College basketball season is among us, and I can now switch back to my alma mater and root for the Terrapins. Any respectable college football fan will tell you the Terrapins suck at football. Their fat ass sorry excuse for a football coach Ralph Friedgen and team sucked it up for another year. The University of Maryland hopes to start the year off right beginning with the mens basketball team. The terps look to expand on a great finish to last season where Gary Williams lead his team to the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament in arguably his best coaching performance of his career (yes even with Dave Neal as their center). Returning for the terrapins is team leader Greivis Vasquez who realized he was not quite ready for the NBA and decided to return for his senior season. Greivis obviously has been watching some of MTV's Jersey Shore, and has followed some of "The Situations" three rules to life, GTL (Gym, Tan, Laundry). Greivis appears to been hitting the gym and bulked up about 20 pounds, got a fresh coat of paint on, and looks like the dry cleaner took care of his yellow jersey. The terps are having a pretty good season, and showed it this weekend when they took down the wolf pack of NC State on Saturday 88-64 at the Comcast center.
Since the state of North Carolina basketball is not looking so great this year, and being that I just spent a week in North Carolina, I thought I would make some North Carolina Style Barbecue (BBQ) in their honor. I spend a lot of time in North Carolina, specifically the fun town of Mockesville and for lunch I usually get BBQ and a cheerwine (cherry flavored soda). I like North Carolina BBQ because it has a distinct vinegar based sauced, which is not too thick, and is very different from your typical BBQ you may have had. Unfortunately, if you have never had North Carolina style BBQ you have missed out, BUT you are in luck because this recipe is pretty close to the the real thing.
I read Cooks Illustrated and watch the MPT television show "America's Test Kitchen." You should check this show out if you are a foodie. I like their show, it takes a very scientific approach to cooking and being that I'm a food scientist you could easily see why a show like this would entertain me. The recent issue had a write up on "indoor style BBQ." The whole premise of the recipe was to make a pulled pork BBQ which had the taste of being cooked in a smoker, but prepared in the comforts of your kitchen. The recipe turned out really well, for a first go. I would probably make a few tweaks with the rub and salt levels when I make this again, otherwise I was really pleased. I served the pulled pork with red slaw and a side of potato salad. The roommates seemed to enjoy the pork, but I had a few cranberries that decided to linger. Perhaps I will make a tart for them next week.....oh wait it's C's birthday next week....... Pineapple upside down cake! NBD
On to the recipe.......
Pork Brine:
1 cup salt
1/2 cup sugar
3 tbsp liquid smoke
1 boneless pork butt (6lbs) cut horizontally
Pork Rub:
3 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp liquid smoke
1/2 cup mustard
2 tbsp black pepper
2 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
Vinegar Barbecue Sauce
1/2 cup defatted cooking liquid
1 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
Procedure (see how scientific I am)
1. Dissolve sugar, salt and the liquid smoke from the "pork brine" ingredient list into 4 quarts of water. No need to heat the water, just be patient and stir until dissolved; set pot aside.
1. Trim that fat off of your pork butt, don't be shy. Get a knife and cut off that white shit. It may taste good, but no one wants to bite in to a big piece of fat on their sandwich. Slice the meat horizontally (increasing surface area), and and place into a pot deep enough to hold the meat and 4 quarts of water.
2. The recipe says to marinate the meat for 2 hours. I left the meat marinate in the brine over night. ****Brad's Rant*** Being deep in this chicken game, I know a thing or two about marination. Letting a marinade sit up over night will increase moisture and flavor in your product. So prepare your brine the night before and let that meat marinate overnight.
I had nothing to do that night so I got drunk on some high alcohol belgium beer, and watched the Hurt Locker. I went to bed and dreamed about the pork butt I was about to take down the following morning.
3. After you recover from your hang over, your going to need to start thinking about that meat your going to take down. NBD. Begin by draining the water out of your pot, and drying off the meat with a paper towel. You heard me fucker, dry off the meat, it will get all that water off of the surface and allow for the rub to stick to the meat. I know we are in a "green world" so buy some enviromentally friendly paper towels if you are complaining about this step.
4. Add the mustard and smoke from the "pork rub" ingredient list to the meat, and rub the meat. Sprinkle the meat with the dry ingredients from that list, taking care to rub all the spices into the meat.
4. Transfer the meat to a baking pan with a rimmed edge lined with a cooling rack (see picture below).
5. Cover the meat with parchment paper, and then cover with aluminum foil to prevent moisture from escaping. Place the pan into a preheated 325 degree oven on the rack second most from the bottom.
6. Pork butt if Fucking tough! Unless you give it heat and TIME, time being the key step in this statement you are going to have tough meat. I know we are hungry, and want to eat, but planning (this is where being a boy scout and being prepared comes into play) is important in deciding how long this is going to take you. I know, I know it is long, but you will need to cook the meat for 3 hours. Go watch TV, drink some brew's, or do some laundry.
7. After 3 hours, remove and discard the foil and parchment paper, and drain the liquid from the bottom of the pan into a fat separator or a liquid measuring cup. You are going to be mad at me, but you will need to continue to cook the meat for another hour uncovered. The meat will be done when visually the meat is browned, and the temperature reaches an internal temperature of 200 degrees. Remove the meat from the oven, cover with aluminum foil and let rest for 20 minutes. ****Note*** this step of cooking the meat uncovered is to gain a crust on the meat, and will build some flavor in your meat; don't skimp on this step.
8. While the meat is resting, mix together the vinegar based BBQ sauce ingredients in a small bowl, and whisk a 1/2 cup of the defatted cooking liquid into the bowl. Set the sauce aside.
9. Shred the meat using two forks in order to cut the meat into smaller pieces. Toss the shredded meat with 1 cup of the sauce and serve on a kaiser roll topped with slaw.
Jess (Aaron's beau) has been on a health kick, and found "No Pudge Brownies" at the grocery store. While they appear to be somewhat healthy, using vanilla, yogurt and the mix as the only three ingredients I can not say you should be eating these if you are on a diet. Jess does not like mint, so the rest of us decided to eat her serving.
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