Guilty Pleasures

[HutchFan]

Do you have more Memphis style BBQ in northern Georgia? It's predominantly Kansas City style here, but I prefer the vinegar based Memphis sauces to the molasses based KC sauces.

In Georgia, most BBQ sauce is tomato-based. It's often sweet and sometimes spicy. Here, the pork is usually (not always) chopped.

Over in the Carolinas, you'll find "Piedmont-style BBQ." Their sauces are vinegar-based. Some Carolina cooks put mustard in it too. There, the pork is usually pulled.

Edited May 28, 2015 by HutchFan

[Scott Dolan]

Yeah, my wife's favorite sauce recipe uses mustard. It's surprisingly good!

Grape jelly is another surprising ingredient around here. It's quite good as well.

[Soulstation1]

Example of guilty pleasure

Saturday Night Fever

[Van Basten II]

All of this pulled pork talk has me wondering…how, exactly, is it a guilty pleasure? Aren't guilty pleasures supposed to be things that are normally considered unsavory or embarrassing, yet you take pleasure in indulging?

In the context of trying to eat "healthy" these mofos don't exactly fit the bill

[Scott Dolan]

?

Most cuts of pork are the leanest meat you can find. We're not talking about bacon here.

[Van Basten II]

Fat wise it ain't bad but it's not the only element of the equation , check out the sodium level, also have you seen the size of the sandwich in question , pretty sure it is way over the 250 grams which is about 9 ounces.

Nutrition Facts

Pulled pork, with barbecue sauce

Amount Per

1. 1 cup (249 g)

   Calories 417
2. % Daily Value* Total Fat 11 g 16% Saturated fat 3.5 g 17% Polyunsaturated fat 1.9 g Monounsaturated fat 4.5 g Trans fat 0 g Cholesterol 87 mg 29% Sodium 1,658 mg 69% Potassium 759 mg 21% Total Carbohydrate 47 g 15% Dietary fiber 3 g 12% Sugar 38 g Protein 33 g 66% Vitamin A 13% Vitamin C 0% Calcium 11% Iron 17% Vitamin D 5% Vitamin B-6 30% Vitamin B-12 16% Magnesium 13%

Edited May 29, 2015 by Van Basten II

[JSngry]

This last one, we just slow cooked it in the oven with a good rub and pot-roast vegetables, and then Brenda took the drippings and made gravy.

Sauce is optional at best here (I've grown to be a bit ascetic about sauce on barbeque, as the smoke and the rub as it has taken hold on and in the meat and its moistness should be the purpose of the taste), but if there's no smoke but there is gravy, it's on.

Open-faced pulled pork on wheat bread with gravy (which is full of onions, carrots, and such) that's been bumped with a generous pouring of Sontava Habanero, mmmm....like Monday lunch Sunday pot roast leftovers, only with juicy tender well-rubbed pulled pork, and a richer gravy that a pot roast would ever care to bargain for.

[HutchFan]

This last one, we just slow cooked it in the oven with a good rub and pot-roast vegetables, and then Brenda took the drippings and made gravy.

Sauce is optional at best here (I've grown to be a bit ascetic about sauce on barbeque, as the smoke and the rub as it has taken hold on and in the meat and its moistness should be the purpose of the taste), but if there's no smoke but there is gravy, it's on.

Open-faced pulled pork on wheat bread with gravy (which is full of onions, carrots, and such) that's been bumped with a generous pouring of Sontava Habanero, mmmm....like Monday lunch Sunday pot roast leftovers, only with juicy tender well-rubbed pulled pork, and a richer gravy that a pot roast would ever care to bargain for.

Man, that sounds GOOD!

[JSngry]

Oh, it's good alright.

That top layer of fat on the shoulder roast surrenders so much flavor and so much richness during the course of a six hour slow cooking, I swear, I've never had such fine gravy. And I've been tempted to take that layer off once the roast is done and attempt some kind of cracklin' thing. But that sounds a little too guilty-pleasure-y, if you know what I mean.

My wife is a vegetarian (and has been for almos as long as I've known her, 30+ years), but she fixes meat like she's some sort of Queen Meat Sorceress or something. I got lucky on that one.

[Scott Dolan]

We're bigger on rubs than sauces ourselves. But, just depends on the mood, and the cut, really. Burnt ends are the big thing around here. I always do sauce on those.

