The Meal of the New Year: Pulled Pork

Hello all and happy holiday season to all. Hope your holiday preparation is off to a smooth start and presents are being purchased. The holiday season is crazy time for all and I am not sure how many of you read my posts until after break so I thought that I would leave you with a New Year’s meal.

Traditionally my family eats pork and sauerkraut on New Year’s day. I was interested in this roots of this tradition and I found some history here. This website addressed not only the pork and sauerkraut but many other meals. I was always told that it was it was good luck to eat pork because pigs eat walking forward. This represents that during the new year we need to move forward. Also, it is bad luck to eat chicken on New Year’s day because they eat walking backwards. Opposite of pork, the chicken’s eating style represents people who focus on the past and don’t embrace the new year.

So enough about that background, here is a recipe to make your own similar New Year’s day meal. We’ll start with the pork. Instead of pork chops we are going to make a simple pulled pork using a slow cooker (crock pot).

Crock pot Pulled Pork:

1. First thing is to buy several pounds of pork shoulder (pork butt). Pork is a great meat because it reheats extremely well after freezing and it also crazy CHEAP.
2. Add 2 onions (roughly chopped), the pork, a spoonful of salt, 4 cloves of garlic, and a can of chicken broth.
3. Cook all of these ingredients on LOW for 8-10 hours in the slow cooker.
4. You can also add seasoning salt or brown sugar to add a different flair to your pulled pork.
5. Transfer the pork to a cutting surface. Instead of cutting the pork I prefer to shred it with two forks. Your final product should look similar to the picture below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This pork goes great with either a syrupy, sugar based barbecue sauce or a vinegar based Carolina sauce.

If you want to stay true to the New Year’s tradition you can have the side dish of sauerkraut. If you don’t enjoy this unique flavor you can substitute it with some mashed potatoes. I love homemade mashed potatoes and they are great because potatoes are VERY cheap. Hope you enjoy this meal to kick off your new year. Happy holidays to all and to all a good night!