Five years ago, few people in the UK had heard of pulled pork. Barbecue meant cremating supermarket bangers and “pulled” generally referred to a late-night liaison in a ropey nightclub. Fast-forward to 2014, and the hog is everywhere. There are pulled pork Walkers crisps; ready-made pulled pork meals are sold in all the supermarkets; it featured as a pie filling on the BBC’s Bake Off; and it is literally in the air, making the new British Airways first-class menu. There has been a £10m sales growth in pulled pork products in the past year, according to research by 2 Sisters food group, and the US barbecue market is now worth more than £68m in the UK.
The ubiquity of pulled pork is inseparable from the trend for US barbecue restaurants. “It started with modernisation of barbecue foods in the US around 2008-10,” says Charles Banks, the co-founder of food trendspotting agency thefoodpeople. “This craze for contemporary barbecue spread to the UK with two of the first authentic joints: Pitt Cue Co in London and Grillstock in Bristol.”
As punters went wild for barbecue in general, and pulled pork in particular, restaurant chains and supermarkets jumped on the porcine bandwagon. There has been a 35% increase in the amount of US barbecue dishes served in UK restaurants since 2010, according to thefoodpeople, and a rash of smokehouses and diner pastiches have opened in London, Manchester, Leeds, Brighton and beyond. “We are in the midst of a meat-centric tsunami,” says Richard Turner, the director at Pitt Cue Co and the co-founder of rare-breed butchers Turner and George.
But as it spreads across Britain, pulled pork is in danger of getting lost in translation. This speciality from the western part of North Carolina is taken seriously in its home, typically using shoulder, cooked slowly over the coals until it’s ready to be “pulled” into shreds and dressed (usually with a thin vinegar, pepper and tomato sauce). In the eastern part of the state, they favour the whole hog, chopped, and the sauce is a tomato-free zone.
Chef Brad McDonald of The Lockhart in London, a Mississippi native, is a fan of pork “butt”, the upper portion of the shoulder. “Eating it between a soft potato bun with slaw and creole mustard is my first memory of great barbecue,” he says. “Our tradition is slow and low over the open fire, served with gallons of sweet iced tea.”
You’ll find barbecue pork (pulled or chopped) all over the US, with variations in cuts, cooking time, rubs and acceptable sauces and sides. These matters are the subject of intense debate among ’cue nerds, who would be appalled by the “pulled pork” ready meals in the UK. But the potential for greatness is here. “It’s all about sourcing,” says McDonald. “The standard here is great at places that source heritage British breeds properly. In the US, we pretty much adapted all your heritage breeds, so you have direct access to the ancestral lines in their natural environment. There is breadth for UK barbecue to overtake US, if only in the quality of the meat.”
Turner recommends using free-range Tamworth shoulder to make pulled pork at home, and says it should be smoked over hickory at 110C/230F for six hours, or until the internal temperature reaches 90C/194F. For pulled pork nirvana, he serves it in a bun with pickles and vinegar slaw.
The pulled pork onslaught shows little sign of slowing down. “I think there is a lot more to come,” says Banks. “It was predicted that the barbecue craze would die off by 2013, but it keeps marching on, and has evolved from a food trend to a food genre. We also expect to see other meats being pulled.”
He’s not wrong – KFC recently launched “pulled chicken”. Which will peak first, the “pulled” or the “pork”? Don’t bet on either going away any time soon.
