Pulled Pork Finishing Sauce (2024)

FAQs

What is a finishing sauce? ›

A finishing sauce is a flavorful liquid or semi-liquid mixture that is added to a dish just before serving. It is designed to enhance the overall taste and appearance of the dish, providing a final burst of flavor and moisture.

This thin, vinegar-based finishing sauce, which differs from a BBQ sauce, is the secret ingredient to kick up my smoked pulled pork. After you've pulled your pork butt, drizzle over the meat and combine. The vinegar adds contrast to the smoky flavor and cuts through the fat in the meat.

Apply the mop sauce to the pulled pork every hour. Smoke the pork shoulder, while mopping hourly, for 8-10 hours or until the internal temperature of the meat reaches 200 degrees F. Rest. Remove the shoulder from the smoker, cover tightly with foil, and allow to rest for an hour before shredding and serving.

If you don't want to spend 16 hours cooking your pork, turn the heat up a little bit. A smoker at 300°F (149°C) will get the job done faster with no appreciable change in quality when compared to a lower, slower 225°F (107°C).

Remember that the three basic elements of a finished sauce are a liquid, a thickening agent, and additional seasoning and flavoring ingredients.

If you're ready to completely flatline, then this extreme-hot sauce made with reapers, pepper extract, ghost peppers, scorpion peppers, and 7 pot chocolate douglah peppers is for you.

Apple Cider Vinegar: to help tenderize the meat and add a little tang we're using a bit of apple cider vinegar. Apple Juice: to keep the meat nice and juicy you'll add a bit of apple juice to the slow cooker.

Once the pork has smoked for the first 2 hours, brush it with some glaze and keep smoking it. You're going to periodically brush the pork with glaze every hour or so, for about 4-5 more hours (for a total smoking time of roughly 6-7 hours).

Transfer everything to a large slow cooker and add a splash of liquid — water is great, but so is broth, apple juice, or beer if you have them handy. Cover and cook on low until the meat is tender and pulls apart easily.

We like to smoke our butts at 275 degrees for about 6 to 7 hours - until the butt internal temp is at about 180. Then you will want to wrap the butt and put it back on the smoker for 1 - 2 hours till the internal temp reaches 205. It's not burnt!

Can you overcook pulled pork? ›

By the way, just as it's possible to overcook beef in a beef stew, it's quite possible to overcook pulled pork. You want your pork to be pull-apart tender—an indication that the connective tissue has broken down—but not so cooked that the muscle fibers themselves start to lose structure and turn to mush.

The USDA recommends that pork is cooked to an internal temperature of 145°F (62.8°C) for food safety. But every griller worth their salt knows that cuts rich in collagen, like pork butt, need to be brought to much higher temperatures (195-205°F [91-96°C]) to properly break down the connective tissues.

A glaze for food is pretty much the same thing as a sauce, however, glazes typically are translucent and add an aesthetically pleasing appearance to the food. According to Wikipedia, a glaze may be applied before or after cooking. It can be either sweet or savory.

Finishing” a dish, which is quite different than polishing one off, simply means adding those extra flourishes to help the food shine and become its best self.

If you want to create a marinade or glaze, but don't have the time to make your own recipe, a pre-made sauce can also work. Yumm!

Monter au Beurre is a French term used to describe the process of adding or whisking in whole, cold butter into a sauce or puree at the end of the cooking process. This process, which is usually done off the heat, adds shine, flavor and richness.