Pork shoulder/butt is a tough cut of meat, so the vinegar helps to tenderize it by breaking down the cartilage. It is also a key ingredient of the sauce for pulled pork. I am not sure what the issue for you is in using vinegar. If it is the taste, then cut back on it in the recipes, but it is in most sauces.

Maybe this recipe would suit your tastes.

Slow-Cooker Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Recipe courtesy of Food Network Kitchen

Total Time: 8 hr 30 min
Prep: 15 min
Cook: 8 hr 15 min
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

3 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 teaspoons hot paprika
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 3 -to-4-pound boneless pork shoulder, trimmed of excess fat
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar, plus more to taste
3 tablespoons tomato paste
6 potato buns
Barbecue sauce and prepared coleslaw, for serving

Directions

Combine 1 tablespoon brown sugar, the paprika, mustard powder, cumin, 2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a small bowl. Rub the spice mixture all over the pork.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet; add the pork and cook, turning, until browned on all sides, 5 minutes. Remove the pork and transfer to a plate; whisk 3/4 cup water into the drippings in the skillet. Transfer the liquid to a 5-to-6-quart slow cooker.

Add the vinegar, tomato paste, the remaining 2 tablespoons brown sugar and 2 cups water to the slow cooker and whisk to combine. Add the pork, cover and cook on low, 8 hours.

Remove the pork and transfer to a cutting board. Strain the liquid into a saucepan, bring to a boil and cook until reduced by half, about 10 minutes. Season with salt. Roughly chop the pork and mix in a bowl with 1 cup of the reduced cooking liquid, and salt and vinegar to taste. Serve on buns with barbecue sauce and coleslaw.

Is a can of Coca Cola less objectionable to you? I've made pulled pork by a recipe that uses a dry rub on the meat, place the meat in the cooker and pour a can of Coke over it. Cook on low 8-10 hours. That's it -- and the acidity in the soda tenderizes the meat. When the meat is cooked, you can add half a bottle to full bottle of your favorite barbecue sauce. You may want to drain off some of the cooking liquid first if there is a lot.

If you don't like vinegar, don't use any. The thing that makes the pork tender is the long, slow cooking. The vinegar doesn't really "tenderize" the meat so much as the hours of cooking do. But people put in a little molasses, brown sugar, etc., and the vinegar helps to offset that.

But you can use fruit juice, apple cider, orange juice, etc., if you want to.

Anyhow, if you think of the flavors of ketchup, most BBQ sauce, etc., it's a sweet/sour kind of thing. That's the point of the vinegar. So use lime juice, lemon juice, wine, or vinegar, and just use less than some "recipe" calls for. Who cooks with recipes anyway? Figure out the flavor you want and build accordingly.

Terrapots, perhaps you just don't want the tradional BBQ flavor of most pulled pork. Vinegar will give your roast a 'tang' that nothing else can, but it really shouldn't taste vinegary.

Apple cidar is nice with pork, as is wine or beer. You can add the herbs and flavors that you like in any pork roast rather than those associated with a zesty, sweet/sour BBQ.

Do you plan on using a tomato based sauce in your dish?

What Roses said. I've never used liquid when making pulled pork. Plenty juicy on its own. Whatever sauce you choose to use as a condiment after the fact is up to you.

Thanks for the input. I have always found most pork to be fairly tender and flavorful enough. I have used recipes with vinegar but the vinegar is just too overwhelming and seems to take away from the flavor of the meat for me. I'll try smaller amount of vinegar or as was mentioned some fruit juice. DH avoids bbq sauces because of the sugar in them. I think I'll experiment with spices and small amount of ACV and see how that works out.

Terrapots, I use the Coke or Dr Pepper method and the family loves it. Very easy and has always turned out well. I was interested in your thread because I'll be doing pulled pork for a large Christmas Eve gathering and wanted to see if I would be enticed by another method. I've also found that it freezes well and am toying with making it up ahead of time, freezing it and then re-heating with the bbq sauce.

I may try it in the Nesco roaster instead of the crock pot (because I'll probably be doing three roasts). Shouldn't that work as well?

Thanks!

When I have made crockpot pulled pork, I cut the meat into large chunks sprinkle it with a spice blend (either custom made or simply "creole seasoning") I place large 1/2" thick slices of onion on the bottom of the crockpot, add all of the meat, and just enough water to cover it, and cook on low overnight. In the morning I drain the water (reserving some), discard the onions, pull the meat apart and return it to the crockpot, and add a north-carolina-style vinegar-based BBQ sauce, that has no sugar (or corn syrup) in it. I'll see if I can find the name of it if you are interested.

I don't use any liquid. I've used the recipe below and it never disappoints. After the pork is done you can dress however you like.

1 (5 to 7 pound) pork roast, shoulder or Boston butt

Dry Rub:
3 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon dry mustard
3 tablespoons coarse salt

Mix dry rub ingredients together in a small bowl. Rub the spice blend all over the pork and marinate for as long as you have time for, as little as 1 hour or overnight, covered, in the refrigerator.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
Put the pork in a roasting pan and bake covered for about 6 hours. Basically, roast the pork until it's falling apart.
Remove the pork roast from the oven and transfer to a large platter. Allow the meat to rest for about 10 minutes. While still warm, take 2 forks and "pull" the meat to form shreds.

Bob & Lisa those recipes sound pretty much what I would try first. I use creole seasoning a lot, it seems to add that spark I like, as well as onions. That no sugar BBQ sauce sounds interesting. The ones in my cupboard are full of sugar. I've never found pork to be tough no matter how I cook it, fajitas are always quick and easy so long as I have peppers, onions and GARLIC. Yes, would appreciate your posting the name of the BBQ sauce you mentioned. Thanks a lot everyone.

Lisa - That's the recipe I more or less use, Tyler Florence's. Though not the BBQ sauce recipe posted with it.

I thought I was going to have to wait until I got home to find the brand of the sauce, but a few google searches popped up an image of its easy-to-remember label.

Scott's Family Barbecue Sauce http://www.scottsbarbecuesauce.com/

For my birthday party in September I used about 5 pork tenderloins, as described above in two crockpots (a 4 qt and a 6qt) and cooked the meat over night. I then pulled it apart in the morning and returned it to the 6 qt crockpot which it nearly filled, and stirred in one bottle of the above BBQ sauce.

At the party I had another bottle of the Scotts BBQ sauce, and two others to choose from (which I believe were Stubb's Hickory Bourbon, and Stubb's Smokey Mesquite) for people to use as they served themselves.

After starting with nearly 15 lbs of meat, at the end of the party there was only enough left to make about 6 sandwiches the next day.