Pulled Pork and Memphis Barbecue

My husband served his mission for the LDS church in Tennessee and Arkanasas- and mostly in the Memphis area of Tennessee.  He often talks about some of the fabulous Memphis barbecue that he had while he was there, and complains about all of the barbecue that he has here.  I admit that I have never been a "barbecue" fan.  I don't like barbecue sauce.  I have never enjoyed a meal at any "barbecue" restaurant, and I usually avoid the food genre entirely.  There is one barbecue sauce that I have tried that I do enjoy called Miss Essie's and oddly enough it is made right here in Utah.  It is supposedly a Tennessee recipe, and both Ryan and I like it, but it is hard to find at the grocery store, and is never cheap when you do find it.  These are the reasons why two of my goals were:

#79- Make a really yummy barbecue sauce that reminds Ryan of his mission.
#92- Make pulled pork (implementing above mentioned barbecue sauce)

This past weekend I decided to tackle these two together.  I found a few recipes that looked interesting and dove in.  Here is the link if you are interested http://www.kansas.com/2011/06/29/1913011/memphis-style-pulled-pork-a-hit.html

While cooking the barbecue sauce Ryan mentioned that it smelled like Memphis, which made me smile.  The sauce, while good, wasn't for me.  I followed the recipe from the link above, except that I added liquid smoke to it.  Ryan liked it, and said it was very much like the sauces he had in restaurants in Memphis.  I did mark it off my list, as it did remind him of his mission, and he liked it, but I still feel like I have some work to do on that.  I need to get my hands on Miss Essies recipe.

The pulled pork, however, was delightful.  I did the dry rub from the recipe, let it sit over night and then cooked it in a heavy, lidded pan with some more liquid smoke for 5 hours.  It literally fell apart when it was done and tasted so good.  I didn't put sauce on it, or even want it in a bun- I just ate it- with some coleslaw on the side.  Yum.  Ryan liked it so much he said it might be his next birthday dinner request, which is saying a lot.  I have found myself craving it as well.  It might become a staple.