Smoked Pulled Pork with Vinegar Sauce
A rubbed pork shoulder smoked low and slow until it pulls apart, dressed with a tangy Carolina-style vinegar sauce and piled on buns with slaw.
- Full Meals
- Smoker
- Oven
- Pork
- Dinner
- 720 min total
- Serves 12
Ingredients
Ingredients for servings
Enter a number of at least ½, in steps of ½.
Original recipe serves 12. Ingredient amounts adjust automatically. Cooking times and pan size may need adjusting separately.
Pork
- 8 lb bone-in pork shoulder, Boston butt
- 2 tbsp yellow mustard, as a binder
- 1 cup apple juice, for spritzing
Rub
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 tbsp paprika
- 2 tbsp kosher salt
- 1 tbsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp onion powder
- 1 tsp cayenne
Vinegar sauce
- 1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp hot sauce
To serve
- 12 burger buns
- 6 cups coleslaw, creamy or vinegar style
Gear
- Smoker (or oven, see Swaps)
- Hickory, oak or apple wood
- Leave-in probe thermometer
- Butcher paper or heavy foil
- Cooler and old towels
Some gear links may be affiliate links. Disclosure.
Steps
Step 1: NIGHT BEFORE: Mix the rub. Pat the pork dry, smear it all over with mustard, and coat heavily with the rub. Wrap and refrigerate overnight.
Step 2: Shake the vinegar sauce ingredients together in a jar until the sugar dissolves. Refrigerate; it improves overnight.
Step 3: Heat the smoker to 250°F using hickory, oak or apple wood.
Step 4: Put the pork on fat-side up. Smoke until the outside has a dark, firm crust (bark) and the internal temperature reaches 160 to 165°F, about 6 to 7 hours. Spritz with apple juice every hour after the first 3 hours.
Step 5: When the temperature stalls in the 160s, wrap the pork tightly in butcher paper or foil with a splash of apple juice. Return it to the smoker.
Step 6: Keep cooking until it reaches 200 to 205°F and a probe slides in like it's going into soft butter, about 3 to 4 more hours.
Step 7: Rest the wrapped pork in an empty cooler with towels for at least 1 hour (up to 3).
Step 8: Unwrap, pull out the bone (it should slide right out), and shred the meat with forks or gloved hands, mixing in the crusty bark. Toss with about 1/2 cup of the vinegar sauce, then taste and add more.
Step 9: Pile on buns with coleslaw and more sauce on the side.
Game plan
Cookout at 6:00 PM:
- Night before: Rub the pork. Make the vinegar sauce and slaw dressing.
- 5:00 AM: Light the smoker. Pork on by 5:30 AM.
- 8:30 AM onward: Spritz every hour.
- 12:00 PM: Around the stall, wrap it.
- 3:00 to 4:00 PM: Should hit 200 to 205°F. Into the cooler.
- 4:30 PM: Make the coleslaw and any sides (baked beans, mac and cheese).
- 5:30 PM: Pull and sauce the pork.
- 6:00 PM: Serve. If it finished early, it’ll stay hot in the cooler for hours.
Swaps
- Oven: Roast at 275°F in a covered roasting pan for 7 to 9 hours until 200°F. Add 1 tsp liquid smoke to the sauce.
- Sauce: Swap the ketchup out completely for an eastern-style pure vinegar sauce.
- Meat: Boneless shoulder works; tie it with twine and expect slightly less time.
Tips
- Plan about 1/3 pound cooked meat per person. A bone-in shoulder loses about 40 percent of its weight.
- The stall is normal. Moisture evaporating off the surface cools the meat. Wrapping pushes through it.
- Time is a guess. Temperature and tenderness are the truth.
The story
HAM Cooking. Let’s fire it up.
Pulled pork is the best deal in barbecue. Pork shoulder is one of the cheapest cuts in the case and, given enough time, one of the most delicious. The only thing it really asks for is patience. Which is too bad, because I have none. Good thing the smoker does.
Shoulder is loaded with fat and connective tissue. At a low temperature over many hours, that tissue breaks down into gelatin and the fat melts, which is why the meat goes from tough to falling apart. The famous “stall” around 160°F scares a lot of first-timers. It’s just evaporation cooling the surface, like sweat. Wrap it and it pushes through. The cooler rest at the end lets the juices settle back in, and it gives you a buffer if the pork finishes early.
The vinegar sauce cuts right through all that richness. It’s tangy, a little spicy and thin enough to soak in, not sit on top. One bite and you’ll get why folks in the Carolinas swear by it.
HAM out.
Related recipes
AI illustrationSmokerGrillDinnerFull MealsFourth of July Baby Back Ribs
Baby back ribs with a sweet and smoky rub, cooked low on the grill or smoker, wrapped with butter and honey, then glazed with sauce. Tender, not mushy.
330 min · serves 6 · Pork
AI illustrationSmokerDinnerFull MealsSmoked Beef Brisket
A whole packer brisket with a simple salt and pepper rub, smoked low and slow, wrapped in butcher paper and rested for hours until it's tender and juicy.
900 min · serves 16 · Beef
AI illustrationGrillSmokerDinnerFull MealsSpatchcock Turkey on the Grill
A butterflied turkey grilled over indirect heat in about 90 minutes, with crispy skin, a hint of smoke and a free oven for the sides.
150 min · serves 10 · Turkey
Cooked this? Tell us how it went.
Loading reviews…