[JSngry]

The whole recoiling-in-horror-from-the-notion-of-sauce thing is, around here, anyway, a fairly recent foody trend. There's a core area down around Lockhart that has always held that position, they're freakin' militant about no sauce, you wanted sauce, go someplace else. And their point about the meat being the thing was and is valid. But it's kinda gotten "trendy" now, and like all such things, I'm indulging in it to learn the lessons its teaching, but hell, sometimes, like the ribs at The Country Tavern in Kilgore, where the sauce becomes as much a part of the rib as the meat itself, and the sauce is THAT good, hell yeah, trendiness be damned, leave that sauce on there, please! And for the local pits that, uh, need a little help sometimes, pass the sauce, please.

What I do like about the no-sauce trend is that it forces the pit-masters to REALLY get it right. The ones who can pull it off, hey, thank you. And those who can't quite pull it off...yeah, pass the sauce, please.

And my vegetarian wife, she's made the pork shoulder roasts I don't know how many times, and Monday just up out of nowhere says, "You think you'd like gravy with this?"

Uh....YES!

[Scott Dolan]

My wife is Italian, and has become the stereotypical Italian mother. She can cook her ass off. BBQ and Asian (mostly Vietnamese and Korean) are her specialties, with Italian simply coming naturally. Since she's really come into her own cooking, that's when we started going rub over sauce. Or, in the case of the chops she grilled a couple of nights ago, a little of both.

But yeah, you really have to have your shit together to get it right using nothing but a rub. I sure as hell couldn't do it, but she can for some reason.

Of course, I don't get to touch the grill either. Well, that's not true. She sometimes lets me take the cover off and turn the burners on.

I'm the prep cook. Hey, I've got no problem with that. I love cutting shit!

[Tim McG]

My wife has taken over as the BBQ chef in our house, too.

At first I felt emasculated....then I had one of her steaks. Ooo...buddy. Seriously good and grilled to perfection.

Suddenly, being the seasoning cook and prep dude wasn't so bad anymore.

Though she does "allow" me to do the Tri-Tip. I still have the magic touch for that.

[Head Man]

My wife has taken over as the BBQ chef in our house, too.

At first I felt emasculated....then I had one of her steaks. Ooo...buddy. Seriously good and grilled to perfection.

Suddenly, being the seasoning cook and prep dude wasn't so bad anymore.

Though she does "allow" me to do the Tri-Tip. I still have the magic touch for that.

I never got past the "filling the dishwasher" phase..........

[A Lark Ascending]

Nil nutrition.

Salt, sugar, fats.....

Generally indulge only at Christmas. But had a packet a few days back. Am now on the waggon.

I'm so rock and roll.

Edited May 30, 2015 by A Lark Ascending

[Scott Dolan]

My wife has taken over as the BBQ chef in our house, too.

At first I felt emasculated....then I had one of her steaks. Ooo...buddy. Seriously good and grilled to perfection.

Suddenly, being the seasoning cook and prep dude wasn't so bad anymore.

Though she does "allow" me to do the Tri-Tip. I still have the magic touch for that.

I never got past the "filling the dishwasher" phase..........

I get to empty the dishwasher, but my wife doesn't let me fill it because I allegedly "do it wrong".

[Tim McG]

My wife has taken over as the BBQ chef in our house, too.

At first I felt emasculated....then I had one of her steaks. Ooo...buddy. Seriously good and grilled to perfection.

Suddenly, being the seasoning cook and prep dude wasn't so bad anymore.

Though she does "allow" me to do the Tri-Tip. I still have the magic touch for that.

I never got past the "filling the dishwasher" phase..........

I get to empty the dishwasher, but my wife doesn't let me fill it because I allegedly "do it wrong".

Right there with you, Scott.

I got "fired" from laundry duty for the same reason. Sheesh.

Though washing one of her favorite wool sweaters then tossing it into the dryer didn't help. It came out five sizes too small. Um...oops.

[Scott Dolan]

I washed a brand new red shirt with a bunch of other clothes about 25 years ago. I wore a lot of pink for awhile, but was permanently relieved of laundry duty...

[johnblitweiler]

I like some Abba and Fugs recordings and don't mind disco music. OTOH friends tell me I would surely like Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello, but it hasn't happened yet.