Pulled pork can be made with a fresh ham or picnic roast, although our preference is for Boston butt. Preparing pulled pork requires little effort, but lots of time. Plan on 10 hours from start to finish: 3 hours with the spice rub, 1 hour to come to room temperature, 3 hours on the grill, 2 hours in the oven, and 1 hour to rest. Wood chunks, a traditional flavoring for pulled pork, is not traditional in this dish. You will need a disposable aluminum roasting pan that measures about 10 inches by 8 inches as well as heavy-duty aluminum foil and a brown paper grocery bag. Mojo sauce (see related recipe) is a citrus-flavored Cuban sauce. Rice with black beans is an excellent accompaniment to this dish.

Ingredients

Garlic Rub

• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper

• 9 medium cloves garlic , minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 3 tablespoons)

• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

• 1 tablespoon ground cumin

• 2 teaspoons dark brown sugar

• 1 tablespoon dried oregano

• 1 tablespoon table salt

Pork

• 1 bone-in pork roast , 6 to 8 pounds (preferably shoulder or Boston butt roast)

• Mojo Sauce (see recipe below)

Instructions

1. Mix all rub ingredients in small bowl, set aside.

2. If using a fresh ham or picnic roast, remove skin (see illustration below). Massage dry rub into meat. Wrap tightly in double layer of plastic wrap; refrigerate for at least 3 hours. (For strong flavor, the roast can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.)

3. At least 1 hour prior to cooking, remove roast from refrigerator, unwrap, and let it come to room temperature.

4. Ignite the grill, turn all the burners to high, cover, and heat until very hot, about 20 minutes. Turn the primary burner down to medium and turn off the other burner(s). Set the unwrapped roast in the disposable pan, position the pan over the cooler part of the grill, and close the lid. Barbecue for 3 hours. (The temperature inside the grill should be a constant 275 degrees; adjust the lit burner as necessary.)

5. Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place roast in pan and wrap with heavy-duty foil to cover completely. Place pan in oven and cook until meat is fork-tender, about 2 hours.

6. Slide the foil-wrapped pan with the roast into a brown paper bag. Crimp top shut; rest roast 1 hour. Transfer roast to cutting board and unwrap. When cool enough to handle, "pull" pork by separating roast into muscle sections (see illustration, below), removing fat, if desired, and tearing meat into thin shreds with fingers. Place shredded meat in large bowl Serve with mojo sauce passed separately.

Why this recipe works:

We wanted a boldly flavored, Cuban-style pork roast recipe with crackling-crisp skin and tender meat infused with flavor. To speed up cooking, we abandoned cooking the pork completely on the grill (which required constant refueling and rotating over several hours) in favor of a combination cooking method: cooking the pork on the grill for three hours (the time it took for our initial supply of coals to die down) and then finishing it in the oven. To give our Cuban-style pork roast recipe added flavor, we again combined methods, first marinating the pork in a powerful solution that included 2 heads of garlic and 4 cups of orange juice, then rubbing an exterior paste into slits cut all over the pork.