Pulled pork is the classic barbecue dish amongst classic barbecue dishes. Flaky, tender morsels of juicy, slow-cooked meat; tangy, spicy sauce soaking into a soft, fresh kaiser. All it took was a sale on pork shoulder at Shop Rite, and I knew what my all-Sunday-afternoon production was going to be.

Our condo association doesn’t allow grilling/barbequeing, so I grabbed a bottle of our kolsch and decided to braise the shoulder in it for a few hours with some rosemary and star anise. Once the meat was sufficiently tenderized, I strained out the herbs and simmered the beer with some brown sugar and garlic to create the sauce while I shredded the meat. Mix in a long list of spices, heat up some sauerkraut and onions, and you’ve got yourself a sweet and succulent sandwich perfect for a cool spring night.

We also had some dandelion greens that we got from the local farmer’s market. It doesn’t say so in the recipe, but Mel cooked those with some onions, garlic, dried chiles, salt, and pepper. The bitter dandelion greens went great with the sweet onions and garlic.

The recipe here calls for kolsch, but any malty beer will do. Your best bets are probably kolsch, anything Belgian (especially dubbel), brown ale, malty English beers, and sweeter stouts (perhaps even a coffee stout).

Pulled Pork in Kolsch Sauce With Sauerkraut

3 lbs Pork shoulder
12 fl oz kolsch
3 or 4 star anise pods
2 tbsp dried rosemary
4 or 5 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste

3 tbsp dark brown sugar
1 tbsp minced garlic

1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 Tbsp coriander
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cayenne
freshly ground nutmeg to taste

1 15 oz can sauerkraut
1/2 c minced onion
1 Tbsp olive oil
A few pinches salt
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard

Cut pork shoulder into 2″ steaks. Make sure to cut perpendicular to the grain so the pork will be easy to shred when it’s cooked. Season liberally with salt and pepper.

Combine shoulder steaks, kolsch, star anise, rosemary, and bay leaves in a large saucepan over low heat. Cook for at least three hours, flipping the pork halfway through.

Remove pork and set aside. Strain herbs out of the kolsch and scrape the bits of cooked meat stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add brown sugar and garlic and simmer over high heat until thickened and caramelized. It will smell like burnt sugar when it’s ready.

While the sauce reduces, shred the pork. The easiest way to to this is to hold the meat in place with tongs, and use a large-toothed steak knife or bread knife to gently pull the meat apart. The slow cooking will have weakened the connective tissue, allowing you to shred the meat without much force.

When the sauce is dark and thick, add the spices and stir. Return the pork to the pan and turn it with tongs to coat it evenly with sauce.

While the meat rests, prepare the sauerkraut. In a separate pan, combine oil, onion, and salt and cook over medium heat until the onions are tender. Add sauerkraut and mustard, mix until ingredients are evenly distributed, and cook over medium heat for five minutes.

Serve pork on toasted kaiser rolls with a little bit of sauerkraut.

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