What We're Making

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LitGal 15 lbs. of pulled pork. Will host 5 lunches and 1 dinner with friends and relatives in the Airbnb apt. I'll rent in home town this week. I'll buy some corn on the cob, open some bags of chips, and defrost the cookies and cheesecake I bought at GFS. Then we'll all just kick back and enjoy..........the shores of Lake Ontario.

Hmmm, I am dying for some pulled pork. We need to have a crowd to justify cooking up a whole shoulder, and we have a niece (and her husband) who for some [edit] in-explicable reason, say they do not like the taste of any pork product. So family gatherings do not involve pork

But I've cooked it up for other crowds, including my beer club, and it always turns out great. DW will cook it sometimes for her PADS volunteer work (cooking and serving for homeless people), she just does it overnight in the oven on low, and that turns out great as well (even w/o the grill smoke - not ideal, but still very, very good).

Despite my being able to do pulled pork, I have had zero success with brisket. I swear I follow all the rules set forth by people in the South, mine turns out dry and bitter. Three strikes and I'm out! And I've probably had 4 strikes.

-ERD50

[LitGal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ERD50 Hmmm, I am dying for some pulled pork. We need to have a crowd to justify cooking up a whole shoulder, and we have a niece (and her husband) who for some explicable reason, say they do not like the taste of any pork product. So family gatherings do not involve pork But I've cooked it up for other crowds, including my beer club, and it always turns out great. DW will cook it sometimes for her PADS volunteer work (cooking and serving for homeless people), she just does it overnight in the oven on low, and that turns out great as well (even w/o the grill smoke - not ideal, but still very, very good). Despite my being able to do pulled pork, I have had zero success with brisket. I swear I follow all the rules set forth by people in the South, mine turns out dry and bitter. Three strikes and I'm out! And I've probably had 4 strikes. -ERD50

You have a lot more experience in southern cooking than I do. A friend just gave me an easy recipe lately for pulled pork in the crock pot. So I picked up two 7-8 lb. pork loins at GFS, cut them up and cooked all the meat in three crock pots. In each crock pot, I put 2 T. of liquid smoke in the bottom, added the meat, poured chicken broth halfway up the meat, then covered all the meat with 2-3 cups of applesauce.

In 7-8 hours, I poured the contents of each crock pot through a colander (so all the broth drained into a bowl), then moved the chunks of meat to a large bowl to cool.

Then shredded it all, poured the broth back in, then added 2-3 c. BBQ sauce per crock pot of pork.

Very easy. And it tastes like somebody with a southern touch made it, not me!!

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LitGal You have a lot more experience in southern cooking than I do. A friend just gave me an easy recipe lately for pulled pork in the crock pot. So I picked up two 7-8 lb. pork loins at GFS, cut them up and cooked all the meat in three crock pots. In each crock pot, I put 2 T. of liquid smoke in the bottom, added the meat, poured chicken broth halfway up the meat, then covered all the meat with 2-3 cups of applesauce. In 7-8 hours, I poured the contents of each crock pot through a colander (so all the broth drained into a bowl), then moved the chunks of meat to a large bowl to cool. Then shredded it all, poured the broth back in, then added 2-3 c. BBQ sauce per crock pot of pork. Very easy. And it tastes like somebody with a southern touch made it, not me!!

I'm guessing that pork shoulder has a wide tolerance, since it always seem to work for me! I'm sure that hitting the mark exactly makes it extra special good, but so far, even lame attempts have turned out very good.

BBQ sauce might be more of a Kansas/Midwest thing than Southern though, but I'm agnostic - it's all good! And the crock pot approach is probably similar to DW's using the oven overnight.

Our Carolina in-laws serve the pulled pork on white bread buns with cole-slaw on top. That works!

I see those big briskets at Costco - darn I want to try again, but I feel like they are just mocking me!

I was able to find smaller sizes of pork belly at a local Polish mart, about 2.5 # instead of 5-6 # at Costco. I cooked that up, turned out OK I though - but cold it was fantastic as a taco filling.

-ERD50

[Just_Steve]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ERD50 I see those big briskets at Costco - darn I want to try again, but I feel like they are just mocking me! -ERD50

When it comes to brisket for me bigger is not better. I much prefer smoking two smaller ones then a big one. Cutting a big one in half and calling it two small does not work.

If you are not venting enough smoke it will cause your meat to taste bitter.
Bathe the meat with smoke don't let smoke stagnate.

[davemartin88]

Dyed some of our white alpaca roving this afternoon using acid dye and the sun to set the dye. Some clouds rolled in so only 8 of the 12 jars were set but we have 4 that we'll finish in the oven, has to reach 185 degrees to set the dye. You can tell the dye is completely set when the dye liquid is clear as all of the pigment has transferred to the fiber. Will rinse and dry it all out tomorrow and see how it turned out. Should make some interesting yarn when spun. Here's a picture of the jars on the railing of the deck soaking up some rays!

[Ronstar]

Cool project, davemartin88!

[Ronstar]

Turned 3 bowls on my lathe. European walnut, Zebrawood and Myrtle.

[Lsbcal]

Very nice bowls Ronstar.

[CardsFan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ERD50 I see those big briskets at Costco - darn I want to try again, but I feel like they are just mocking me! -ERD50

If you want pulled beef, try a chuck roast. Need to get the internal temp to about 195F.

I smoked two small ones on Thursday, and we are having them today.

As far as briskets go, I did one a while back. It came out OK, but the chuck roast actually taste better!

[Ronstar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lsbcal Very nice bowls Ronstar.

Thanks - I like making bowls - can make a bowl in one day - matches my senior citizen attention span

[davemartin88]

Dyed roving drying in the sun. Attachment 24498

[LitGal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by davemartin88 Dyed roving drying in the sun. Attachment 24498

So lovely!

[Ronstar]

In memory of 9/11, I whipped up an American flag from some scrap 2x4's.

[Exit 2024]

Very quiet here lately

Ronstar, excellent flag!
and I really like the plate next to it did you make it?

[Exit 2024]

and I brought you some cookies again
too bad I can not share smell and taste, they go very well with my morning coffee

[Sunset]

Those cookies are like art, they look too good to eat !

[Sunset]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronstar In memory of 9/11, I whipped up an American flag from some scrap 2x4's.

Nice, and it's great that you did it correctly.
Our neighbor has one on the front lawn, but must think there are only 15 States and 7 original colonies

[RobbieB]

I love clams & oysters but the quality and condition varies greatly even from hi-dollar internet vendors. I saw one of these at a fish market once and since I could not find any to buy I made one;



A 12 volt Rule submersible bilge pump and a PVC ring with lots of holes drilled. I make up "sea water" with purified water (no chlorine or chloramines) and sea salt at the proper concentration (4oz/gallon) and it allows them to open and re-hydrate / flush toxins for 3 to 4 hours before eating. Works real good too;



Grillin' oysters with garlic butter and Tabasco - very tasty!

[davemartin88]

RobbieB, nice work and use of skills to make something useful! I'm not an oyster fan but sounds like this contraption does the job! Thanks for sharing.

[Ronstar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by davemartin88 RobbieB, nice work and use of skills to make something useful! I'm not an oyster fan but sounds like this contraption does the job! Thanks for sharing.

+1. Skills to make great food are by far the most important skills IMO