Dad's BBQ Pork Micro Style

Gez. No post since January.  

Gee, dude ur phat and lazy for sure.  There is a good reason(s) but I digress. 

Years ago, I had a party and wanted to BBQ a pork shoulder.  So, I asked my Dad for his red meat rub recipe ”formula”.  What I got was, “Hmm, Son I’ll make you some”.   In typical dad fashion, not only did he deliver the rub but also showed up to watch the progress. “What is that?...Where is your mop son?...Didn’t I teach you how to make a decent mop for the mopping sauce?...no thermometer, how do you keep the coals at the right temperature?  You need more mesquite!”  Sigh… I guess that is how you learn.

Anyway, last week my friend invited me to this party at a private beach house and I volunteered to make a BBQ pork shoulder.  FYI Guam more so that the rest of the US thinks BBQ is grilling.  There are two decent BBQ place here but the rest are just grill masters.  So, here I am in Guam with no BBQ smoker to my name and yet I have volunteered to do real BBQ.   Task one find pork shoulder; Payless nope, California mart nope, Cost-u-less nope, Island Fresh nope.  I just default to a small picnic butt that will work best cause like I said I don’t have a real smoker neway.

Basic Red Meat Rub

Rubbed to be forgotten

Next step was the rub.  Pretty easy except I ended up buying some really large jars of spices.   I think I’m gonna make a big batch of rub to give some small jars away for Christmas presents.   Proceeded to prep the meat just like Dad schooled me.  Scored the meat fat side in diagonal criss-cross fashion then rubbed down the   pork the day before and let it rest in the refrigerator overnight.  The rub was a simple mix chili powder, garlic salt and onion powder, brown sugar, plus some other secrets.  I “Rubbed it and forgot it” overnight in the fridge. LOL.

Mopping Sauce w/Mop

Just a paragraph about the mopping sauce.  Saw some BBQ show on TV that used apple cider instead of apple cider vinegar with the red pepper flakes so I tried it.  Well 50/50 mix of cider and vinegar.  And yes Dad had I had real mop just didn’t shred a white tee-shirt.   Next time I’ll stick with apple cider vinegar…smile it is better.  I think you need the vinegar to offset the alkali of the pepper in the mopping sauce, it also adds a tangy flavor.

 

Any real BBQ master would have looked at my grill and walked away, Dad included.  It is a cheap (less than $15.00) home depot special.  It doesn’t even have a bottom vent.  In one word it sucks but did that stop me?  Hells no.  proceeding fearlessly.  Found this bamboo charcoal that is the shit.  The stuff burns even and well. The stuff is square and comes in a box…how weird is that.  Locally there is a wood called tangan-tangan that’s a great smoking wood.  The stuff grows all over the island except in Home Depot, so I bought a small bag of mesquite.  Talk about lazy -  in fact locals would argue that it took more effort to go to Home Depot than to walk to the nearest vacant lot and just cut some tangan-tangan down but, hey obviously I’m not local.  Last grille note is that I also used a small aluminum drip pan in the base of the grille, since it doesn’t have a bottom outlet.  Because I didn’t want the mopping sauce to smother the coals and mesquite.

Offset lid to for airflow

Ok so the next day comes and I really don’t fell like spending all day mopping and BBQ’n.  Wake up early to get started , fart around and the next thing I know it is 2pm.  Egad so I finally light the coals and the pork is cooking nice and slow by 3-3:30pm.  Good thing I didn’t find a pork shoulder I would have been mopping till 2am.  With no lower vent to control, I used the lid and just cocked it on top leaving about a ¾” offset to allow air to the coals.  All throughout the day I feed charcoal and mesquite chips through the grille.  Sometimes I had to slide the grill and meat over to get the larger chucks of wood and charcoal in, precarious but doable.  Caution - my maximum bed of coal was maybe 6” in diameter so need to be very tuned to micro fire management.

See the drip pan?

That is it! Tend fire, mop, rotate, tend fire, mop rotate…repeat till the meat is tender.  Don’t forget the KFC coleslaw...it is the best with BBQ pulled pork sandwiches.  Oh yeah, the party was cancelled! 

All done at about 1am