Sunday Gravy with yeah right: Bringing the Smoke without the Smoker

Howdy howdy friends and neighbors!

Glad to have you all back again.

Got a right tasty motherfucker heading your way today.

This menu worked double-time when I cooked it. It’s been a ridiculously fucked-up winter, especially for LA. This weekend we got our asses handed down to us with rain and a goddamn blizzard warning…

In LA!

It’s basically been cold as fuck going on 3-4 months now.

Sometimes you need to run the oven for an extended period of time just to warm up the fucking house. This meal did precisely that. Plus it was simple to make and a right tasty motherfucker too.

Ever have a heapin’ hankerin’ for some gatdamn delicious pork but you don’t got yerself a barbecue or smoker or none of that shit?

Well shit fire. We can build on that!

Alright. I’ll officially shut the fuck up with that. That’s how an LA resident pretends to be a redneck and well shit, now I feel like apologizing.

We’re going to cater to the many readers out there who don’t have access to a yard, or a smoke house or even a smoker. 

We’re going to try and que this shit up using simply our oven. We all understand the basics of “low-and-slow” an incredibly over-used term that populates about every goddamn food show about barbecue ever.

I’ve got an oven and I sure as fuck know how to cook low and slow using that.

So we shall.

I’ve featured slow roasted pork ribs on here before that started out in the oven and finished on a charcoal grill. They always turn out quite tasty. I’ve also cooked pork butt about as many fucking ways as you can count but I haven’t featured slow roasted “pulled pork” from the oven.

Until today.

Let’s pull this motherfucker in reverse for just a second, alright?

Where did you try the very best pulled pork you’ve ever had?

I’ll give you a second, also feel free to add that location to the comments since we’re all interactive and shit.

Mine?

Memphis.

Can’t really narrow down the location but it was probably Interstate Barbecue. Covering the city of Memphis is a constant haze of wood smoke – primarily hickory smoke but you will find some pecan and oak smoke as well. The entire city of Memphis smells like barbecue and it’s goddamn glorious stuff indeed.

We’ve got a couple of legit barbecue places in LA that also produce a quality pig product and it’s actually a pretty simple equation. Smoke+pig+time+a good dry rub = delicious, delicious porky goodness.

Shit, man! Everybody and their weird Aunt Dorothy has a goddamn pulled pork sandwich now. Fuck, you can get one at goddamn Applebee’s for Christ sake.

Don’t. Don’t do that. Basically don’t eat at Applebee’s like ever for any reason OK?

So, pulled pork.

I aim to duplicate the entire barbecue process today without the presence of wood smoke entering the equation.

Don’t get me wrong. Wood smoke is a really, REALLY goddamn big part of that equation but…

Without access to the smoke element let’s give this motherfucker a go anyway.

I’m not promising we’ll equal the taste of that best barbecue pork you’ve ever had but we will try to make something much easier, far more simplistic and a hell of a lot more convenient to those of us without proper barbecue access. It will also be mighty goddamn tasty.

Quick inspiration for the pig and the sauce by Delish.com. Give her a read, she does good and tasty food things.

Let’s make our ass a butt rub.

For my basic rub it’s 2 parts paprika and one part everything else. You can see some black pepper, onion powder, salt, garlic powder, cumin, cayenne, dry mustard. I also used some brown sugar. No real measurements but if you want to give this rub a try use 2 teaspoons of paprika and one teaspoon of the rest. Give the brown sugar maybe 2 tablespoons.

Mix it all together.

Back in the before-time when I DID actually own a smoker, instead of brown sugar in the rub, I used turbinado or raw sugar.

Any guesses why?

That’s right! Brown sugar burns like a motherfucker if you smoke it too long. 

File this away as an important cooking tip to be addressed a bit later.

Let’s bring our porcine partner to the square dance.

That’s about a 4 pound “Boston Butt” pork shoulder cut into slabs.

Rub it up liberally with the rub.

If you have the chance, complete these first two steps the day before you cook the pork. You’ll be happy you did. At least give the rub a few hours to get familiar with our little piggy friend.

Now, we’re gonna get a nice sear on there. Add a tablespoon of canola oil into a deep pot or Dutch oven over medium/high heat. Then in goes piggy.

We need a good sear but use some caution. That sugar likes to burn because sugar can be an asshole like that.

It was about 4-5 minutes per side.

Rather than cooking the pig right on the bottom of the pot, let’s build it a nice bed to rest on while it slow cooks.

Onion bed!

How do we get the slow, smoky flavor in something we cooked in the stove? It’s the old “Liquid smoke in the slow cooked meat” trick. That’s the second time this month!

Let’s deglaze that pan the best way we know how…

The beer will also act as our braising liquid. Feel free to go domestic here. Anything fancy or expensive will just get lost in the liquid smoke/onion tsunami that this will become.

Get that onion up in that pan.

Now load in that pig.

We’re looking at 3 hours on 300 degrees. Give a stir and a re-assessment then cover and simmer for up to another hour or as long as it takes.

We’re going to make our own sauce for this baby. Click on that link above for full details.

“1 1/2 c. ketchup

1/3 c. apple cider vinegar

1/2 c. Dijon mustard

1/4 c. packed brown sugar

2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce”

Starts out innocuously enough.

Then the rest of the sauce ingredients.

Yes, of course I had every item on hand.

My pantry is ready to party HARD!

Now dump ’em in a bowl.

And mix.

Refrigerate at least overnight.

How’s that pig coming along?

Holy shit! That’s what we’re droning on and on about over here.

Important cooking tip applied here!

If you were to enlarge that photo you would see a dark brown, almost molasses colored witches brew at the bottom of that pot. That would be from the pork drippings, the beer, the liquid smoke and the sugar.

/inhales

You do not want to overcook that witches brew, OK!?! You do NOT.

This is the whole trick right here!. This is how we get that smoky barbecue goodness without the smoke. It’s the rich dank, insanely intense flavored concoction that mixes with the pork and beer and sugar and onion and gives us the finish that you’re looking for.

If you do overcook that devils brew?

Ain’t no sugar-coating that bastard. Your ass is going to need a new pot.

If you’re using that fancy-ass La Creuset shit?

Get you ass online and get the credit card out.

Now. When you do get it just right and mix in all of the slow roasted porkyness with that goop at the bottom of the pot?

Magic!

Know how to tell if it’s done?

That’s one clean goddamn bone right there.

So?

Make your ass a sandwich already!.

Pork and sauce will do just fine today. Of course you can put a dollop of some homemade coleslaw on there. Shit son, you can use store bought slaw for all the fucks I give.

Get in closer.

Closer!

This is good. DAMN good. Hell, it was at least as good the 2nd day. That sauce is pretty special too although that recipe makes a shit-ton of sauce. The sauce can keep refrigerated for a couple of weeks and it’s a banging all-purpose sauce that hits all of the right notes.

The only thing I didn’t do was make the homemade buns which is a goddamn shame because they would have worked famously for this dish.

Give this a go, particularly if you need 3-4 hours worth of oven warmth to heat up your nagging bones.

Simple, delicious and a proper fucking crowd pleaser.

Get after it folks.

Thanks as always for stoppin’ by. Certainly is a pleasure and an honor to have you here.

Stay warm and dodge the raindrops folks. Springs coming real soon.

Now let me turn my oven on cuz I’m freezing my fucking ass off over here!

Until next week.

PEACE!