Changes of seasons, such as they are in Houston, rarely affect the eating of barbecue, but they often have some impact on the production of it.
As Texans and Houstonians, we will happily consume a multi-pound tray of spicy, fatty smoked meats even during the hottest days of August. But our backyard barbecue/grilling ambitions usually take a nosedive during the dog days of summer.
Certainly a summer burger-cooking session on a charcoal-fired kettle grill is commonplace, limiting our outdoor cooking time to an hour at most. But longer cook times — up to 16 hours for a brisket using an offset-style smoker — lends itself to the cooler days of fall.
So with the arrival of the first cool front to Houston this week, the wraps came off my Pitts & Spitts offset smoker and I wheeled it to its honorary patio location.
What to cook first? There are a lot of unknown factors affecting the inaugural cook of the season. The first thing I do is check my pile of firewood. The wood has been sitting for a few months so it is well-seasoned, almost bone-dry, meaning it will burn fast and hot. So this first cook is often an exercise in fire management. There’s no time to be too-fussy with the meat.
For that reason, my first cook is almost always a pork shoulder, also known as a pork butt or Boston butt.
Pitts & Spitts
pittsandspitts.com
713-690-1181
Any pitmaster, amateur or professional, will tell you that the word most associated with cooking pork shoulder is “forgiving.” Meaning there’s a lot of room for error — if you are having trouble keeping the cooking chamber at a constant temperature, no worries, the big, dense chunk of pork shoulder can weather plenty of temperature variations and still cook thoroughly.
Similarly, if you’re a little rusty on your prep skills and not sure about how much dry rub to add to the outside, pork shoulders are forgiving when it comes to over-seasoning. Because it is turned into pulled pork, the cooked shoulder is basically pulled apart and all the outside rub ends up flavoring the big pile of pork that is the finished product.
The other great thing about pork shoulder is the cost. On a recent trip to my local H-E-B, bone-in pork shoulders were going for $1.69 per pound. A full shoulder cost all of $12.
Contrast that with a prime brisket which may set you back $5-6 per pound and may cost a total of $70. All amateur pitmasters have experienced the heartbreak of a first brisket cook. We enthusiastically purchase an expensive, top-of-the-line raw brisket and then proceed to cook it into an inedible chunk of carbon. That $70 price tag just adds insult to injury.
Thankfully, if you’re having a bad day and you end up with a carbonized pork shoulder then you are only out 12 bucks.
Fortunately, it’s hard to overcook a pork shoulder. I use a recipe created by Austin pitmaster Aaron Franklin. Slather a bone-in pork shoulder with mustard, pack on a generous amount of dry rub made up of salt, pepper and paprika. Cook in the smoker for about eight hours at 270 degrees, spritzing with apple-cider vinegar every hour to keep the outside surface moist. Next, wrap the shoulder in aluminum foil and cook another two hours until the internal temperature is about 200 degrees.
A cooked pork shoulder will yield at least a dozen pulled-pork sandwiches and is great for the first big friends-and-family backyard barbecue of the fall season. Once I’ve got that under my belt, it’s time to up the ante and start looking for a good deal on a brisket.
jcreid@jcreidtx.com
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The Link LonkOctober 02, 2020
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Why the pork shoulder is a favorite for fall backyard barbecues - Houston Chronicle
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