Mangalitsa Pulled Pork

Marbled pork goodness!

I have written about Mangalitsa already about a year ago. Since then my contact network has expanded and there are several farmers I can get this incredible pork from. This time I got good load of shoulder and belly from Joutsin Tila. Whereas last year I cooked Mangalitsa in my Weber Smokey Mountain and with briquettes, this time I had ceramic kamado grill and lump charcoal. A great setup for low and slow cooking.

Pulled pork might be the most straight forward low-and-slow dish. It is very difficult to fail, if you only have patience. Kamado grill makes cooking even more easy. Due to its heavy ceramic construction, it is well insulated and temperature control is simple. Low airflow also helps keeping the meat juicy.

Today I cooked 4,4lb (2kg) pork shoulder which I cut in half. I sprayed apple juice all over it and rubbed it with commercial BBQ rub. Then put it into kamado at 230°F (110°C).

First three hours I smoked it with apple wood chunks.

Once meat temp reached 165°F (74°C), I moved the pork into small aluminum pan and covered with aluminum foil. At this temperature meat also stalled and stayed flat for 90 minutes.

After 7hrs of cooking, I started to try tenderness of the meat every half an hour. Temperature probe is a good tool for that. I am not following doneness by temperature when cooking pork shoulder. When it feels ready, it is ready. Probe should go through the meat without resistance.

Altogether it took 9hrs when I decided to take my Mangalitsa dinner out from the kamado cooker and into the cooler box to rest. One-hour rest was enough, when I started pulling it apart. It was so soft that tools were not needed. Mangalitsa fat was dissolved totally and moistened the whole piece of meat.

Excellent result!

Dinner was Mangalitsa burger with coleslaw, pickled onions and smoked paprika mayonnaise.