Monday, August 10, 2009

Really Good Pork Shoulder

I woke up yesterday determined - for reasons I can't even begin to explain in my picky and/or vegetarian household - to slow roast a pork shoulder. A few weeks ago I got this crappy, floor-model damaged grill from a large chain retail store, and it has a unique feature: there is no exposed flame, which might cause some to think its claim to be a grill at all dubious at best. Anyway, basically it consists of a steel basin poised over a set of weak gas burners, and if you toss some wood chips in the basin, it becomes a groovy smoker. So that's what I did. I got a decent pork shoulder at Whole Foods (had to ask for it, wasn't on display) and smothered it with this (after liberally seasoning it with salt and pepper, of course)...

3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp zinfandel
2 Tbsp soy sauce
4 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tbsp grain mustard
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp celery seed
3 cloves garlic, minced

- whisk together all ingredients, bring to a simmer in a small saucepan and reduce by half

Then I smoked it away from the heat with the left burner only on in a 3-burner setup, and soaked wood chips (maple and hickory) over that burner, while the pork was on the rack above the grill on the right side. Can you picture that? This task did require that I tend the smoke all throughout the 5 1/2 hours on the grill at about 200 - 210 degrees, adding small handfuls of chips every half hour or so. I also rotated the pork shoulder a few times, as the side nearest the heat would tend to brown more quickly. When the internal temperature reached 170 degrees, I removed the roast to allow it to rest, cranked the heat and threw on a halibut fillet and bluefoot and trumpet royale mushrooms. Good stuff, mate!

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