Perfect Pulled Pork
Meathead
There's a lesson about pulled pork that I have to re-learn every so often, and that is: you just cannot rush it. Give yourself PLENTY of time if you plan to eat at a specific time. Start it at least 12 hours before, minimum, for a roast the size this recipe calls for (about 5 pounds.) Watch me learn that lesson AGAIN in this video! It's not Meathead's fault. He makes it clear in his book. I just...forget. My brain tells me that a small roast like that will be done in 8 hours, surely. And mornings aren't my thing, especially when it comes to getting ready for filming.
For redemption, we made this pulled pork again recently, except we used larger pork shoulders (9ish pounds each, and we smoked two at the same time) and everything went very well, because we started them the night before and held them in the oven at 170 until we were ready to prep them to eat.
The rub is not strictly necessary; salting only is fine, as long as you use sauce. (I recommend the ENC sauce from Whole Hog BBQ:, which we made here https://cookwithheather.com/Whole-Hog-BBQ-Pig-Pickin-(Eastern-NC-BBQ-Sauce)/ )