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GRITS

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Posts posted by GRITS

    smoking first pork shoulder this weekend

    in Southeast: Cooking & Baking

    Posted

    Oh me oh my. You got enough $$ in your budget to fly me up to Nashville from Miami?

    I am ADDICTED to pulled pork (in my parts, we call it bbq and thats the ONLY thing we call bbq. Everything else is grilling).

    You sound like you are set, my friend. :cool:

    I have cooked about 3 butts now - the third with wonderful success. Of course, I couldnt use a smoker, I used my oven, but I didn't pull it out of the oven or start pulling it until it was 190*F at the bone.

    Let me tell you something. That stuff shredded like heaven served on a platter. I doused it with my Charlotte, NC Vinegar Sauce I bought when I was back home and ate like the GRITS girl that I am.

    I have firmly come to believe that when I die and go to heaven, I will float on a cloud of pulled pork doused with vinegar sauce served on a bun with a side of brunswick stew and flatbread.

    I just don't think there is anything better on the planet or for that matter, the universe. :wub:

    I wish you the best of luck.

    Eastern North Carolina Pulled Pork

    in Southeast: Cooking & Baking

    Posted

    Thanks!! It turned out GREAT~!!! I did not remove it from the oven until 190* internal temperature. The bone pulled right out and I am enjoying delicious barbecue! YUMMY!

    If it has the bone in...its done when it can be wiggled free, otherwise  190 is the target temp

    oven, crockpot, gas grill, weber kettle, offset smoker, I have done em all...they're all good. not all perfect but all good

    tracey

    Eastern North Carolina Pulled Pork

    in Southeast: Cooking & Baking

    Posted

    okay - so I have officially tried it again. I cut most of the fat off and I soaked my pork butt in a brine of molasses. kosher salt and water for 6-8 hours. I patted it dry and put a pork rub spice mixture all over it.

    And now it has been in the oven since 2pm (it is 5:10pm) now and the internal temperature is 160*.

    I want to make sure it is at pullable stage at 190*, so when do I take it out of the oven? Oh yes, I put aluminum foil loosely over it when it got to 160*.

    I hope someone reads this quickly, otherwise I am at the mercy of my ignorance!

    I will tell you how it turns out!

    (yes, I know I shouldnt be doing it in the oven).

    Southern Traditions

    in Food Traditions & Culture

    Posted · Edited by GRITS (log)

    Southern Traditions, -What's important to you, other than Barbecue?

    1. I am in Miami. That being said, the most important thing to me in life is Eastern NC BBQ with tangy vinegar sauce. Meat pulled from the whole hog (yum!). It is all I think about.

    One of my good friends - who happens to be of the Cuban culture here in Miami, is going to find out her Mama's recipe to prepare the pulled pork - her exact technique. So many people have helped me with techniques. THANK YOU!!!

    When it all comes down to it, its hard to do it when you can't really"cookout" and all you can rely on is the oven.

    I know I need a big aluminum pan and a lot of aluminum foil, a dry rub and a tangy vinegar sauce. I cook it low and slow.

    Anyways, what is important to me - in the Southern Tradition is:

    home-canned beets, pickles, peaches, corn, tomaotes, green beans, vegetable soup.

    Spending my summers as a youth stringing and breaking green beans. I remember looking on with sheer horror at my Momma's huge bushel of green beans she had just harvested in the garden that summer's day. Looking back- it was an awesome experience.

    Hanging clothes on the line to dry. My sheets smelling like sunshine.

    Persimmons, Figs, Apples, Muscadines, Pe(cahn)s, Barbecue, Grits, Country-Ham, Saw-Mill Gravy, Buttermilk Biscuis (with a hint of leftover Mashed Potatoes added in), raspberries, blueberries, stawberries) :raz:

    Eggs, Sausage, Gravy, CHICKEN-FRIED STEAK, Homemeade strawberry jam, picking strawberries in the NC Mountains.

    Driving along I-40 in the NC Mountains looking with awe at some of the oldest Mountains in the world. Even after all through my life of seeing them and playing in the waterfalls along the Parkway, picnicing, visiting family, family reunions in the midst of the mountains - I never tire of it.

    How my ancestors migrated from England and Ireland - (my roots also doused in Cherokee blood), Where bluegrass got its roots (Ireland).

