Pulled pork in cherry and cranberry sauce

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 1 ½ kg pork neck ideally (if not, pork shoulder or loin, boned whole)
• 1 kg cherry(s), unsweetened (fresh or pickled, preferably pitted, saves work)
• 1 bag of dried cranberries (125 g)
• ½ liter cherry juice (e.g. Happyday)
• ½ liter Coca-Cola
• 2 tsp, leveled salt
• pepper
• Paprika powder
• some sugar
• 1 ½ large onions
• 2 tbsp butter
• possibly BBQ sauce
• possibly honey

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Rest time approx. 8 hours; Cooking/baking time approx. 4 hours; Total time approx. 12 hours 30 minutes

Best done in a Dutch oven, otherwise in a wider pot.

The night before, rub the meat with a little salt, pepper, and maybe a little paprika. If possible, wrap and vacuum seal it, then refrigerate overnight. If you don’t have a vacuum sealer, cover and refrigerate. Take it out the next day and bring it to room temperature. Heat the Dutch oven; I used my gas grill on medium heat for this (if you don’t have a grill, just put it on the stovetop on medium heat). Heat 1 tablespoon of butter in a pot and fry the onions until translucent. If you like, you can add a little sugar to caramelize it. Set the onions aside, and then sear the meat in a separate pan in 1 tablespoon of butter on each side, turning the burner or stovetop all the way up. Now place the Dutch oven on the stovetop or grill and add the onions, cherries, cranberries, cola, and cherry juice. Save a little for later. Season to taste; if you like, you can add honey and/or barbecue sauce at this point. Place the meat in the juices and simmer at a low temperature (around 110-120 degrees Celsius) until tender. I used a meat thermometer to measure the core temperature every hour. Ideally, the meat should be cooked until the core reaches around 90 degrees Celsius; this is the perfect temperature for pulled pork. If the meat is no longer completely submerged in the juices, add a little more cherry juice or cola. After around 3-4 hours, the meat will have reached the right temperature. Carefully remove from the pot and wrap in aluminum foil. Now it’s best to either put the cranberries and cherries in a blender or roughly mash them if you want them to have more of a bite. Mix a little water with a little cornstarch and stir into the hot sauce. Bring back to a boil briefly to thicken the sauce a little. Now pull the meat, either with claws (e.g. from Amazon) or by hand. Best served with rice or fries. I hope you have success, please leave me a comment!