Pork Shoulder and Short Ribs

[Pork Belly]

These are the before pics of my Bone in Pork Shoulder and Beef Short Ribs. I will be posting the after shots and taste review later tonight. I seldom measure anything so I cant be any help in that regard but the rub from greatest to least was Kosher Salt, Raw Sugar, Black Pepper Garlic Powder. That's all just keeping it simple for this one, I wanted to get a good taste of the sugar maple smoke. It is set at 240 with 4.5 oz of the sugar maple and a probe thermometer. Since there was space I added a cast iron skillet of baked beans on the top rack.

I also made a Grilled Vegetable Tureen This is a construction picture the details are posted in side dishes.

I will check back in about ten hours.- Update only seven hours actually. I failed to start at 145 for the first 2 hours like I had thought I would last night. Running 240 cut the cooking time but everything looks great, we had a small taste test and will be shredding pork closer to dinner time. everything is still in the smoker on 180 just sweating a little more fat off the short ribs. Everything is very tender.

 

[Smokster]

Hey Brian, by combining the ribs in the smoker with a larger piece of meat such as the pork shoulder, did you find that there may be too much of a smoke taste to the ribs?

I usually use 5-6 ozs for the shoulder and 2oz for the ribs. Is there any method you would recommend so that the ribs are not over smoked?

 

[Pork Belly]

No we didn't, the family loved them, the short ribs were very heavily marbled with fat in fact I trimmed some odd pieces of remaining fat after smoking. they were extremely tender. I tossed them with some KC Masterpiece and broiled them briefly.

I only used 4.5 on purpose I had trouble picking through the blocks to not be 6 or nearly 6. We thought the Sugar Maple smoke was not overpowering on either meat. One thing that may have made a difference is when I knew the ribs were done but I just wanted to render some more fat from them I piled them in the middle of the grate and let them baste each other. That likely limited some smoke contact. Overall a great meal, the tureen was impressive. It was tasty but I doubt I make it again unless I have a need to put out an impressive plate.

 

[DivotMaker]

Looks absolutely fantastic, Brian!  Sugar maple is great on pork!

But, uh, am I the only one here that doesn't know what the heck a tureen is?  Sorry...I guess we don't see many of them in Arkansas. ???  Do you use a call, or a trap to catch them??

 

[Pork Belly]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/gameterrine_14230
that link is a picture and recipe for a meat tureen. Basically tureen is a broad term,  it can be the actual serving dish or the food in it. It could be a Pate or or layers of food bound with a form of gelatin or emulsified in fat.  In the picture you can clearly see the layers and types of food the clear brown gel is the gelatin from the chicken.

I believe they have Headcheese in Arkansas, that is a form of a tureen.

 

[DivotMaker]

Sweet baby cheeses, Brian!  You actually went to head cheese??  I don't know how to type a big enough "Ewwwww!' 

 

[NDKoze]

Hey Tony, mine is more of an oooooh give me some!

I have had good head cheese and bad. If it is good it is awesome!

 

[Pork Belly]

I made this just just before Christmas. It was the best I have had. I agree there is good and bad head cheese. My Charcuterie skill set is greater than average.

 

[NDKoze]

I love to eat it, but have never made it. Yours looks really good.

 

[Smokster]

Personally I am not a fan of head cheese or anything that looks like it, however that Grilled Vegetable Tureen looks amazing. I would eat that without hesitation.

 

[Pork Belly]

ND,
That is the recipe from Charcuterie (The Craft of Salting , Smoking & Curing. I highly recommend this book. The taste and texture were excellent one head made three large loaf pans. However I wont be making it again unless I can find some more people to help eat it. My family wont eat it, one of my sons did try and and said "That's better than what I had before (store bought) but its still headcheese." However they will make short work of a roasted hog head. I will be dry curing and roasting a half a hog head in the next few weeks. The is a lot of meat on the head.

 

[Walt]

As a personal favor, you can send any extra down to Louisiana via me.  We are not shy about GOOD head cheese.

 

[DivotMaker]

Ship it all to Louisiana, Brian.  Just bypass Arkansas.  LoL!   Head cheese may be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but it will never cross these lips - sorry!