Adventures in BBQ: Pork Shoulder

For my birthday this year, my wife got me a compact vertical charcoal smoker/grill. I finally got a chance to try it out when I smoked a pork shoulder roast recently. Here are some observations on how it all came together:

• Like my favourite Arlen, Texas resident, I've always used propane and propane accessories, this is the first time I've ever used a charcoal grill to cook.
• I wasn't crazy about having to assemble my birthday present, this grill definitely has more moving parts than the box smoker I made a few years ago. The build went OK, took about a half-hour. I can't stress enough - always read and re-read the instructions when putting something together. If I hadn't, I would have put the charcoal in the ash pan instead of on one of the grills - oops.
• This smoker uses a water pan to prevent any fat from dripping onto the coals and helps regulate the temperature by adding some humidity. Hopefully, I don't douse my coals by accident during the cook.
• Getting a charcoal chimney to light my briquettes was a smart move on my part. 
• According to Jaime Purvuiance's "Weber's Way To Grill", the roast needed to be cooked with indirect heat, so around lunchtime, I got my briquettes lit, spread the coals on one side of the grill, and put the pork shoulder with the rub I applied to it earlier on the other. I wish I had grabbed some wood chips when I bought the briquettes; hickory or oak seems to be good all-purpose choices.
• It was threatening to rain all afternoon, with it spitting from the sky intermittently. Today's beer of choice: Pabst Blue Ribbon 5.9%,  a fine utility beer, one of the few cheap American beers that taste like actual beer.
• About 30 minutes in, I noticed my temperature was dropping because I didn't use enough charcoal. Keeping this grill at the 200-250 degree sweet spot on the temperature gauge will be the constant challenge, I had no idea how much I took the ease of propane for granted.
• Mental note, I need to buy a bucket for the ashes and something to move around the coals. A pair of heat-resistant gloves would also be nice in hindsight; no burns but why take the chance, right? 
• You know you're on the right track when your wife and your neighbour ask where that great aroma is coming from.
• Even though I let a 2 kg roast cook all afternoon,  I still checked to see if it was at temperature. The end result had a nice colour on it, and while the meat wasn't fall off the bone tender, it still made some damn tasty sandwiches.
• Overall, not bad for a first attempt. With the goal of smoking a beef brisket by the start of fall, it looks like I'm going to be spending the rest of the summer getting to know my new smoker.  This is a sacrifice I'm willing to make.
  
  

  

  Pork shoulder

  
   

Better Later Than Never: Beer Bread

2020 is, among other things, the year everyone's inner baker came out.  It may have slowed down a bit now that the province is slowly reopening, but people have been cranking out baked goods nonstop over the past few months even with baking ingredients in short supply during the COVID-19 pandemic. I'm not much of a baker, so I have no patience or desire to get a sourdough starter going. Instead, I went with a beer bread recipe for my baking therapy. It's easy to make because it eliminates the entire process of kneading, rising, and kneading again, as the beer’s yeast content reacts with the other ingredients in the bread mix, causing the dough to rise and start to leaven. So if you can get your hands on some flour, and have some spare beer in the fridge, give this recipe a try for some easy baked goods. Hopefully, you still have some spare time...

Ingredients

410 g flour (sifted)
60 g sugar
15 g baking powder (omit if using self-rising flour)
6 g salt (omit if using self-rising flour)
120 mL melted butter
1 (355 mL) can beer (just about any will work, even non-alcoholic beer, though the taste of your bread will depend on what you use; a stout will impart a stronger flavour than an ale.
NOTE: It is highly recommended adding a packet of dry active yeast or 6 g of bread machine yeast if you use non-alcoholic beer in order to get a proper rise)

1. Preheat oven to 190 °C.
2. Sifting your flour breaks down any clumps in it and makes the flour fluffier by infusing air into it. preventing the bread from turning into something hard and inedible. If you don't have a flour sifter, measure out the flour into a bowl and mix it with either a fork or whisk. Once done, add the remaining dry ingredients and the beer and mix everything together - mix the butter into the batter if you want a more traditional bread with a soft crust.
3. Pour the mixture into a greased loaf pan. For a buttery, crunchy crust, pour the melted butter on top of the batter.
4. Bake for one hour, then remove from the pan and let cool for at least 15 minutes.