arrived and I was thrilled to see nice dry meat accompanied by a large bottle of sauce and beans flecked with pieces of pork. Everything was better than the sad New York excuse for barbecue, but it was not the stuff of my long standing barbecue fantasies. The sauce was OK, but a bit runny, the beans had an odd flavor imparted by jalapenos which overpowered everything else in the stew, and the effect was overall sub par. I was full and overall pleased to be back in the land of the dry meat though, and I knew there was better barbecue to come.
The next day we decided to try a local spot called "The Old South Barbecue". In all my years there I had never frequented this establishment, and I figured it was due to my moral indignation at any business which proudly refers to "The Old South". I suppose my moral outrage has, at this point in my life, been overshadowed by my greedy culinary adventuring, so we went. The place looked like a shack and I feared for my life when using the bowed floor bathroom, but hey, great food often comes out of shanties. This was not one of those times. The meat had an eerie, slimy feel from too much fat, the sauce was runny and over peppered and the beans were lack-luster. Unfortunately for us, we decided that since we had paid for it, we were obligated to eat it, a mistake that caused us great abdominal agony for the better part of the afternoon.
This was outrageous! We had to take a day off though. We both usually eat a healthy diet, mine usually being primarily vegetarian and our carnivorous gluttony was wreaking havoc on our insides. My last day we decided to go to Jo's new standby, where the enticing brisket had originated. Still bloated from the weekend of gluttony, I soldiered on to Jack's in Nashville. The flying pigs on Jack's sign and the happy hog adorning its lawn gave me a promising feeling from the get go, and the smell that hit me upon entering sealed the deal! I ordered the jumbo pork sandwich with baked beans and it was magnificent! They had three different sauces: Texas, Kansas City and Tennessee, and they were all good. The KC was my favorite with its thick, sweet, smokey flavor. The meat was so tender and flavorful, it really didn't need a sauce at all and the beans, flecked with barbecue drippings were robust and delicious. Though still full from the day before, we polished off our plates and were filled with satisfaction. I don't know that it was the best barbecue I have ever had, but it was definitely in my top three.
I don't know if anyone will be able to take the Doctor's title, it was after all my first. Time has a funny way of elevating people and places to an epic stature that surpasses reality. I do know that my quest will continue, I am determined to seek out the greats of this humble art. I also plan to explore the origins and techniques in an attempt to unlock the secrets of this mysterious form of American cookery. Along the way I have had some damn near religious experiences and some utterly horrifying ones. Wherever there is a smoker and swine, I will be there to bravely continue in search of the perfect plate.
Chapter 2. Pulling My Own Pork!
I have always been a beleiver in the attage, "If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself", and I am a competitive bastard and beleive that, "Anything you can do, I can do better!" After the pork debacles in TN, I was inspired to try and make my own Pulled Pork. I had the perfect opportunity on my visit to Colorado. My mother had aquired a smoker, and I knew I had a pair of willing test subjects in her and her husband. I believe that science is the basis for art, meaning, you have to know how to do something the right way before you can put your own spin on it. Therefore, I consulted the man who basis all his recipes on scientific authenticity: Alton Brown. He had a recipe and I had the time and opportunity.
The recipe consisted of soaking a pork shoulder butt, also know as Boston Butt, in a brine of pickling salt, water and molassis overnight. The next morning I got up and we started the smoker, I pulled the pork out of the brine and patted-on Alton's suggested spice blend. (Interesting tip: if you use latex gloves while patting-on the rub it will stick to the meat better.)
Then into the smoker, 210 degrees for 10-12 hours. It was beautiful watching a thing so shrouded in mystery for me coming to life before my eyes. After 10.5 hours the meat fell away with a poke of the fork! I tasted it. It was so flavorful and robust, almost too much! The texture was perfect. As I pulled the meat and watched it become a familiar pile of shreds, I felt a sence of accomplishment, and a realization that this was only step one. I mastered the meat, but what about the beans, what about the sauce? This was an exciting chapter in the Saga of the Swine, but my quest is far from over....
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