Bubba tom's eastern north carolina style barbeque

1      5-8 pound     Boston Butt pork Roast      -- smoked
   1      mason jar     Apple Cider Vinegar
   4      tablespoons   Cayenne Pepper Flakes
   8      bulbs         garlic
                        -----PAN SAUCE-----
  12      ounces        Apple Cider Vinegar
   2      tablespoons   Cayenne Pepper Flakes
                        ---------------------
   1      tablespoon    salt
   2      cups          water

While nothing can duplicate the sweet ambrosia of slow, pit-cooked, whole
hog Eastern North Carolina barbeque, this is a right close backyard
approximation for those of us who find themselves exiled in distant,
heathen regions of barbeque heresy.

First, get yourself some pork shoulders or Boston Butt roasts, as many
as your smoker will hold comfortably. I use a Brinkmann Professional
Pit Smoker with an offset firebox, but you can do this with a vertical
Brinkmann water smoker as well. The key is providing a moist, smoky,
indirect heat for a long period of time.

What I do is put a bag of charcoal in the firebox, open the vents,
light it, and let it burn down to coals. Then I add wood (generally
oak, since hickory is scarce up here)--two parts wet (soaked) wood to
one part dry--regulate the dampers, and put the shoulders or butts,
fat side up, in the cooking chamber. Beneath the meat I put a drip pan
half-filled with apple cider vinegar. You must keep the heat between
180-260 degrees throughout the smoking process; the optimum range is
220-240 degrees. Normally, I'll add apple wood to the firebox as well,
and I always add between 5-7 whole heads of garlic during the process.
Keep the firebox fed and a good smoke going for between 8 to 10
hours. Do not open the cooking chamber to baste the meat--the only
time you open the cooking chamber is when the temperature spikes above
260 degrees, and you open it only long enough to bring the
temperature back in the proper range. By the time the smoking period
is finished, the outside of the pork will have a golden amber to dark
brown crust.

Now, take the meat and put it in a covered Dutch oven.
If it's too dark outside to continue, preheat your indoor
stoves' oven to just under 300 degrees; otherwise, just raise the
temperature in the cooking chamber a like amount. Get a
quart-sized Mason jar; fill it halfway with apple cider vinegar, add
one (or more) teaspoons of red pepper flakes, and fill the rest of the
jar with water. Dump this into the Dutch oven with the pork, cover,
and cook until the meat falls from the bone, about 2 more hours or so.

When the meat is done, let it cool a bit. [NOTE: If you're too
tired, you can stop here for the day--cover 'em up,
put them in the fridge, and warm 'em up the next morning and continue
the procedure]. While it's cooling, fill some 16 ounce bottles
with apple cider vinegar, adding about a teaspoon of red pepper flakes
to each one (I use Grolsch beer bottles with those pull-down caps, any
excuse for buying good beer...). When the pork has cooled enough to
handle (I use latex gloves) pull it into thumb-sized chunks,
discarding as much fat as possible. Pack roughly 3 pounds of barbeque
into a large frying pan (I use a Number 10 size cast iron skillet).
Dissolve 1 tablespoon of salt into 2 1/2 cups of warm water and pour
it into the pan. Add about 12 ounces of your apple cider vinegar and
red pepper sauce, turn the heat to medium, and let the liquid slowly
simmer off, stirring frequently, until the sauce just barely
oozes over the top of your spatula when you press down on the barbeque
with it. Remove from heat, and congratulate yourself--you've just made
a fine batch of Eastern North Carolina Style Barbeque.