Pulled pork slightly too tart and watery

Question

I made some pulled pork over the holidays in an Instantpot which came out fairly well.

• 3 pounds boneless pork butt roast. 40 minute cook time.
• bbq sauce based on ketchup and cider vinegar
• more cider vinegar in the liquid

It came out pretty good for a first try, no complaints. Shredded fine, tasted good. Still, it felt a bit too tart and thin.

I think I can fix the tartness by cutting down on the cider proportions a bit, maybe add some more sugar too.

But how do I get a creamier, more unctuous mouthfeel? If it was a curry dish, I'd probably think I was skimping on the coconut milk, as usual. If it was a mac and cheese, maybe my roux would need to be thicker, with more butter and flour. But there are no such ingredients involved in this recipe.

There's a related question, Fix for Greasy Pulled Pork? that is making me think that maybe one possibility is to cook it a bit longer than 40 minutes. Or should I uncover it and continue on heat for a while to reduce the liquid?

Answer 1

When the meat is done, remove the meat from your pressure cooker / slow cooker / Instant Pot.

While you are shredding/pulling your pork, put the Instant Pot on simmer with the lid off and reduce the sauce down until it is thickened and has the desired consistency. You could also transfer to a wide pan to do this on the stovetop more quickly (higher surface area + higher heat = faster evaporation), but that ruins the "one pot wonder" of the Instant Pot

Reducing can take a bit of time, depending on how "watery" the sauce is. My last pressure cooker pulled pork, I reduced the sauce to about one quarter the volume to get the desired saucey consistency, which took about 25 minutes. This is also an opportunity to adjust the sauce for seasoning, sweetness, acid, and spice. I usually try to do this at the end of the process, as flavors will become concentrated as it reduces, and a well-seasoned starting liquid may be too salty, or too sweet or too spicy once reduced.

Once the sauce is reduced, you can re combine your sauce and pulled pork for serving. (If the pork has cooled off from resting, the hot sauce helps to reheat it.)