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After years of believing that pulled pork is something made in a crockpot, I decided that my family needed a reality adjustment. And my recent trip back to Chicago seemed the perfect opportunity.So, my brother and I decided to pull a pulled pork all-nighter.
My brother may not have a Salivator per se, but he does have a propane-powered Great Outdoors smoker. Sure…a grizzled, Carolina pitmaster might scoff at the notion of propane-powered Q, but I’m not one for pretention. Besides…that which the smoker lacks in authenticity, it more than makes-up for in convenience. And convenience is exactly what’s needed when you’re pulling a Q overnighter, but don’t really want to stay up all night.
We slapped 12 lbs. of spice-rubbed pork butt onto the smoker at 11pm–about the same time that it started to rain. We then–in a stunning display of psychic, harmonic convergence–both woke at 4am to adjust the temperature and replenish the supply of wood chips…a task that not only took place under a heavy downpour, but also in nothing more than our boxer shorts.
That should be an interesting topic for discussion at the next homeowners’ association meeting.
Then, finally…we woke again at 7am to oversee the home stretch.
The butts hit our target internal temperature of 197F at noon–a comfortable three hours before the rest of the family arrived.
And the verdict? Well…let’s just say that nobody thinks I’m a crack-pot for dissing the crockpot, anymore.
[BTW…I know what you’re all thinking, and it’s true. This entire post was nothing more than an excuse to publish the above photo.]
Hey…is your brother wearing somebody else’s feet just for the picture?
Oh Big Finn, great minds think alike … I came in to ask about the feet too.
I even clicked on the photo just to check out Sal’s brother’s feet …
No no no, not a foot fetish Sal, I’m a New Zealander, we don’t do fetishes however I think you need to fly your brother in and hide his sock collection 😉
Sorry Sal’s brother but I just had to … I don’t know … comment I guess.
Scary,scary morning-after picture!
And hey, your brother kind of looks like my brother except mine weighs about 150 lbs more and has even less hair.
TBF and Lady Di:
Are you making fun of my brother, Frankenfeet?
Christina: Isn’t it great having little brothers twice our size? Welcome back, BTW.
Sal
Kinda … but not cruelly, it was more an issue of whiteness as compared to the rest of the visible parts of his body.
Fascinated I was …
Actually, one can only admire your brother when one considers that, even though you’re clearly both grown-ups, he’ll still help you do a handstand.
That could surely go into a ‘Love is … ‘ book.
It’s 7:45 p.m. and I’m at work, waiting on editors. I only had a funnel cake for lunch. (Long story, but suffice it to say, woman cannot live on funnel cake alone, and I’m hungry.)
So I drag myself in the Tapas Bar for a little diversion… and you taunt me with your pork butt… damn you and your spicy Q…
I am all for craftsmanship and ‘hand made’ anything- however the best BBQ I have ever had here in the SW GA/ SE AL area comes off a $75,000 electrically powered (to turn the grates) gas combusted, electronically zone controlled for temp and humidity, CNC dampened and wood for smoke only unit at Pepper’s. That plus an old grizzeled 75 year old pit master who loves to discuss his BBQ logic controllers and his propratary temp profile/program.
What scares me the most about your picture is the fact that the cooker is sitting on a wood patio deck! What the heck? Are you part red-neck?
Colon:
Actually, my entire head was red in that picture; not just my neck.
Sal
PS: Do you see those rectangular objects between the smoker and that flammable wood deck? You know…the things that look a lot like cement slabs?
Sorry Colon, I am the only pseudonymous Colin/Colon allowed to post here.
Sal – Family Q makes it that much better, even without The Salivator.
CM
Sal, Sal, Sal,
Where are the boxer shorts pics?
I’m so disappointed.
hey
Dammit, Blogger ate my comment.
Anyway, I was saying, please ignore the earlier posting of the hungry woman. I’m known as “Crabby Angie” when I need to be fed.
I shuffled the iPod on my blog, if you’re interested. Not that I think you’re into my kind of music… no Slim Whitman in sight. 😉
These pork posts always get the most comment.
I am flabbergasted that Angie blogged – must go look!
Ang! You’ve…you’ve…you’ve blogged! But, no Bubble Puppy?!
Glenna: I have to say…Chris looks incredibly young. Like…17?
Colin: You won’t tell Chris (our Chris, not Glenna’s) that I used propane, will you?
Christina: Oh, God! Yet another Chris! Anyway…with that one post, Angie increased her 2006 blogging activity by 33.3%. But then, we can’t really blame her. She writes for a living. I’d imagie that writing is the last thing she wants to do in her off hours.
Sal–Chris is 22. I won’t tell him you thought he was 17. He’s still young enough he might cry.