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Smoked Pork Picnic Shoulder

Scott VanderPloeg — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 13:00:13 +0000

A few weeks ago a local grocery store had pork picnic shoulder for $0.77 per pound so I picked up eight: seven in the freezer and one for the barbeque. Nice fatty pork shoulder is perfect for low and slow cooking so I applied my usual dry rub and left it in the fridge for a day. After that I started a fire in my Big Green Egg and once it was steady at 200F I put in the plate setter, a drip pan and the shoulder. Twelve hours later I had this beauty.

As you can see from the drip pan the shoulder was really fatty.

Look at that fat cap under the skin. Once rested for thirty minutes it pulled apart beautifully and we had it on fresh buns with Dijon mustard and pickled red onions. Stunning: juicy, tender, flavourful.

Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder

Scott VanderPloeg — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 18:05:03 +0000

First off let me say this isn’t pulled pork. I don’t like the mushy texture and sauce of pulled pork: I like slices of succulent smoked pork shoulder on a bun with a hit of mustard barbeque sauce.

I had a de-boned whole pork shoulder in the freezer that was in two pieces. After a good defrosting I applied a basic dry rub: equal parts brown sugar, kosher salt, black pepper and paprika. Left the pork in the refrigerator for a day and then smoked it on my Big Green Egg. I used the plate setter and kept the Big Green Egg at 200F for fourteen hours. After about four hours I added additional charcoal but it went the whole night without budging; I was impressed. As well I used four chunks of apple wood at the beginning of the smoking and that was more than enough.

I had a mop ready but every time I checked the pork was moist and dripping juice; the final product was extremely juicy and succulent. I credit this to the fatty shoulder but mostly to the Big Green Egg. Once off the grill I wrapped it in tinfoil, popped it into cooler and served it sliced six hours later. It went so fast I didn’t have time for a slicing photo but this turned out so well smoked pork shoulder will become a regular on my table.

Pork sirloin

Scott VanderPloeg — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:17:38 +0000

I’ve been buying whole pork loins lately: they come with a lovely pork loin for about two thirds and sirloin for the last third. The loin is very nice but the sirloin on these pieces is jagged and just isn’t pretty, so I cut it off. I find this cut works wonderfully for two applications: my bacon recipe and a slow roast smoked on my big green egg.

The front roast is my smoked slow roasted sirloin and in the rear is the cured and smoked bacon sirloin. The sirloin is a big jagged as it had a bone removed so it’s best prepared by tying it together with butchers twine every 1.5″ or so as you can see in the above picture. It holds it’s shape nicely for prep and once cooked and rested the twine can be cut off.

I like to prepare the sirloin roast by tying it and then covering it in a dry rub: I’m partial to Steven Raichlen’s all purpose rub from his book How To Grill but use whatever you like. Once it’s sat for at least twenty four hours in the dry rub it’s ready for the barbeque. I like to hot smoke it at 250 degrees F until it reaches an internal temperature of 160 degrees F.

As you can see it had a nice smoke ring and a wonderful fat cap that kept this roast moist and succulent. Man oh man was that good eats. Pork sirloin is a wonderfully versatile cut that can be had inexpensively.

Cold Smoked Bacon

Scott VanderPloeg — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:55:16 +0000

I took advantage of the freezing weather to cold smoke my latest batch of bacon. Until now I’ve been hot smoking it: working with a temperature of 200 degrees Fahrenheit in my Big Green Egg I smoked the bacon for about four hours until it’s internal temperature reached 150 degrees.

With the Weber Smokey Mountain I can maintain smoke indefinitely and keep the bacon’s internal temperature to around 100 degrees. I smoked this batch with sugar maple charcoal and maple chunks for six hours.

The texture of the finished product was a lot softer. The skin was a real pain to remove since the fat didn’t heat up: normally with hot smoked bacon I can peel the skin off quickly and easily. I save it for baked beans or wrapping a porchetta.

Frying it up I found it to be chewy; definitely something wrong. I think it needs more heat, say 110 degrees internal. Was smoking some pork loins the next week and hot smoked this bacon to get a product I was happy with.

My bacon recipe

Scott VanderPloeg — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:05:32 +0000

After much trial and error over the last year I’ve settled on a standard cure for smoked bacon. I started with the smoked bacon recipe from Charcuterie and made my variations from there. I like a sweeter bacon but also want the bite of the pepper. I enjoy the dark syrup more than the brown sugar, but I’m Canadian and have easy access to excellent pure maple syrup. A nice fatty pork loin works just as well as a belly if you want an English cut bacon.

5 lb pork belly (or loin)
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup dark maple syrup
2 tbs cracked peppercorns
2 tsp pink salt
1/4 cup kosher salt

Mix everything together and rub all over the pork. Put the pork in a container (tub with a lid, plastic zip bag) and flip it every other day until firm, about seven days. Put the pork uncovered in the fridge for one day and then smoke until an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit is reached.

Update 08-Jul-09

After this post was featured on Kitchen Stewardship I received a few comments and would like to give some tips.

If you’d like to make this bacon nitrite free then omit the pink salt: the finished product will not have the reddish colour you’re used to with bacon (as seen in the photo). I get my pink salt from Butcher & Packer.

Smoking meat at home is very simple and can be done effectively with any barbeque. I like smoking bacon with maple or apple wood, but any fruit wood is a good choice and should be available in your local hardware store. Soak two handfuls of wood chips in water and then put them in aluminum foil with a handful of dry chips. Fold the foil over like you’re making an envelope and then poke some holes so the smoke can get out. If you have a gas barbeque put one side on low and put your wood chip envelope on that side.; for a charcoal grill build a fire on one side only. Wait until smoke starts and then put the bacon on the other cool side: you want to maintain about 200 degrees Fahrenheit during the smoking process. You’ll need about one envelope of wood chips every hour; I find my bacon takes about four hours.