This weekend, I have a few cousins, my dad, and my uncle over for a sort of guy's night. We held it at my place because I had offered to cook.
First off, I want to say that the following combination basically verbatim is an extremely righteous combo:
Pulled pork + slaw + vinegar sauce is how I rate most barbecue joints. It's my favorite thing in barbecue. Last night, I made stuff that's better than anything I've ever eaten out.
Additionally, I made buns for sandwiches using this recipe from the Kitchn. (By the time I had noticed the brioche bun recipe it was too late. The proof time was too long! I definitely want to give those a try next time.)
Finally, I am a huge, huge fan of Alton Brown's pressure cooker greens.
This was an excellent meal. Everyone left very happy.
For anyone who wonders, here's the process I used:
So, a few issues and lessons learned:
I need something other than a large stock pot for sous-vide. I cheated and used some plastic container that was too big. It took the Anova like 6 hours to raise the temperate from around the 130ºF to 165ºF.
I used to follow the advice noted in the coleslaw recipe where you salt the cabbage to draw out liquid. I think I got the idea from Good Eats. I took the advice of the linked article and didn't. Thank goodness. I have been following that advice blindly forever and it's one of the reasons I rarely make slaw—it's just too much of a commitment. Just toss the stuff together and BOOM! Slaw.
I didn't love the slaw on its own. It was okay. However, it is probably the best sandwich or mixer slaw I've ever had specifically because I don't think it stands out too much on its own. It's a better compliment piece and it does it really well.
Pork butt is extremely forgiving, as anyone who has cooked it knows. It's ready to go after 8-12 hours at 165ºF in sous-vide. What's better is that you don't need to hit 165ºF to be done. You can go by happily and you'll likely hit a sort of mini stall around 180ºF. Normally, the stall is a pain but when you're trying to have food ready and it's ready, you can just leave it in the smoker. I wanted my guests to see these things leave the smoker.
I had a bit of an "incident." I often sous-vide meat in the bags it is packed in. It's just plain easier that taking it out and bagging it again. This has never been an issue before, but in this case the bag ruptured over night spilled juice into the water. Besides making a mess of the container, I was effectively engaging in rib terrorist like activities. The meat was exposed to water, but it didn't creep all the way in. I'm guessing maybe 1/3? I lost juice to the water and some from the meat I imagine. I have no idea how long it was in this position because it happened while I was sleeping.
Fortunately, I save my purges from past cooks and had a pork purge from a couple weeks ago. (I reduced to it about a 1/3 of what the picture shows so it was super concentrated.) I heated that and mixed it in with the pork as I was pulling it.
I think I'm going to make a sandwich from leftovers right now. I'll post a picture of that later.
(I have no pictures. This actually gets me in double trouble. Not only do I have no shots of the meal, my mom who is a huge genealogy buff wanted pictures of me and my cousins together which rarely happens. We were too full to remember.)
First off, I want to say that the following combination basically verbatim is an extremely righteous combo:
- Sous-vide-que Pulled Pork
- Meathead's Memphis Dust
- Lexington Dip
- Simple Creamy Southern Coleslaw with Mayonnaise
Pulled pork + slaw + vinegar sauce is how I rate most barbecue joints. It's my favorite thing in barbecue. Last night, I made stuff that's better than anything I've ever eaten out.
Additionally, I made buns for sandwiches using this recipe from the Kitchn. (By the time I had noticed the brioche bun recipe it was too late. The proof time was too long! I definitely want to give those a try next time.)
Finally, I am a huge, huge fan of Alton Brown's pressure cooker greens.
This was an excellent meal. Everyone left very happy.
For anyone who wonders, here's the process I used:
- Sous-vide a 16lbs. pork butt for about 12 hours at 165ºF.
- Remove it, cut it in half, and chill it a bit in the fridge.
- Take it out and salt it while it's still a little moist and put it back in the fridge.
- Take it out the next day, spritz it, and put the rub on. Leave overnight.
- Two-zone at 225ºF, cook and smoke for 6 hours.
So, a few issues and lessons learned:
I need something other than a large stock pot for sous-vide. I cheated and used some plastic container that was too big. It took the Anova like 6 hours to raise the temperate from around the 130ºF to 165ºF.
I used to follow the advice noted in the coleslaw recipe where you salt the cabbage to draw out liquid. I think I got the idea from Good Eats. I took the advice of the linked article and didn't. Thank goodness. I have been following that advice blindly forever and it's one of the reasons I rarely make slaw—it's just too much of a commitment. Just toss the stuff together and BOOM! Slaw.
I didn't love the slaw on its own. It was okay. However, it is probably the best sandwich or mixer slaw I've ever had specifically because I don't think it stands out too much on its own. It's a better compliment piece and it does it really well.
Pork butt is extremely forgiving, as anyone who has cooked it knows. It's ready to go after 8-12 hours at 165ºF in sous-vide. What's better is that you don't need to hit 165ºF to be done. You can go by happily and you'll likely hit a sort of mini stall around 180ºF. Normally, the stall is a pain but when you're trying to have food ready and it's ready, you can just leave it in the smoker. I wanted my guests to see these things leave the smoker.
I had a bit of an "incident." I often sous-vide meat in the bags it is packed in. It's just plain easier that taking it out and bagging it again. This has never been an issue before, but in this case the bag ruptured over night spilled juice into the water. Besides making a mess of the container, I was effectively engaging in rib terrorist like activities. The meat was exposed to water, but it didn't creep all the way in. I'm guessing maybe 1/3? I lost juice to the water and some from the meat I imagine. I have no idea how long it was in this position because it happened while I was sleeping.
Fortunately, I save my purges from past cooks and had a pork purge from a couple weeks ago. (I reduced to it about a 1/3 of what the picture shows so it was super concentrated.) I heated that and mixed it in with the pork as I was pulling it.
I think I'm going to make a sandwich from leftovers right now. I'll post a picture of that later.
(I have no pictures. This actually gets me in double trouble. Not only do I have no shots of the meal, my mom who is a huge genealogy buff wanted pictures of me and my cousins together which rarely happens. We were too full to remember.)
Comment