23 August 2010

The secret ingredient for great barbecue

I smoked a pork roast this weekend, which was rather crazy because of a massive painting project in the bathroom. Note the bathtub full of old wallpaper. Sunday morning after church I loaded the smoker and went about my business of removing wallpaper, taping windowsills and trim, and painting. Periodically when I needed a break I would tend to the meat, which mainly involved throwing some some hickory chunks on the fire and heading back to the project.

The bathroom turned out fine, and after about ten hours both it and the meat were done. The roast was amazing, one of my best. It had a juicy black crust that covered a deep smoke rink about a quarter of an inch thick. Worn out from the painting, I sat on the couch with a sample of the pork and dozed off watching football.

The secret ingredient was the painting project, which forced me to leave the meat alone. I had something else to do that kept me busy and away from the opening and closing of the smoker that is always tempting but bad for the meat. I've heard it over and over that the secret to great barbecue is to leave it alone, and it's so very true. The trick next time will be finding something easier than painting to occupy my time.

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