Nobrainer’s Think Tank

I’m up a little late tonight and for good reason. I discovered that the local grocery was selling shoulder blade roasts for 89 cents a pound. Not only could I not keep myself from buying it, but I could not keep myself from firing up the grill tonight. Hopefully the pork will be done a little after midnight… and hopefully I will go to sleep with a belly full of delicious ‘cue.

Another weekend, another slightly mangled party.

Tip: When roasting a pig in a hand dug pit, follow the directions for heating the pit.

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.

… or given, neatly condensed into one little video.

Orac calls it the best scientific talk, ever, while the Unapologetic Mathematician considers it the best lecture ever. Sunclipse has it as well.

It’s always nice to see a good show and its leader get rewarded.

Alton Brown, star of the Food Network series “Good Eats,” has won a Peabody Award for his “goofy, tirelessly inventive series” that educates viewers about food, science, history and culture.

Friday afternoon Rachel and I set out from Charlottesville to drive to Athens, GA to watch some college baseball. We made it down and back and Oregon State swept the Dawgs in their own pen. It was an all around success.

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