The Old-School Pulled Pork You Can Make With 3 Ingredients - And One Is A Can Of Root Beer

Barbecue is older than the United States itself, and one of the culinary staples of the American South. Pigs were much easier to farm than cattle, so pork became standard fare in Southern cuisine. Pulled pork is still one of the most popular dishes. Although it can seem like a daunting thing to make due to the long cooking process, the wait is really the hardest part. You can make an incredible, classic pulled pork using just a pork roast, your favorite vinegar-based barbecue sauce, and some root beer. The end result is moist, tender, and flavorful pulled pork that's as good as any you've ever had.

All you need is a slow cooker. Just set your roast in it with the fat side up. Pour a bottle or can of root beer over the top and let it cook for about six hours so that the meat pulls apart easily with a fork. If root beer's flavor isn't to your liking, you can do this with almost any soda. Colas like Pepsi and Coca-Cola are very popular, as is Dr. Pepper. You can even try ginger ale, which makes a great barbecue sauce. This method produces incredibly tender, juicy pork, and much of the soda flavor will cook off and leave only subtle hints behind. Drain off that excess liquid and remove the fat and any bones that may be present. Shred the meat and then mix in your barbecue sauce. Let the pork simmer until you're ready to serve.

Some people really pride themselves on their pulled pork recipes, and there are many ways to prepare it. St. Louis–style barbecue might have a tangy tomato sauce, while Kansas City-style uses a sweeter version. But if you want an Eastern North Carolina style, you want a vinegar-based sauce. There's no tomato here, and the root beer adds a sweet, flavorful balance.

Pulled pork is best made from pork butt and picnic roasts, both from a pig's shoulder. The meat lends itself very well to this style and naturally shreds after it's been slow-cooked for a long time. The shoulder of a pig is rich in collagen because it's a tough muscle. Long, slow cooking breaks that collagen down and allows the meat to pull apart. This process is enhanced when you braise the meat in a sauce that includes root beer. Though not nearly as acidic as other sodas, root beer has a similar acidity to tomato or orange juice, which can be enough to help tenderize the meat and infuse it with flavor.

The sugar in root beer brings a necessary contrast to the sharpness of a vinegar-based sauce. Sugar balances flavor and works alongside umami to round out the full taste of your dish. It can also improve the texture of the sauce. Any good barbecue sauce has a sugar element to it, usually in the form of brown sugar, honey, or molasses. In this case, root beer's unique flavor profile is doing the heavy lifting, thanks to ingredients like wintergreen and vanilla, along with smaller amounts of juniper berry, licorice, ginger, anise, and dandelion.