    That is what being Southern is to me. I an proud to be from the South. You can call me a redneck, a hillbilly, a simple person - whatever - it doesn't matter to me -I know who I am, I know who Bubba is, I love my Mama, my family, my grits, and finally, my red eye gravy that I drink out of a Mason jar!

    You can't change a Southerner. That's tradition!

    Southern Traditions

    in Food Traditions & Culture

    Posted

    1) making homeade ice cream.  (electric ice cream makers DO NOT COUNT!)  we make/crush our own ice and use table salt.  you will get firm cream everytime if you use this instead of cube ice and ice cream/rock salt.  -seriously!!! CHECK

    4) tomato & mayo sandwich with white bread CHECK

    5) glass of buttermilk &  cornbread CHECK

    7) r.c. cola & moon pies CHECK

    8) martha white biscuits CHECK

    9) homeade molasess CHECK

    MMMMMM....Big Hoss, my Miami friend's down here where I live now, thought I was crazy eating #4!!! But, in reality it is sad that they have never experienced that! I even went as far as to eat a tomato like an apple. They thought I was one short of a dozen! The HORROR!! lol! Poor people!

    Eastern North Carolina Pulled Pork

    in Southeast: Cooking & Baking

    Posted

    When I read your post Big Hoss, I had the same thoughts as Rachel said above me. You really are on par with Alton Brown and you know your stuff. I can see this whole process you spelled out in my head, thanks to Alton doing this on his show, "Good Eats".

    Wanna take a trip to Miami and cook me some good cue? :raz: You sound like you know what your talking about, and with a sign name such as BigHoss, I am pretty sure that you do~!

    Thanks for all your insightfulness! I am licking my chops already!

    grits......you ask for a different cut of meat other than the butt because of fat content.  before i tell you my alternative ive got to tell you that when you barbecue fat is your friend.  it is your baste.  as you may or may not know the fat (exterior fat and some of the interior) on a cut of meat, whether it be pork or beef, will render off.  what makes that jello-y tender meat in barbeuce is not the fat but the collagens that have broken down.  if you want barbecue like you had back home then you have to use a tough, fatty part of the animal.  after all thats how the process of barbecue started with.  now on to an alternative, which means any leaner cut of meat (loin/chop/etc..) and a lot of basting with cider vinegar, apple cider, beer, whatever.  really, its really not an alternative.  those cuts are really for grilling but if you did attempt it you would have to baste the hell out of it.  personally i wouldnt do it but thats just me.  since you live in an apt. complex authentic bbq is not possible. but you could cheat a little by using electricity.  the complex would probably allow that.  buy an electric weber smoker or put your alton brown lid on and crate a huge fire hazzard for you and your neighbors.  make a small make shift pit on your porch with about 15-20 bricks.  put a hot plate under your grit and fashion some type of tin foil cone, or something to block the drippings from falling on the hot plate.  put a peice of sheet metal on top with a small hole in it for air flow, i'd guess about the diameter of a coke can.  place your meat about 24"-30" above the hot plate.  it will take some adjustments but you see the rough picture im painting for you.  at the end of the day......you'd probably be better off with the elec. weber.  i hope you pull it off.....

    Eastern North Carolina Pulled Pork

    in Southeast: Cooking & Baking

    Posted

    Thank you, Varmint!!!!! for taking the time to respond to me. I still have a broken arm so it's hard 4 me 2 type. I fondly remember pigs roasting in the slow-cooker outside. Lord, I remember them pig pickins!!! Maybe I just need to move BACK to NC!!!!!!! DON'T TEMPT ME!!!

    BigHoss is spot on.  Having made a ton of Eastern-style barbecue (and frankly, we don't call it pulled pork), you do need to slow cook it with hardwood.  It can be done, but to be truly authentic, it should be whole hog, rather than just a butt or a ham.  That's why it's so hard to find good, authentic Eastern-style barbecue -- few places go to such efforts to cook entire pigs over a wood-fired pit (and by the way, Eastern-style barbecue is usually cooked directly over the radiant heat -- the wood -- rather than an indirect smoking process).

    The other distinctive part of Eastern-style barbecue is the sauce. It's really just a simple mixture of vinegar, hot pepper flakes, and some other elements that vary from place to place.  This sauce should be used sparingly, so that the flavor of the smokey meat shines through -- the vinegar taste should almost be an afterthought if done correctly.

