Monkeyrotica's back at the grill again! He just told me that the three slabs (pictured below) will be NC pulled pork, Memphis ribs, and TX brisket. Backstory: A friend of ours has been teaching in Korea this past year. He came into town last week and mentioned that, even though Korean barbecue is fabulous, he's been craving the American variety. Monkeyrotica decided to step in and give the man a cross section of southern BBQ. All the recipes were pulled/modified from Raichlen's BBQ USA book, which is heartily recommended by the Strings. Our friend seemed to have brought his Korean weather to DC as the temps barely rose above 28°F and there was still a sheet of ice on the deck.
On the menu: Carolina pulled pork with Lexington vinegar pepper slaw, Memphis wet ribs, and Texas brisket. Sides were Mexican charros beans cooked with jalapenos and bacon, mac and cheese, and collard and turnip greens cooked in chardonnay.
Monkeyrotica's preparation narrative: The 8lb pork shoulder was seasoned only with salt and pepper. This went on the WSM at 6pm Friday over applewood and some generic Homelife briquettes from the local Target. Not much ash production, but it burns a little faster than Royal Oak briquettes but not as fast as Kingsford. This hit 190 internal around noon Saturday. Left to cool for an hour, pulled half, chopped the other half.
Twelve pounds of brisket went on at midnight, seasoned just with salt, fresh pepper, and cayenne. Since the applewood chunks had burned down, I threw some soaked hickory on, so the brisket would get full hickory, but the pork shoulder would get half hickory, half applewood. Wrapped at 9am, pulled at 1pm. Cooled and sliced.The two full, untrimmed racks of ribs were seasoned with brown sugar, kosher salt, black and chipotle pepper, garlic powder, and half a cup of Old Bay. They hit WSM #2 around 9am over applewood chunks: 3 hours smoke, two hours wrapped. After five hours, I pulled the water pan, stoked some more coals, and sauced them for about an hour at 325 dome temp. Everything (barely) fit in a warming oven until guests arrived around 3ish. There were no survivors, by which I mean leftovers.
I've cooked in snow many times before, but it was a little unusual to have to crack open my soaking wood chunks with an icepick (it was cold!). Still, it was worth watching the inevitable meat coma feeding slowdown an hour after everyone started eating. We sent everyone waddling home with their own Ziploc bag packed with meat.
Photo gallery from the party:
It tasted even better than it sounds. I put my last two slices of brisket in BabyRat's lunch today :(. I must really love that kid to share my BBQ with her.
ReplyDeletei know monkey gives me crap for being a vegetarian, but you gotta admit that much meat looks like something that would give you a quick heart attack.
ReplyDeletenot that it doesn't look good!
HillRat, that's lovely of you. And don't you think it's sad that our monklets don't eat Monkey's food?
ReplyDeleteIMGoph, it's all about moderation. Just because the food is there, doesn't mean you have to eat it all! Myself, I just had a pulled pork sandwich with slaw and BBQ sauce, a dollop of beans, a scoop of greens, then followed up with a cube of mac. Good eating! Weegee (who's helping Jason masquerade as a pirate) enjoyed a chunk of bun for his portion.
Man, that's hardcore grilling (or smoking or exhaustive meat preparation or whatever you call it)! You guys have this down to an art form. I commend your meat prowess.
ReplyDeleteOoh, and those yummy collard greens. Monkey's Alabama roots in full display there.
So hungry now.
now thats a house party!
ReplyDeleteseems like the food are very delicious that you enjoy it very much.
Great pics! Found your page while searching for ways to use my WSM 18.5, which is currently on a UPS truck en route to my house. I can't wait. Seeing your pics made me even more excited, and it's nice to see some DC-area smoking.
ReplyDelete