Remove pork from fridge and bring to room temperature. Remove the outer skin if you were a fool and forgot to check with the butcher. This is done best with a very sharp knife (I used my boning knife). I started at a corner of the skin and angled my knife in so as to loose little of the fat and gently released the tension between the skin and the meat. You will quickly get a feel for where the skin wants to give and when and you continuously run your knife to the place of greatest resistance.  Once the skin is removed, you can either discard it or reserve it for a future project.

I really like making pulled pork in a crockpot because I can set it up early in the morning and get on to other things the rest of the day. This huge piece of meat requires the big crock pot. I used a 6 quart and the boundaries of the machine were definitely pushed by the meat and sauce quantity I selected.

The basic concept is make the sauce. Put it and the meat in the crockpot. Cook for a long time. That doesn't mean the practice will be so simple... Something I should have done: measure the volume of the sauce and meat before I committed to them both fitting into the pot. What I actually did: Start throwing great stuff in the crockpot while writing it down for this recipe. See it was getting full. Put pork in. Realize that the lid would barely fit. Put on anyway. Realize that spills were going to happen when it got hot. What I should have done: remove some of the liquid and reserve for after the meat cooked down and I removed the bones. What I did: leave it alone hoping that it would magically cook gently and the volume increase due to heat would perfectly coincide with the meat cooking and shrinking. What did happen?: lots of splattering. Solution: reserve some of the liquid ingredients until you remove the bones and then add it when you have more room in the pot.

After the meat is tender and starting to pull (somewhere in the 6-7 hours range), remove the bones.

If the sauce is still really runny, scoop out as much liquid as you can and place it in a medium pot and cook over medium until it reduces to a thick liquid. (I ended up reducing about 4 cups of liquid to 1 cup).

Now is the important part. Taste the sauce. Readjust the balance. I had to add the brown sugar and salt at this point. Return to pork. Taste again. Readjust.

Set on keep warm or low.Buy some good rolls to serve the pork on, or make some homemade brioche. (Hint: you’ll need flour, yeast, salt, butter, eggs and to start a day ahead ideally). Steam or sauté spinach as a topping for the sandwich; figure one cup of leaves per person. These are a great part of a Super Bowl Menu and perfect since people can serve themselves whenever they so choose.

Notes: I made mine a day ahead, refrigerated overnight and placed back in the crockpot on warm the next day and didn’t serve it until night. As long as you start early, there’s no reason you can’t make it and serve it in the same day.