Gobs of Pork

I was going to be running the UDS today, and since it makes little sense to run it for just one piece of meat, I decided to add some pork to my cook schedule. And since I was doing that, why not do a little creative cooking. So I found a really nice pork butt, took off a couple pounds for making char siu and the rest would be cooked to make Pulled 'Carnitas'-style pork. This meant the butt would be smoked with no rub at all. Here it is, ready to do, such an easy preparation. My friend Sir Porks A Lot would be proud, no rub.

 

Pretty much that is ready to go

 

Strips of marinated pork butt

The other parts received a marinade, so it could be smoked up as char siu (Chinese BBQ Pork). This was done the night before and allowed to rest over night in the fridge. Then it all went onto the smoker, at 250F for 2 hours. Then the butt went into a Dutch oven that had 2 stalks of celery, 5 stalks of green onion, 1/2 yellow onion, 2 limes and a few cloves of garlic. Covered and back into the smoker. Started at 250F, but, I had opened the intakes to ramp up heat. After an hour, things were at 275F and the char siu was colored up and ready to come off. Along with the marinade, 3 hours of smoke left these tender, juicy and beautifully colored. I did remove the cover from the DO, so the liquid would evaporate. The Char siu worked out great, so great, I decided to snack on it and ignore the smoker.

 

Hunks of char siu, and a turkey loaf

Did I mention the turkey loaf? No? Well, maybe because it sucked! Dry as popcorn farts! But that Chinese BBQ Pork was great. Onto the Phase Two, which I had forgotten about, the cooker had spiked wickedly hot, got it controlled to 375F, but, that was for two hours. No problems, as it turns out, BBQ is just not a 'down to the second' process. Around four hours, I removed the bone and around 5 hours the pork had rendered down into chunks of tender, caramelized pork.

 

Looks pretty good

Texture and flavor are right where I wanted them. These shred easily, but, hold their form rather nicely when handled. The flavor is savory and well balanced with the lime adding some nice sweetness as well. These will probably end up as dinner tomorrow.

Char-siu marinade:
2 tablespoons Hoisin Sauce
2tablesoons Soy Sauce (dark or regular, not light and never lite)
1.5 tablespoons whiskey
2 tablespoons Agave syrup or glucose syrup
 1 teaspoon salt (which I forgot to add)
1 teaspoon catsup
1.5 tablespoons minced garlic
1/4 cup honey

Mix first seven ingredients and place in a sealable pan or zip sealing bag. The honey is to glaze the pork in the last 15 to 30 minutes of the cook.

Bone a pork butt, you can use up to 2 lbs of meat for this amount of marinade. Cut boned butt into 3" thick strips. Try to remove large hunks of fat.