BBQ Pork

Smoke-cooked pork once was emblematic of barbecue parlors in the South, but it now is universal. The traditional way to do it is whole-hog, an arduous technique still used in a handful of places in the Carolinas, where nearly every part of the pig is utilized to make dishes that vary from familiar ribs and shoulder to visceral hash. More typically, pitmasters cook shoulders (aka Boston butt), then create “pulled pork” by carefully removing fat and gristle, leaving only shreds that are lean but succulent. In the world of BBQ appreciation, pork cooked in the smoke of smoldering coals is infinitely preferable to the (much easier) method of using a gas grill.