    We're here for you, but you're looking at quite an endeavor!

    Are you a Grits girl?

    in Southeast: Dining

    Posted

    oh, I'm a GRITS girl through and through. :cool: I wanna swim in an ocean of red-eye gravy and sop up the suds with homemade buttermilk biscuits. Honey, you can count me in. :wink:

    I just came across this riotously titled book: Grits Guide to Life.  Grits here is actually an acronym for Girls Raised In The South.  :laugh:

    Being a Yankee (and single, did I mention?) , I'm enthralled by Southern Belles.  So I had to peer inside.

    Along with recipes for Dolly Parton's Favorite Meatloaf (start with two mounds of ground beef?  :rolleyes:) and House Tea ("The house wine of the South," says the book), the book includes such pearls of wisdom as, "If you can be ready to go in less than thirty minutes, you probably shouldn't be leaving the house at all!"

    So I ask the fine ladies of eGullet:  are any of y'all Grits Girls? And does a woman have to be from the South to be a grits girl?

    Eastern North Carolina Pulled Pork

    in Southeast: Cooking & Baking

    Posted

    BigHoss, thank you so much for responding. I know what a Webber Grill is and I shall take your advice. Please excuse the short response as I am typing with one hand due to a broken arm :sad:

    The only local barbecue place down here serves sauce that taste like an ashtray - I kid you not.. And they call this BBQ and sell it, no less. It is an atrosity beyond belief! :blink:

    I live in an apartment complex so therefore, I do not really have access to grill for that long a time (low & slow).

    I really just wanted to know if it was possible in city standards to cook it in the oven and get some kind of decent results - especially what cut you would use to smoke a small cut of the pork. The Butt seems to have too much fat.

    I grew up in NC where I would attend cookouts and pig pickins' regularly - so you can feel my pain here.

    Thank you so much for your help. I will have my fiance get us a Webber Cooker ASAP!

    grits......i've got good news and ive got bad news.  me, when someone tells me that, i gotta have tha bad first.....so i hope you dont mind my order, just know that better news follows.

    BAD NEWS:  Can't (or cain't) cook barbecue in a crockpot or oven!

    this isnt a traditionalist trying to be traditional either (welll yeah it kinda is, but not totally!).  without going through the whole mcgee/alton brown scientific elplanation, what i can tell you is that using either process you are basically going to have to braise your pork, which is NOT the process of barbecue!  just like there is cooking method of braising or roasting so there is a method of barbecue.  barbecue is not what you eat.....its the process of HOW it was cooked. 

    GOOD NEWS:  Get a webber grill (kettle shape.....or any other grill really....NO GAS!!!!) and you can cook authentic barbecue!  if you read this and respond and want to know how to do it i will be MORE than happy to give you step by step instructions on the process.  so PLEASE TELL ME YOU WANT ME TO TELL YOU!

    anyway....you cant replace the process of really slow heat (wood heat of course) with proper air flow chemically breaking down the collagens/muscle tissues and the process of braising with liquid or the process of roasting in an oven.  yes they both taste great and yes i love using a crock pot for a bunch of things, but you ask for AUTHENTIC BARBECUE, so i tell you.  there are many, many, many foods/ingredients in southern food culture that speak of who we are.  there is NO food in southern culture that so defines who we are as southerners as barbecue.  whether its the process, the sauce, the lack of sauce, the choice of meat, whatever.  it is who we are.....period.  no matter if we know it yet or not.

    Eastern North Carolina Pulled Pork

    in Southeast: Cooking & Baking

    Posted

    Can someone please help me? :blink: I am from Eastern NC and now I live in Miami. I never realized how I much I took for granted all the wonderful things Southern until I moved here. You'd be hard-presed to find good 'cue down here.

    Here is my delimma. Last time I was in NC, I bought 6 bottles of tangy Eastern NC vinegar sauce at my local 'cue restaurant. Now I am back in Miami and have tried and failed 4 times of cooking pulled pork.

    Can someone here give me a fool-proof recipe on cooking pulled pork in the oven or the crockpot? I mean the whole process. I am determined not to give up.

    Thank so much everyone! :cool:

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