eastern carolina pulled pork finishing sauce

this is always going to be my go-to source for great flavors in pulled pork barbecue. i got the recipe from j ohn riveraand it's just about as good as it gets, with just the right combinations of sweet, sour and spicy flavors that compliment pork so well. this stuff will make a puppy pull a freight train!

 

eastern carolina PPB finishing sauce:

Finishing Sauce:

3 Cups Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Bottle (12 oz) Killian's or Guinness (see note below)

1 TBSP Salt
2 TBSP Red Pepper Flakes (see note below)
1 TSP Ground Black Pepper
1/4 Cup Dark Brown Sugar

Mix all sauce ingredients in saucepan, bring to boil. Reduce heat to simmer and simmer 30 minutes, uncovered.

Once pork is pulled and chopped, mix in large bowl with sauce. Serve on buns with coleslaw.

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a couple of notes on this:

 

my wife doesn't let me buy good beer, so i tried what was on sale in this recipe; it worked just fine ~ if you don't have any beer in the house, you could probably use water or i would guess just about anything that would cut the acidity of the vinegar a bit - one not of caution, though: i tried apple juice once instead of beer and it did not work well. perhaps the best substitute might be the pan and foil juices from the pork shoulder (after defatting). now that i think about it, even if you use the beer, add these juices (after defatting) to the pork as they greatly enhance the flavor

depending on everyone's tolerance for spicy foods, you may want to cut the red pepper flakes in half. i prefer them as written in the recipe, especially once mixed with the other ingredients and the pork - it all balances very well and nothing is too spicy, tart, sweet etc.

 

while this is simmering, it will probably be a bit frightening as the vinegar is of course pretty strong, but stick with it as this sauce is a perfect compliment for pulled pork barbecue!

 

I went with your original recipe, cut the crushed red pepper to 1 Tbsp, and since I wanted a little color, I added about 2/3 cup of chili sauce. It colored the sauce nicely and thickened it just a bit. Also, I used Samuel Adams summer ale instead of Killian's...it was what I had on hand.

 

Everybody loved the sauce...I think you gave us a great basic recuipe that can go in a lot of different directions if we want it to. Thanks for a great recipe!