North Carolina-Style Pulled Pork

Ingredients

• Pork butt, Boston butt, or untrimmed end-cut pork shoulder roast, 7 to 9 pounds
• Olive oil
• Kosher Salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• Hickory wood chips, soaked in water for 30 minutes
• Lexington-Style Vinegar Sauce, recipe below
• North Carolina Coleslaw, recipe below
• 8 plain white hamburger buns
• 2 cups apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon ground white pepper
• 1/2 to 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 recipe Lexington-Style Vinegar Sauce
• 1 medium head green cabbage, chopped

Directions

1. Set up a charcoal or gas grill for indirect heat. Leave the extra fat on the pork, since it will help baste the meat as it cooks. Lightly brush the pork with olive oil, then season it with salt and pepper. Put it on a clean tray and hold it there until you are ready to grill.
2. Just before the pork goes on, add the soaked wood chips. For charcoal, scatter them over the gray-ashed briquettes; for gas, place them in the grill’s smoking box. If you are cooking with charcoal, add more charcoal every hour so the heat stays steady.
3. Arrange the pork in the middle of the grate, with the fat side facing up, and cook it over indirect low heat with the grill covered. Let it cook slowly for 4 to 5 hours at 325 degrees F to 350 degrees F, until an instant-read thermometer placed in the center of the pork reads 190 degrees F to 200 degrees F. The pork should be extremely tender and ready to fall apart; if it has a bone, the bone should slide out cleanly without meat stuck to it.
4. Rest the pork for 20 minutes, or until it is cool enough for you to handle. Wearing rubber kitchen gloves, separate the meat from the skin, bones, and fat. Save the crisp rendered pieces that look nearly charred. Move quickly and shred the meat with 2 forks, pulling it into small pieces from the butt, or chop it with a cleaver instead. Chop the reserved crisp bits and stir them back into the pork. While the meat is still warm, add enough Lexington-Style Vinegar Sauce to moisten and season it, about 3/4 cup.
5. Serve the pork hot on a hamburger bun, sandwich-style, with coleslaw on top. Offer extra sauce alongside, if desired.
6. For the Lexington-Style Vinegar Sauce, combine all the ingredients in a large nonreactive bowl. Let the sauce stand for at least 10 minutes, or keep it covered in the refrigerator almost indefinitely. Makes about 3 cups.
7. For the North Carolina Coleslaw, toss the cabbage with the sauce until evenly combined but not soaking wet; you may not need all of the sauce. Refrigerate the slaw and let it sit for at least 2 hours or overnight before serving. Makes about 3 cups.