Times are tough and quickly getting tougher. Barbeque originated as tough times food that added tremendous value to less desirable/underutilized “end cuts” such as pork shoulder and (at one time) beef brisket. This post is intended to help de-commercialize home smoke-cooked pulled-pork production; by avoiding high priced trendy equipment, gadgets and spice rubs. I waited… Read More »
The word barbecue is thought to have been derived from the Spanish word Barbacoa, from back when the Spaniards first observed Caribbean natives slow cooking meat over open fires on raised wooden platforms. That trial and error practice added both mild smoke flavor and tenderness to some of their otherwise low eating quality local meat. The different meat cuts from various carcass regions are… Read More »
A whole pork shoulder separates into butt roast and picnic roast portions; leaving most of the blade bone in the butt portion and most of the front leg bones in the picnic. Due to only containing the blade bone, pork shoulder butts lend themselves well to both retail cut fabrication and cooking whole. Because butts contain less bone than picnics and require less labor to… Read More »
Dial face thermometers stick through the shroud at the cooking level. Magnets are placed over probe holes when temps are not being checked. I can place my hand on top of the cooker and discern approximately how hot it’s running. There’s a high rack to hang 3 rods of links from. Boneless hams in fibrous ham casings. Fully-cooked… Read More »
I once read that the use of fibrous casing in meat processing dates back to the American Civil War where coarse ground meat was stuffed in cotton bags for cooking. Today’s fibrous casing are still made out of cellulose, plus possess several good attributes for low temperature cookery: -Strong walled -Expand when product is stuffed… Read More »