What is Pulled Pork?
Pulled pork is an American favorite, and variations can be found across country borders. The meat is slowly roasted over a low temperature until it easily falls apart with a fork. Pulled pork is seasoned with vinegar or tomato-based barbecue sauce. The meat is shredded and has a salty, umami flavor.
What does Pulled Pork Taste Like?
Salty is one of the five main tastes. It has a satisfying and addictive quality with hints of sourness. Salty foods include cheeses, cured meats, chips, and olives. It is used in almost every dish and prepared food. Salt is added to enhance flavor and offer a distinctly salty taste.
Umami is one of five main tastes. It is savory with a depth of flavor. Umami is a taste in many foods, including meat, seafood, beans, and nuts. It is both naturally occurring and created through the specific use of ingredients to create a satisfying taste. Umami is characteristic of proteins and savory dishes.
Ingredients
Pork shoulder, also called Boston butt is a relatively tough cut of pork with marbled white fat throughout the red meat. The flavor is umami and fatty. Pork shoulder is best for a slow roast to break down the tissue and to create a more tender bite.
There are many types of barbecue sauce, though the most common kind is tomato-based. This sauce, used for a variety of meats and proteins is thick and red, with a flavor that is both smoky, sweet, salty and has a hint of sourness with the rich taste that tomatoes lend to any cooked dish. Barbecue sauce accompanies any dish with an extra layer of savory flavors.
Beer is an ancient fermented beverage made from fermented grains and hops. Common grains include barley and wheat, but nearly any grain can be used for beer brewing. After a couple of months of fermentation, the beer is ready to drink and is effervescent from the process. Beer varies in its colors and flavors. Lighter beers tend to be a golden/yellow color and have a mild taste with the characteristic malty bitterness that comes with beer. Darker beers may be opaque and deep brown with robust and rich flavors. Herbs, fruits, coffee, and chocolate are some examples of flavors added to beer for flavor enhancement.
Vegetable oil is obtained by extracting oil from seeds. Types of vegetable oil include canola, sunflower, corn, and safflower. Light and with a neutral taste, vegetable oils are used to fry foods, or can be used to lightly coat meats and vegetables before roasting. Vegetable oils are also used as ingredients in salad dressings and sauces.
Brown sugar comes from the sugar cane or sugar beet. It is less refined than white sugar, but a refined sugar nonetheless. Brown sugar varies in color from light brown to dark brown. Light brown sugar has a milder flavor and lower moisture content, than stronger tasting brown sugar. The taste is mildly like molasses and very sweet. The sugar comes in fine granules that clump together. Brown sugar is used in baked goods for its sweet flavor and ability to make cookies soft. It is also used in many savory dishes to balance flavors.
Salt is a mineral composed mostly of sodium chloride. It is the main flavoring used in food and is naturally occurring in certain foods, such as cheese, beets, meat and celery, plus many others. Salt is white and has finer granules than sugar. Many commercial salts include iodide, while others exclude it. Most salts are white, while some are naturally pale pink with minerals. Salt brings out the flavor of something and can create a tangy mouthfeel, if used in excess.
Garlic powder is made from dehydrated garlic cloves that have been ground into a super fine powder. This powder is a pale yellow/golden color and is used to flavor foods. It works well in a pinch and can be used in many of the same ways that fresh garlic is used. The flavor is milder than raw or cooked garlic and is spicy, pungent and nutty. Garlic granules are another form of dehydrated garlic, but rather than powder it is coarser and has the same function. It is often used on top of fresh pizza, as a light dusting.
Smoked paprika is made from Spanish pimiento peppers that have been dried, smoked over oak coals, and then ground to a fine powder. It has an intense, smoky taste but is mild and sweet. It is used in chorizo sausage and paella, and can be used as an ingredient in dry rubs for meat or in stews.
Onion powder is made from the bulb vegetable, onion. Onions are round with a thin, papery skin covering their many layers of juicy and crunchy flesh. This flesh, which is white, yellow or red is made by taking dehydrated onion pieces and then grinding them into an extremely fine powder. The powder is a pale golden/tan color. Onion powder has a flavor that is milder than fresh onions, but highly flavorful in a richer and more concentrated way. It tastes both sweet and mellow, with a spicy edge. Onion powder is used as a seasoning for savory dishes.
Cumin is a spice used in many cuisines around the world. The seed from which cumin is ground is a thin seed with a long body and tapered ends. Cumin is just a few millimeters in length and has a light brown or tan tone, which can look a bit grey. Ground cumin is light brown and has a flavor that is spicy, earthy and a little nutty. When pan heated, the flavor of cumin is both tempered and enhanced.
The peppercorn plant grows in tropical climate and produces tiny black fruit. The fruit is dried and become hard. At this point it is ground into a textured powder comprised of black and grey dots. It has a flavor that is spicy, pungent and sharp. Pepper is an extremely popular spice, especially in Western cuisines and lends a gentle heat to dishes. There are different varieties of black pepper and the flavor changes subtly because of this.
