This past weekend I made my first foray into barbecue, or at least it was some kind of flame-based, low-temperature, long-time pig cooking. And it was good.
While what I did may not fit into classical definitions it was, I’ll say again, quite tasty. Basically I got a 4lb picnic ham (aka a pork shoulder, as in part of the pigs upper arm and ball-and-socket joint), which I cut into approximately equal chunks, leaving the skin in place. I then added a rub consisting of (mostly) equal parts salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic powder and sugar. The seasoned pork then went into my grandma’s old cast iron dutch oven. Water was added to a depth of about 1 1/2 inches. Then it was covered with the lid askew and placed on my grill (in this case, a gas grill because it is what’s here) over low heat. Water was added occasionally. Some smoke chips were smoked. After about 4 hours those hunks of pork fell apart.
The recipe came from Rachel’s dad. He of course recommends using charcoal, which I swear I will get to eventually. He also provided a sauce recipe, which I will skip here because the pork was, as I believe good barbecue should be, so delicious and juicy that sauce couldn’t have made it any better.
I’m also looking forward to moving up to the 7lb. shoulder, as more pork is always better. I highly recommend this as a weekend project.
A friend of mine in Chucktown bought a small smoker. Another guy gave the first his family dry rub recipe. Man, he made some good Q.
I’ll have to get some this weekend.