Should you pull or chop a pork shoulder? And which sauce—vinegar or mustard?

To Pull or to Chop? First thing you need to know if you’re not familiar with Carolina-style pit-roasted pork shoulder is that it is always served pulled or chopped. Pulled refers to meat that’s been torn into fine shreds by hand, while chopped indicates meat that has been reduced to a hashlike consistency with a cleaver. Pulled is how you get pork at barbecue competitions and at Carolina pig pickings, where a whole hog is pulled into meaty shreds to be doused with thin spicy vinegar sauce. Chopped is how the pork is generally served at restaurants. Pulling has the advantage of having been graced with a human touch, while chopped pork often contains “brownies”—crisp bits of chopped crust and skin. A few establishments, particularly in South Carolina, serve their pork shoulder thinly sliced.