Homemade North Carolina BBQ in California?

Last night I decided it was time to cook the pork loin in the fridge, but I wasn’t feeling the typical roast other-white-meat. So I threw together a spice rub (ground mustard, cumin, cayenne, white pepper, etc), rubbed the meat in it till it had a nice coat, and then seared it in a hot pan with some oil.

Meanwhile I combined a can of crushed roasted tomatoes with some brown stock, and started sauteing some chopped shallots. Once the meat had a nice crust, I put it in a small glass dish, poured the shallots over it, and filled the rest of the space with the stock tomato liquid. I set this in the oven at 325°F for 3 hours.

At midnight I took the now tender braised meat out of the liquid, set it on a cutting board, and proceeded to shred it with two forks. Pork loin is pretty lean, (and thus dry), so I added a few small spoonfuls of the braising liquid to the shredded meat, put everything in a tupperware container in the fridge, and went to bed.

For dinner tonight I brought home some nice sandwich rolls and some coleslaw mix. Stephanie made some corn bread and a dressing for the cole slaw, I heated up the pork on the stove, liberally adding olive oil, red and white vinegar, and crushed red pepper. The combination of the heat, oil, and vinegar turned what started out looking like coarse pulled pork into bonafide North Carolina BBQ.

Homemade (in California) North Carolina BBQ

This is a meal that should look very familiar to anyone reading from North Carolina. Bon Appetit!

Wednesday, April 25, 2007 11:23pm
Food

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4 comments

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BrianR
4/26/07 4:56am

Very cool. I’ve been wondering out loud how to ship bbq to Cali folks. Nice to know you got home grown stuff. So how did it taste compared to say, Allen & Sons? :) Better I bet. You foodie you!

Jerry
4/26/07 7:20am

Yummy. I miss the good Eastern NC stuff. It’s the only definition the word “barbeque” has ever had to me.

csg
4/26/07 7:57am

Very nice! I haven’t had the heart to try again here at home, but maybe once the kitchen is settled. It sure looks good…

justin
4/26/07 8:37am

I have to say, it was pretty damn good. Of course it was braised lean pork instead of smoked shoulder or something, but by the time you’ve cooked the hell out of it, it almost doesn’t matter. If I’d had some bacon, I might have rendered that to add some smoky fat instead of olive oil, but in the end, the taste didn’t suffer, and it was probably that much healthier.

csg, you (of all people!) should totally go for it. The not so secret secret is just to add vinegar (I used red and white) and crushed red pepper when you’re reheating it. I’m also curious what a drop or two of liquid smoke would add.