The Eastern NC Chopped Pork Sandwich
Chapter 4 — The Sandwiches & Plates
If you’ve ever sat under the wafting oak smoke at the Skylight Inn waiting for a tray of chopped whole-hog barbecue, you know the gospel of Eastern North Carolina. It is uncompromising, eschewing tomatoes and thick molasses for a sharp symphony of rich pork, biting vinegar, fiery pepper, and the ultimate textural secret of salty, shattered pork skin. We can't all shovel oak coals under a 150-pound hog for sixteen hours, but you can engineer that exact bite in your backyard or oven using a skin-on pork shoulder. Your first bite of this sandwich, studded with cracklins and crowned with sweet yellow slaw, will transport you straight to the coastal plains.
Before you start
Mix the vinegar mop and let it steep at room temperature.
Combine the apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, Texas Pete, red pepper flakes, brown sugar, one teaspoon of the kosher salt, and one teaspoon of the black pepper in a jar and shake vigorously to extract the heat from the pepper flakes overnight.
Dry brine the pork skin overnight.
Dry the pork skin thoroughly, score it carefully without piercing the meat, pack it heavily with the remaining kosher salt, and leave it uncovered in the refrigerator to draw out the moisture.
Ingredients
- skin-on pork shoulder8 lb
- kosher salt3 tbsp
- coarse black pepper2 tbsp
- apple cider vinegar1 1/2 cup
- distilled white vinegar1/2 cup
- Texas Pete hot sauce1 tbsp
- crushed red pepper flakes1 tbsp
- light brown sugar1 tbsp
- green cabbage1 med
- mayonnaise1/2 cup
- Miracle Whip1/4 cup
- white sugar1/3 cup
- celery seed1 tsp
- plain white hamburger buns10 med
Method
- 01
Fire up the smoker or kettle to 250F using hickory or oak wood.
For a kettle, employ the snake method with unlit briquettes and hickory chunks, adjusting the vents to hold a steady, low heat.
- 02
Wipe the wet salt from the skin and season the meat side.
Brush the drawn moisture and salt off the skin, pat it completely dry, and season only the exposed meat with the remaining coarse black pepper.
- 03
Smoke the pork naked to render and crisp the skin.
Place the shoulder skin-side up on the grates and leave it completely unwrapped through the stall, lightly dabbing the meat with the vinegar mop every hour after the first four hours.
- 04
Make the pale yellow slaw.
Pulse the cabbage chunks in a food processor until finely minced like relish, then fold in the mayonnaise, Miracle Whip, white sugar, celery seed, and a half teaspoon of salt before refrigerating.
- 05
Pull the pork when it hits 195F internal and slides off a probe with zero resistance.
If the smoker didn't fully blister the skin, slice the skin off now and broil it on a baking sheet for five to ten minutes until it puffs into hard cracklins.
- 06
Rest the meat in a faux Cambro for at least one hour.
Place the meat in a foil pan, cover loosely, and stash it in an empty dry cooler to let the muscle fibers relax and reabsorb their juices.
- 07
Pull the bone and chop the meat aggressively.
Transfer the rested meat and the blistered skin to a large board, grab a heavy meat cleaver, and chop them together until finely minced and uniformly mixed.
- 08
Dress the chopped pork and build the sandwich.
Drizzle a half cup of the vinegar mop directly into the pile, mix it by hand, and mound the cracklin-studded pork onto a plain white bun topped heavily with the sweet yellow slaw.
Notes
The kitchen oven is a perfectly honorable workaround for apartment dwellers.
Follow the same prep but roast at 300F on a wire rack for six to eight hours, using a teaspoon of liquid smoke rubbed on the meat and finishing the skin under the broiler.
The stall is not your enemy here.
Do not wrap the pork in foil or butcher paper at 160F, as trapping the steam will turn the skin rubbery and ruin the cracklins that define this sandwich.
From Cook BBQ at Home.