Pork U
If there’s one thing I know about barbecue, it’s how to eat it. But as to how to properly prepare it? Well, I needed to do some research. If you look at the end of Much Ado about Barbecue, you’ll find quite a few books that I read on the topic, but I don’t have pictures from Pork U there. Instead, I’m going to be a very evil—or, perhaps, very good—person and share those pictures with you right here and right now. You might want to grab a snack because things are about to get real.
We started with breakfast. I mean, how are we gonna learn about BBQ on an empty stomach?
Here’s the cooking area. There’s a Boston Butt we’re about to learn how to prepare. Another gem I learned at this point? If you put cold meat in a cold smoker and start from there, you’ll get a deeper smoke ring.
After we learned about all injections and how to trim the Boston Butt, Sam took out one he’d cooked overnight and showed us how he pulled the meat. Stay tuned for an ingenious way to pull really hot meat without burning your fingers off.
Bad news: we weren’t allowed to have any pulled pork yet. Good news: we clearly needed a snack so we had some of these chicken wings. Even better news: That grill was lit by a blow torch. (Maybe I can put video of the blow torch on Insta later. I will try not to shout “Fire! Fire!” in the style of Beavis.)
Fortified by wings, we could tackle rib prep. We learned how to prepare both spare ribs and baby backs. For reasons. The fresher the rib, the easier to pull off the membrane, by the way.
It was important to think ahead to our mid-afternoon snack, so Sam showed us how to make this pork loaf with apricot stuffing. Basically a tenderloin that’s been flattened, filled with goodness, and then tied back together for cooking. This is a recipe Sam has made for movie sets.
Lunch time! That meant it was time to slice the brisket. Another luminary who love Sam’s brisket as much as I do? Robert Duvall. Billy Bob Thornton once ate it and enjoyed it. It was the first meat he’d had in seven years. Also, here’s the helpful hint for handling hot meat: cloth work gloves with rubber ones on top. It’s kinda like potholders for your hands.
Behold! My lunch plate.
We hadn’t had enough for lunch so we had to cook some chicken. We cooked a beer can chicken and also this spatchcocked one.
Okay. There’s some time missing before the ribs were done. That’s because we are all in a heavenly food coma, but we learned about injections and rubs and the chicken who managed to live with its head technically cut off. Very important stuff. And then? The ribs were done. It was almost time for supper.
And this was the supper spread. In addition to leftover pork and brisket, we had two kinds of ribs, two kinds of chicken, side dishes from before, and peach cobbler. Here our journey ends because I had to go home and take a nap.
Wanna learn more about Pork U? Maybe you would like to attend and eat as well as learn. (I took TWENTY pages of notes) You can find out more about Pork U here. Or, maybe you want to go straight to the meal. I don’t blame you. Go to Sam’s BBQ-1, and you won’t be disappointed. Be sure to get the best mac & cheese I have ever eaten.
