Bacon Grease Is The Ingredient You're Missing For Flavor Packed Pulled Pork

For those who eat meat, it's hard to deny the mouthwatering allure of pork. Whether you're biting into the crispy, puffy texture of pork rinds or the meaty goodness of baked and grilled baby back pork ribs, the protein can take on a wondrous array of textures. And for one of the juiciest and decadent of them all, there's beloved pulled pork.

The dish melds together a fatty cut like pork shoulder with a tasty dry rub traditionally slow-cooked over charcoal. However, the advent of many new easy pulled pork recipes brings the dish into the convenience of the indoor kitchen, too. And that opens up the use of some nifty culinary hacks to elevate the resultant pulled pork.

One clever — and not particularly labor-intensive — method is to integrate bacon grease. Slather a generous seven to eight tablespoons on a large pork butt or shoulder about halfway through cooking. It'll offer an extra bump in both fat and flavor, amplifying the pork without interfering with the slow-cooking magic.

Even if it's only to be used with pulled pork, you should stop throwing out bacon grease and keep a jar in the fridge. The foodstuff offers many culinary advantages in one go: it's full of smoky, salty, and savory flavors that perfectly align with the slow-cooked meat. Plus, all that added fat will increase the juiciness of the pork, really ensuring that the patient low and slow cooking will work its magic.

You can add the bacon grease whether you're using a smoker, cooking the pork in the oven, or employing a grill. Regardless of the method, just make sure that the cut is already wrapped in foil during this stage. This will ensure the bacon addition can uniformly seep into the meat rather than pooling at the bottom. You'll want to keep the pork wrapped for most of the cooking duration to keep the moisture sealed in. With such careful considerations, you'll achieve a mouthwatering pulled pork with an added kiss of bacon goodness.