Monday, February 27, 2012

And?

After about eight hours, your butt should look like this:


Your next step is to drain away everything except for the butt. You should end up with this:


Grab your forks, and get to pulling! As you can see, you may need a delicious Bud Light to help you do this.


After about two minutes (or probably less), your final product should look like this:


Now we can do whatever we want! I am of simple taste, and I wholeheartedly value the classic tradition of BBQ, which entails just a simple white bun to hold this glorious meat. If you have been to any serious BBQ joint, you know that white bread, without any shenanigans, is the preferred way to serve BBQ. Why? Because the meat is the star of the show. I don't need some garlic-brushed, buttered, and toasted piece of bread to hold my pork. (Also, BBQ originated as a low maintenance, low cost way to cook food. Eventually, BBQ became mainstream, and a lot of people in the south began to sell it. The need for a starch became obvious, and breads like Wonder Bread and Merita Bread were the simple choice).




What to do, what to do? For some, this will be enough. However, most people I know would like to add a little sauce to the mix. Tonight, I took the lazy man route, and grabbed a bottle of BBQ sauce from Publix (see below).


Now, what follows is a sticking point- one of which has caused many battles throughout the ages. Keeping it simple, there are four main BBQ regions of the US: Kansas City, Texas, Memphis, and the Carolinas. Aside from the different cooking methods that originate from these areas (and the main cuts of meat eaten), the key differences lie in the types of sauces used. For my butt dish, I chose an off-the-shelf, Carolina-style sauce:


Why is it a Carolina-style sauce? Typically, the sauces are vinegar-based (my personal favorite), and have more of a tangy taste.

When choosing store-bought BBQ sauces, here are a few tips which I religiously follow: I NEVER buy any sauces (including ketchup) which contain high fructose corn syrup. Without getting into science, this stuff is pure chemical sugar, and is terrible for you. Look closely at most shelf BBQ sauces, and you'll see that most list this in their ingredient list first, which means that product contains mostly HFCS (FYI, ingredient lists are listed from most-used to least). Also, I usually turn the BBQ sauce bottles upside-down to see how they run. If they are loose, and run like water, they are probably vinegar based. If they hardly move, they are probably ketchup and molasses based (like KC Masterpiece). Also, although  it's hard to see, this sauce is made by the Kraft family.


Here's my finished product:


And, what do do with the rest?


So, there you have it. A very simple recipe for starters. FYI, after eating, I realized I should have added more salt, and maybe some more brown sugar. It was very tasty though.

Cooking is different for everyone, and I hope that this dumb recipe sparked, however small, the drive to start your own brand of cooking. Unless you're baking, there are basically no mistakes that can't be fixed when cooking, and that's what makes it so fun.

Here's what to expect in future posts:

BBQ regions and what differentiates them.
BBQ sauces - make your own
BBQ rubs - make your own
Cuts of cow (how they're different), and how to cook them
Cuts of pork (see above)
Chicken - fowl temptress (pun)
Breakfast - It's what's for breakfast

And..... Sandwiches!

Cook em' Danno.

1 comment:

  1. Can you slow cook it in the bar bbq sauce and then pull it?

    ReplyDelete