The roll up to the weekend was like any other but with one exception the sun was shining and we had a visitor in town. It had been a year since I have seen my good friend even though we have kept in touch it’s great to have him back for how long is now the thing.
The week started half gone due to having a holiday weekend which always puts a crunch on things, customers wanting things as soon as they can; if not sooner. I just have to keep on reminding some that as yet I have not learned on how to walk on water and things of quality take some time.
I had to have an order in so I could complete a special order in for four or six shoulders totaling a 100lbs and as things go there was a short time as the pork was needed for the weekend (Friday) and the day was already Tuesday which in fact did not leave me a whole lot of time to have the pork in as only one day grace
Thursday was an exceptionally long day in before eight getting ready for him to show up so that we could spend the day together There was discussions on whys and wherefores and getting up to speed on things before finally getting down to breaking down sides of pork to get the aforementioned shoulders of pork ready
I did three and he did one, for a first attempt it was clean and good (reminder for the next little while to jack the table up as it is set for a short fry ~~ me!) for the first time. Knife skills good; saw ~~~ needs a tad work but then it seems that all of us it was work in progress at the beginning.
Friday came and the four pork shoulders took a journey of their life to join up with the Master, due to time constraints with him running late (not his fault) and me with still 100lbs+ bacon to slice for an order I had to leave before meeting up with him and head back into work with the idea of coming out later to help babysit the meat while cooking and also lend moral support (heck I’m the apprentice this time) As (bad) luck would have it it took me longer than planed and with clean up I was not out of my place until well after twelve midnight and by time I would have taken the drive out it would have been close to two in the morning.
I did make it out by mid morning and spent the rest of the day assisting where ever needed
The only thing that I have regrets is that I was not there from the very start; but maybe later.
I said a year ago that I do not eat ribs; why chew on bones when there is a decent steak to chow down on. As you all know I got converted.
Over the last year I have had my fill (that’s an understatement) of pulled pork on a bun. The biggest problem is that my hopes (and expectations?) have been high ~~ how hard can it be to do pulled pork?? I have spent anywhere from $7 to $13 and each time I take a mouth full but end up tossing it into the trash. Way too dry (like eating sawdust) and taste like sh*te. So with this in mind I was looking forward to what vagreys could bring to the table
The following is a sample of what I have fallen in love with, sorry to say there are not too many photos as I was busy stuffing my face as well as giving help where ever needed.
Thank you vagreys for a wonderful day and and most of all for the most enjoyable pulled pork I have eaten.
Cooking on the smoker
The other side of the smoker
This one was pulled just before I got out there
The smoker
My first sample of a decent pulled pork
vagreys starting to pull the pork
Rough chopping the pulled pork