Pulled Pork Sandwhiches

This is a great recipe for an easy dinner. When planning my weekly menu, I try to include one meal that I can use a crock pot with. I love the idea about prepping dinner in the morning and then forgetting about it. Well, as much as you can forget about something that sends such a great aroma around your house.

This recipe was adapted from another recipe for pulled pork sandwiches that I will share with you later. That one is even easier and comes from my brother-in-law's mother. Did you follow that? How about this one: it is a recipe from my sister's mother-in-law? Relation doesn't matter! She is great and I plan on LT just calling her Grams.

Ingredients:

Pork Loin - about 2 lbs.

1 medium onion

4 cloves of garlic

1T coarse ground pepper

1T Worcestershire sauce

1 beef bullion

1 beer

Start by trimming off as much fat as you can from the pork loins. This will try to insure that you don't get a fatty piece of meat. I always look for some after the cooking is complete too. Fatty pieces aren't my thing. But if you like chewing the fat, by all means skip this step.

Place the pork loin into the crock pot.

Also dice the onion and place it in the crock pot. It is perfectly fine just roughly chop the onion. It will cook down.

Next add the Worcestershire sauce, pepper, beef bullion cube and garlic. Any of these can be increased or decreased based on your likings. At this point you could also give the pork more of a Mexican flare by adding cayenne pepper, cumin, cinnamon, and cocoa powder. I was just feeling plain today.

Next add the entire bottle of beer. Alright, it would be ok if you took a couple of drinks out of it first. Wait! What am I saying? This is being prepared in the morning! Put the whole bottle in and just enjoy the smell. It is going to get even better when it starts cooking!

I used Black Label Shiner Bock here, but really any beer would work. I like the flavor that a dark beer gives the pork. If you were making a Mexican version, Corona or Modelo would work well. And then you would have a beverage to serve that fits in with the theme of the pork sand which.

I also used the Black Label Shiner Bock because on our trips to Sam's for diapers we always come out with a box of the variety pack Shiner Beer. For some reason the black label is the last to go.

Put the lid on and cook on low for 6-8 hours. And you are done, well pretty much.

There are three different types of heat transfer that can be applied to cooking. The methods are direct contact, which is called conduction. An example of conduction would be a skillet on a stove top. The second type of heat transfer is radiant heat, which is called radiation. An example of this type of cooking method would be microwaving. The final type of heat transfer is convection, which is the transfer of heat by the movement of fluids. Crock pots cook food in the form of convection with some conduction.
In convection, heat is transferred from a warm region to a cooler one by the movements particles in a fluid motion. The warmed liquid molecules have greater energy and move faster. These particles then collide with the slower moving molecules of the meat - thus cooking it.

After 6 hours or so, your house will begin to smell like heaven and you will be able to easily pull the pork apart with a fork. It is ready then!

I usually pour the contents of the crock pot into a strainer. The meat will be juicy enough with out the extra cooking liquid.


Here is what the pork looks like after straining off the excess liquid. I also shredded it a little bit with a fork. It is really tender and pulls apart easily.

I like to serve this sand which with BBQ sauce on a toasted bun with spinach leaves. You could also garnish with horse radish mayonnaise. Or if you are really crazy, like my sister, the lib lawyer you could put both BBQ sauce and horse radish mayonnaise on the bun. I don't mix sauces so I wouldn't do such a thing.

This sand which makes a really great week night meal because it is super easy to throw together. Try it tonight!