We returned to our favorite lunch spot today: the huge boqueria along la rambla. Here is the seafood counter where we ate: a pile each of fresh shellfish, mushrooms, and peppers, grilled, salted, and served. Heaven on earth. Also obtained: jamon iberico and xorico (that’s Catalan for chorizo).
Just after the morning walk with the dog…
We’re reviving ourselves here after our 8.85 mile walk through the Met and the park (yes, I’m wearing a pedometer; I won’t go into it). At least we’re burning off some fraction of the rich food we stuff ourselves with at every meal.
I love eating in NYC.
George got married yesterday–hooray! My contribution to the wedding was bringing pulled pork for the dinner. I’ve made pulled pork about half a dozen times now, but this was only the second time I was using my sweet new Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker (aka “Weber Bullet”). As you’ll see, though, I couldn’t fit all the pork (about 75 pounds all told) into it, and there’s no way in hell I was going to do two batches, so Nelson (my pork shoulder mentor/idol) lent me his bullet as well for dual smoking action!
I started with 3 pounds of molasses and 4.5 pounds of salt mixed with three gallons of water for the brine.
Our biggest cooler was just capacious enough to contain the 9 boneless pork shoulders as they brined overnight:
On Friday evening after work, I pulled them out of the brine. They were visibly plumped and brown from the molasses. Then I started in on making my secret rub, which is not actually a secret. In fact, here’s a picture with all the ingredients. OK, I’ll just admit that this is the Cook’s Illustrated basic barbecue rub. Are you happy? Didn’t you find it more intriguing when it was a secret?
I rubbed the shoulders and tied them to get them ready for the grill. Check out the awesome leather apron that Leslie got me for the occasion!
Next, I prepped the two smokers, filling the water pans and adding cold charcoal to the fire rings. I started a chimney worth of coals and added just about 10 hot coals to each ring. These 10 would light the others and slowly spread the fire over the next 8-10 hours before the first time I had to add fuel–this amazing technique for no-maintenance fires is called the “Minion Method,” and I can’t say enough good things about it. It almost sort of lets you sleep through the night.
With the fires lit, I stacked the pork two stories high in both smokers, and we were off.
(Not pictured: the next 15 hours of maintaining the smokers’ temperatures within 10 degrees of 225 with the help of just one remote thermometer, a headlamp, and a light touch on the air vents surrounding the fire rings. Let’s just say I was pretty tired by the time we got to the wedding.)
And just like that, we’ve got barbecue!
Leslie and I were forced to do a quick taste test before serving it the the wedding guests–just looking out for their well being!
Marc — 2011-08-09 18:09:02
I would like to know the cost of the ingredients stacked on the counter. It is a reminder that good flavor has its price. Rubs and marinades are especially costly. What a wonderful gift!
bryan — 2011-08-09 22:13:13
Excellent point! The spices there cost me about $150–a bit more than the pork itself. But I grossly overestimated what I’d need and probably could do this three more times with the leftovers. In fact, I used the wedding leftovers to rub all our 4th of July ribs and chicken…