Grillin' up something tasty.

[Erasmus00]

As labor day approaches here in the states, and with all the other food threads, I thought I'd open up discussion on my favorite brand of cooking: grilling. I've always loved pulled pork, and there is something almost magical about turning a tough cut of meat into something tendor and juicy by slow cooking it all day.

 

So: Pulled pork, Missouri style. To start you'll need a rub for the pork, to give a nice flavor. I use an all purpose rub and then customize it a bit depending on the mood.

 

Rub ingredients:

1/2 cup paprika

1/2 cup kosher salt

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulate garlic

maybe 6 tablespoons of granulated onion

1/4 cup chili poweder

1 tablespoon pepper

1 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Mix it all up and you have yourself a nice rub. If I'm cooking for a crowd that appreciates a bit of spice, I recommend grinding up some dried chilis and throwing them in. Just keep your sweet, savory and spicy flavors in a good balance. This makes quite a lot of the base, and I keep it around for grilling nearly anything.

 

Now, onto the pork. You'll need maybe 8 tbs of the above, plus you'll also need a pork shoulder (sometimes called a boston butt) and some bbq sauce (as always, I highly recommend dinosaur brand http://www.dinobbq.com). The recipe below probably works best on a charcoal grill. For a gas grill, you would probably want to prepare the wood chips differently.

 

Alright, for best flavor, we will want some hickory chips to help smoke our pork. You'll need to prepare them by taking about 10 cups of hickory chips, soaking them in water for maybe half an hour. After you've soaked them, drain them and divide the chips into 6 piles. Wrap each pile in aluminium foil packets and poke some holes in the top. These will be your smoke packets. (note, some hickory chips have different instructions for use. Ignore them, this works best for creating a lot of smoke).

 

Alright, fire up your grill (with the rack off). While the coals are heating up, mix a bit of oil into the 8 tablespoons of rub (maybe a bit less depending on the size of the pork butt). Rub this all over the meat. Now that your coals are lit, pile them all up on one half of the grill, and put a drip pan half full of water down in the other side. Put two packets of wood chips down right on the coals and put the pork on the grill above the drip pan (fat side up). Close the grill and monitor temp.

 

Try to keep around 250 F: check the temp every hour or so for the next 7 or 8 hours. If it gets low, add some hot coals to the mix.

 

Every 1 and a half, add two new packets to the fire. After 5 hours or so, take the butt off the grill and wrap it tightly in foil (the smoke has penetrated it, so now we seal in the juices). Cook the pork for another 3 hours or so (remember to maintain the heat around 250 F).

 

Take the pork off the heat, and let it sit (still in the foil) for maybe 15 minutes. Then pull the foil off, and strip the fat cap. Pull out the shoulder blade and shred the pork with your hands, removing any connective tissue or fat. Put the pork in a pan, pour the bbq sauce over it, and ready to eat. You can also freeze it for later use. Its a lot of work, but delicious.

-Will

[C1ay]

I do much of the same except I rub the shoulder down with mustard before rubbing it down with the spices. I use pure lump charcoal for heat and hickory chunks, 2-3 inch cubes, for the smoke. I try to maintain my smoker at around 180 for the first 13-14 hours and then bring the temp up to 200 for the last 4 or 5 hours. At this point it takes a couple of large spatulas or a small shovel to pick up the shoulder since it is falling apart :eek_big:

 

I usually put on a brisket at the same time for BBQ beef. I freeze one or the other and reheat it in the oven at a later date for an easy BBQ meal. The tapered end is usually done around 16 hours so I remove the brisket and trim this part off, cube the rest into roughly 3 inch cubes and put them back in for another 3 - 4 hours. I then chop all of it and it's ready for burnt-end sandwiches...

[Buffy]

Something about putting Kosher Salt on Pork completely cracks me up.... :eek_big:

 

Is there something specific it does for your bbq, Will? I use it too, but never been tempted to put it on verboten non-kosher stuff!

 

Of course I'd recommend using some peppers that are more exotic than red, but I'm lucky enough to have a friend who has a huge habanero patch in her yard... Mmmmm, I'm going to go make some chili....

 

Cheers,

Buffy

[Erasmus00]

Something about putting Kosher Salt on Pork completely cracks me up.... :hihi:

 

Is there something specific it does for your bbq, Will? I use it too, but never been tempted to put it on verboten non-kosher stuff!

 

The larger grains make it ideal for rubs, regardless of the meat I'm putting it on :) Its also better for curing, the larger grains absorb more moisture.

 

edit: I should also point out that nearly all salt is kosher. Kosher salt gets it's name from it's use in the curing process used to keep meat kosher.

-Will