Hellers Pulled Pork product reviews

We are always on the look out for new and exciting fillings for sandwiches in our house hold, so when we first discovered this pulled pork in one of local supermarkets about a year ago we were keen to give it a go, especially knowing that it was produced by Heller's, one of our favourite brands for such things, and also as we love both pork and barbeque sauce so the thought of the 2 flavours together we thought must be good!

The BBQ pulled pork comes in a convenient package, that separates into 2 individual packages down the middle, perfect for when you don't require using the whole lot at once, this is a great way to ensure the remainder of the product stays fresh until use. The label on the packet is eye catching and features a mouthwatering pulled pork bread roll. I love how you are able to see the product itself through the clear plastic compartment and although I have to admit it is not the most appetizing looking product out there, it didn't stop us from wanting to try it.

First off we decided to try the pulled pork warm up in the microwave for about 25 seconds so that we could put it on a sandwich along with some lettuce, tomato, and cheese., we found that one of the individual packages was enough to cover two sandwiches, although they could have easily done with more of the meat. The flavours of the pulled pork were flavorsome in the sandwich rich, juicy, tender bits of pork smothered in a yummy sweet barbecue sauce, which i'm happy to say tasted amazing.

Next off we decided to put the pulled pork as a topping on home made pizzas, due to the sauce in the product we didn't need to bother with putting a base sauce onto the dough first which was a bonus! We topped the pulled pork with cheese and a little bit of bacon and again this tasted delicious. Since having used the pulled pork on sandwiches and pizza we have also used it at my daughter's first birthday to make pulled pork sliders, everyone raved about these and kept wanting to come back for more, the pulled pork was by far the most popular flavour amongst the chicken and beef sliders also served on the day, when asked how I made the delightful pork mix everyone was happy to hear it was Heller's who made this as it meant they could easily get there hands on more.

This is now my partners favourite sandwich filling hands down, and although it is a little pricey we will continue to buy it at least once a month after many failed attempts to recreate our own version without much success, sometimes you can't skimp on quality!

I didn't apply for this goodie when the product came up on offer as I had a bit much on at the time. But as I saw the reviews and photos popping up on Facebook my mouth started to water. As a result, I went out and purchased a pack of it when I was in the supermarket next.

My first impressions of the pack was that it is built for one or two days of dinner/lunch depending on what you do with it and how big your family is. It has two sections, and you can break them apart separately. For our family of four that is perfect as one side is perfect to use on a pizza on night, and then in our case as toasted sandwiches another night.

Although on first look at the meat inside, it didn't look terribly appealing. It is basically a lump of pork in a BBQ sauce. Once I got over the look of it, I found that the flavour of the sauce was good. Because of the consistency, I found it spread easily on anything I used it on. The kids weren't terribly keen on the taste, but they tend to like a choice when it comes to having sauce or not.

It was good on the pizza base, with the addition of cheese and other meats. I didn't need to add a base sauce because I could just use this instead. The toasted sandwiches I made were based on something I saw on Food TV one day, with slices of macaroni cheese, pulled pork and cheese. They were delicious! I would definitely get this product again to have those again. I think this would do great in a pastry savoury as well, for those bring a plate situations.

I had heard great stuff about this pulled pork so had been keen to try it. However trying to find in the supermarkets was proving to be a problem. When this went up for review I was excited to finally give it a go.

On receiving a packet I liked how this was separated into two separate packets. This gives you the choice of using it all at once or in two stage. I looked at the contents through the packet and it looked nothing like the picture on the front. I opened the packet to find that it did not look at all appetising.

I was totally put off by the look of the mash so had to come up with a recipe that I thought I and the family would be able to hide the look of it. There didn't seem to be any pieces of pork in my packets any bigger that a grain of rice, it was all mashed up. After tasting it with my eyes closed, the BBQ flavour was very dominant but definitely no pork flavour. I decided to make stuffed potatoes which would hide the look of it and felt mixed with potato would calm the BBQ flavour.

I mixed pulled pork in with the cooked potatoes, cheese and onions and re-stuffed my potatoes. They looked eatable and after crisping them back up in the oven tasted really nice too. It was nice to have something a little different to just potatoes but I did feel I could have gotten this taste with just some BBQ sauce.

So although this made a nice change to stuffed potatoes I think the texture limits what you can do with it in my house. The pulled pork looked nothing like the picture on the packet or in the brochure.

