South Carolina Pulled Pork

This regional recipe, nicknamed Carolina gold, demands more than just a last-minute dose of bold flavors. A combination of grilling and oven-roasting reduces the cooking time from all day (as is common in traditional South Carolina pulled pork recipes) to just four or five hours. We used the spice rub to jump-start the mustard flavor of the sauce—dry mustard gave us the solid mustard punch we wanted and cooked into a rich, spicy crust on the grill. Most authentic South Carolina barbecue sauce recipes use regular yellow mustard, which our tasters praised for its bright, assertive tang. Brushing the pork with the mustardy barbecue sauce before it goes into the oven produces a second hit of mustard flavor; tossing the shredded pork with the remaining sauce gives the meat a final layer of mustard flavor. Relying on the fork test, not time, to determine doneness is key: Just stick a fork straight into the top of the roast and lift. If the fork comes out with little or no resistance, the meat is fork-tender (just right).