You can accomplish the same tenderness by roasting the tenderloin on a baking sheet fitted with a rack, tightly covered in foil, for about 2-3 hours on 250. Give the tenderloin a good rub of your favorite BBQ dry rub, and toss 2 ice cubes underneath the rack to keep the meat moist.

I’m with you on the smokiness aspect of the meat being one of the best parts of the pulled pork. I’m going to experiment with a rub that has smoked paprika in it the next time I make pork like this.

Keep in mind as I answer these questions, I am not a cook extraordinaire. But you are. So I trust you can take my answers and know if I’m a little off on something.

Some crockpots have a timer on them that will switch the pot from a cooking setting (low or high) to warm. However, I’m not sure if keeping it on warm will cook it to a point you don’t care for. My crockpot was a gift and is a basic one with just the three settins (warm, low, and high). There isn’t a timer on it. I don’t know how well that works. However, there may be an alternative. This might sound odd. There are extension cords with timers on them. Often you can find them at Christmas time for Christmas trees. I bet that would work if you weren’t sure about the warm option. Normally, such an extension cord can be set for 2, 4, 6, or 8 hour shut offs.

To freeze, I made two good piles of the shredded pork (without BBQ sauce) and put each pile into a freezer bag. I squeezed all the air out and stuck it into the freezer to freeze overnight. Then I went back this morning and wrapped that in freezer paper to give it some added protection. This way I can just thaw it quick at night, heat up some BBQ sauce, mix, and I’m ready for lunch the next day. There may be a better way to accomplish this. That’s what I’ve done for now.

The recipes I have at home said to make it in the oven to bake on about 250 for until the meat was tender or could be pulled with a fork. I think for the size tenderloin I had, it might have taken about the same amount of time, maybe a little less to cook the tenderloin that way. I didn’t choose oven cooking because while LA is cooling a small amount to have my oven on for 7 hours would be too hot! A slow cooker doesn’t produce as much heat. If you try this option, let me know how it goes. You could just use a good roasting pan to do this instead of a cast iron pot.

It won’t have that smoky flavor of pulled pork you might buy elsewhere, but your favorite BBQ sauce would help to fix that. I hope you try it and enjoy it. I ate the 5 appetizers in the picture last night for dinner, then made 5 more b/c I was still hungry. I’m now soooo ready for lunch.

The liquid I didn’t have any use for so it was disposed of. There wasn’t too much liquid left anyway after it cooked for so long.

It looks absolutely delicious, but my wife does not like root beer, hence I won’t ever be able to make it. Fail!