SVS: Pulled Pork

Sous Vide Pulled Pork

For this week’s Sous Vide Saturday, I bagged and sealed a gorgeously marbled piece of pork shoulder with a North Carolina style vinegar barbecue sauce made with white vinegar, molasses, dark brown sugar, salt, pimentón (smoked paprika), mustard powder, garlic, ketchup, and black pepper.

Sous Vide Pulled Pork

After going into the Sous Vide Supreme for a day and a half at 75 degrees C, the collagen had broken down into unctuous gelatin and yet the meat still retained most of its moisture. While it obviously didn’t have smoke rings, the smoked paprika imparted enough smoke flavor that it tasted like it could have come straight from a smoker.

Sous Vide Pulled Pork

Where it differed was the that meat was so moist and tender, the pork practically pulled itself. Also, there was no “crust” of flavor, instead, the sauce had absorbed all the way into the meat, making each bite as flavorful as the next. Tossed with some of the remaining sauce and piled between two pieces of white bread, it made for a messy lunch-time feast.

Sous vide won’t ever replace the smoker as a method of cooking, but for someone who doesn’t doesn’t have a yard, it makes a pretty good alternative.

Equipment you'll need:


  • faith

    mmmmfffffmmmm…that’s the sound of me crying, cause it looks so good, I want to eat it!!!

  • Christian

    How do you seal your vacuum bag with the BBQ sauce and Ketchup? My machine does not like when I vacuum watery foods – it tends to suck it up (in the bad way) :)

    • Marc Matsumoto

      Ideally you use a chamber vacuum, which doesn’t have that problem, but you can make it work with a food saver by freezing the marinade first, or you can hang the bag off the edge of the counter, using gravity to pull the liquid down. Then you run the machine, and stop it just before it starts sucking up liquid. Then just press the seal button to seal it. I usually seal it 3 times in different locations when using that type of machine as the seal can be unreliable.