It ain't no hangi pork ribs, but this stuff was pretty incredible. I was really taken by the twin tubs. Makes it a lot easier for single dwellers like me, who may not eat an entire pack in one sitting, so having two smaller portions was a great way to make it more economical.

One of the tamariki came over to bake me some beer bread, knowing how much I enjoy it in the afternoons with some chutney on it. I can't eat a lot of the commercially made breads because of seeds and hard crusts, so he does a neat trick with it where he bakes it until it is almost done then wraps it in a wet cloth and steam cooks it for a little while then bakes it again to finish. It ends up being fully cooked but with a much softer crust. When I showed him the pork, he offered to make me some pork buns. Little bread rolls with a ball of the pulled pork cooked into the middle. They were wonderful, and I have gotten an agreement out of him to come and make me some more some time.

I made the mistake of leaving the second portion in the fridge when some of the mokopuna came to visit. Like locusts they are. Anything tasty looking seems to vanish like smoke when they visit. Unless they see a courier driving up, they normally they give me a call before arriving, but this time they just appeared. I had no time to hide all the good stuff. They agreed this was pretty neat kai, and told me I should get "heaps more" before they come to visit again. I told them to bring their own next time, and one extra to replace the one they swiped without asking. Cheeky buggers just laughed like I was joking. Kids have no respect these days.

Since I only got 2 of the four buns, I reckon I got less than a quarter of my review portion, but it was enough to tell me this is some good pulled pork. A little sweet for my tastes, but I think it would suit most people just fine. Fair price, but a little out of my weekly budget.

I love pork, living in a Muslim country where it was banned only made me want it more. Now years after returning to New Zealand pork is still my favourite meat. I had seen the ads on TV for Heller's Pulled Pork and also seen the stand at the Waikato Home Show recently (but unfortunately there was such a big crowd when I went past and I couldn't wait). When I heard that KIWIreviews had some packs available for review I leapt at the chance to try it.

I was pleased to see that the packet was in two separate sections which meant that I could keep one half sealed for use another day. It looked like the flavoured salmon you get in a tin but there was no fishy smell just the aroma of BBQ sauce. I must admit to also sampling some of the pork on it's own (purely for review purposes) and found that although delicious the BBQ sauce dominated the pork.

I used the first section to make toasted sandwiches. I found it did three slices of bread comfortably. I could have had two generous slices or stretched it to four slices. I added cheese and mushrooms to the sandwiches. The smell while it was cooking made my mouth water. As I expected I tasted more of the sauce than anything else in the sandwich but I really enjoyed the toasted sandwich and plan to make it again.

I decided that I was going to use the other part of the for pizza. While I was at the supermarket picking up a couple of things I wanted for the pizza I noticed the pulled pork on special for $1.99. I don't know whether this was an introductory price or not but I had to get another packet. We each made our own pizzas and everyone chose to have pulled pork on theirs. The pizza was a huge success with Miss 6 wanted more before mine was even cooked.

The pulled pork will become a regular in our trolley especially if we can get it at the special price.

I've been wanting to try this after seeing it advertised in a few places recently... pork would probably be my favourite meat and it just sounded so delicious and seems to be really versatile.

The first thing I noticed is that it comes in 2 separate packages, so you don't need to open it all at once - this prolongs the life of the product. So first I decided to make some savoury scrolls ready for a picnic lunch the next day. Of course I had a sneaky taste test first and noticed immediately how tender the pork was - yum! The scrolls were really good too - I tried one while they were warm and it was delicious which is understandable, but I was pleased to note they were really good cold the next day too - the pork was still tender and juicy.

With the second packet I made pork and coleslaw buns, adapting a recipe from a little booklet that Hellers put out with the pork. Unfortunately I could have done with both packets for this, but we made it stretch and with the strong flavour we didn't notice that there wasn't much pork.

Both my husband and I loved this but we did both comment on the strong flavour of the sauce it's in ... while we both enjoyed it, it did tend to drown the flavour of the pork, and also we wondered if we might get a bit sick of it if we had it too often. We both actually hope they will introduce some other flavours if this one sells well - just for some variety. Our 6 year old was a bit iffy on it, but once she tried it, she did seem to really like it... but we were happy she didn't want to eat too much - more for us!

Actually that was our only other complaint - it is so yummy, but there isn't much of it! Hellers have put a little booklet out with lots of recipes and I get the feeling I might be adding this to my shopping trolley weekly just to have enough to try out all the recipes!

Definitely a new product well worth trying out, and the price seems reasonable compared with other quality packaged meats especially as there are plenty of ways to make this stretch.