Tailgating Temptations

This time of year brings the season of outdoor events and tailgating parties. Some of my favorite foods are cooked on the smoker. I like the flavors of a spicy dry rub on a rack of ribs or trimmed pork butt cooked low and slow. When cooking pork, I like to use hickory wood. Hickory is the king of woods in the southern barbecue belt. The strong, hearty flavor of hickory smoke is perfect for any cut of pork, but it also works great on any red meat as well as poultry.
Here is an example of what a dry rub would consist of along with a nice mop (this is used to baste the meat).

Dry rub recipe:
5 tablespoons fresh ground pepper
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons coarse salt, either kosher or sea salt
1 tablespoon dry mustard
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 tablespoons cayenne

6 to 8 pounds of pork

Mop recipe (optional)
Remaining dry rub
3 cups cider vinegar
1 medium onion, minced
1/4 cup ground black pepper
2 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon dry mustard
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon cayenne

1. The night before you plan to barbecue, combine the dry rub ingredients in a small bowl. Massage the pork well with about half of the rub. Transfer the pork to a plastic bag and refrigerate it over night.
2. Before you begin to barbecue, take the pork from the refrigerator. Pat down the pork with another coating of the rub. Let the pork sit at room temperature for about 45 minutes.
3. Prepare the smoker for barbecuing, bringing the temperature to 200 to 220 degrees.
4. Stir the remaining dry rub with the mop along with 1 cup of water in a sauce pan and warm the mixture over low heat.
5. Transfer the pork to the smoker and cook it for about 1 1/2 hours per pound, or until the internal temperature reaches 170 to 180 degrees. Mop the meat every 50 to 60 minutes in a wood burning pit, or as appropriate for your style of smoker.
6. Remove the pork from the smoker and let it sit for about 15 minutes, until cool enough to handle. Pull off chunks of the meat, then shred or chop them as you like. Serve with your favorite sauce.

The flavors of Fall

I am a first time blogger who wanted to find a way to share my culinary ideas, pics and monthly video's. I am excited about sharing my ideas with you and look forward to your comments.

We are getting ready to start our new menu here at the club on October 5th and with this menu we are featuring bold flavors such as boneless Berkshire pork chop over ginger sweet potato topped with Asian cranberry - pear chutney or maybe our pan seared sea scallops served on a bed of granny smith apple slaw topped with a jalapeno - cranberry preserve. What ever the menu selections are, I will share some of those recipes with you.

This recipe is used on two of our dishes.

Jalapeno - Cranberry preserves:
2 cups red wine vinegar
2 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons five spice
1 package fresh cranberries
1/4 cup diced fresh jalapeno
3 oranges (zest and juice)
2 pkg. powdered cherry jello
1/4 cup of your favorite raspberry jam

Method:
Bring the vinegar, orange juice and sugar to a boil over a med high heat, just until the sugar dissolves.
Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for approx. 30 minutes. The cranberries will burst and slightly thicken the recipe as they cook. Cool and refrigerate up to 1 week.

This recipe works great on pork, chicken or scallops.
I look forward to any food questions you might have. What kind of food blog would you like to see?
Chef John