Pork Burnt End... Also Known As Meat Candy

So some of you may have heard of "Burnt Ends" either in person, at a restaurant, or somewhere on the internet. I'd read about them quite a few times, but had never had nor seen them anywhere around where I live. My guess is that it's a down south thing because I live on the west coast where the best bbq is what comes off my own grill and the restaurants are basically a waste of money (in my experience, I haven't tried them all, so I'm sure there's some exception somewhere).

Doing some research, I found that you can make burnt ends out of pork. They aren't really burnt ends, but it achieves a similar goal and tastes incredible. So let's get down to making some cubed meat candy.

What you'll need

• Pork Butt
• Apple Pellets (or Oak or Cherry)
• Worcestershire Sauce
• BBQ Sauce (OMG is best)
• foil pan

Seasonings

• 2tbsp pepper
• 1tbsp chilli pepper
• 1tbsp paprika
• 2tbsp Cumin
• 1tbsp curry powder
• 1/4 cup kosher salt

How it's done

So let's get started. First things first, you may notice the rub is basically my pulled pork rub, but with half the salt. Same cut of meat, same rub, very different flavor. 

The first step is to mix the rub ingredients. 

Step two; get the meat on a pan, douse it in Worcestershire sauce, then rub all of the sides with the rub. For this step, use a jar with a lid for sprinkling stuff because we wanna use the extra rub later in the recipe. 

Next, wrap her in foil and let it sit in the fridge overnight to marinade those seasonings in a bit. 

Okay, times up, turn the grill to 180° and throw her on fat side down

Now, wait till it gets to 170° internal temp with a instant read meat thermometer and take it off... but don't turn off the grill, we aren't done yet. 

Once you get it on the counter, get your slicer out and cube it up. 

Cubed? Alright, next you're gonna add the rest of that rub to the cubes inside of a foil pan. Mix them up really really well, then add about a cup of bbq sauce and mix it in really well too. 

Okay, now there's a few things you can do, I put the grill at 300° and covered it with foil (poke holes in the bottom of the pan on the grill to let liquid drain out otherwise you won't get the nice bark you want. After it's cooked a couple hours, turn it up to about 400, take off the foil top and mix it up every 10 minutes, done when it's reached the desired crunch or crust on the pieces, just take one out and eat it to check. 

And that's it. Serve it up with whatever you like. These taste incredible, and they're pretty simple to make. People will be asking what it is and how you made it, pretty much guaranteed. If you've got a different seasoning mix or sauce you prefer, go ahead and use that. It's a hard dish to mess up. 

#hardwoodsonly

Brisket... The Crowning Jewel Of A Pitmaster's Cookbook

A lot of people want to know how great brisket is made, because that crap your friend put in a crock pot for twelve hours that you courteously forced down your throat can't be what barbecue fanatics rave about. 

A little introduction to this. I LOVE brisket. It's among my favorite things out there. It's amazing, and one of the things you simply can't do any way apart from with wood smoke on a barbecue. It's delicious if made right, and downright inedible if made wrong. This is one of the recipes that my lovely aunt taught me... because she rocks. It's also the most requested thing that I make for parties. So let's get started making mouths water two blocks down from smell alone.

What you'll need

• Brisket, obviously. I buy 15-18lb ones at a store called Cash and Carry, it's a restaurant supply store I believe, that's the cheapest place to get it. I am not super picky about being natural or grass fed or any of that because I don't pay over $3.50/lb, but if you want it to be the absolute best, meat quality is very important and natural grass fed is the best. 
• Oak/apple pellets are what I use

For the seasoning

• 1/2 Cup paprika
• 1/4 Cup black pepper
• 1/4 Cup kosher salt
• 1/4 Cup raw sugar
• 3 tbsp garlic powder
• 2 tbsp Chili powder
• 1 tbsp onion powder
• 1 tbsp dry mustard
• 1 tbsp celery salt
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

For the Spray

• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup beer (I use fosters or tecate)
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce 
• 1 tbsp olive oil

For the Boiling pan

• 24oz beer
• orange
• lemon
• pan from dollar tree

Let's rub it in...

So step one, open up your meat, clean it off and pat it down. Then it's time for the rub. Mix all the seasonings together (I forgot to get a photo of what they look like), then thickly coat the meat, leaving the fat side up. Use your hands to rub it into the meat. 

Let's chill

Now you cover it in foil, throw it in the fridge and let it sit overnight (or at least 8 hours, depending when you wanna start it)

Let's make an atmosphere

So the reason for the dollar tree pan, lemon, and orange is because we actually boil beer, lemon, and orange under the brisket while it cooks. This creates a flavor enhancing atmosphere for the brisket to cook in. 

So, slice the orange and lemon up and put them in the pan, then pour the beer over them to fill it. 

ingredients

What it looks like

Under the grates

Next step... the spray

The spray is very important. It helps give the meat phenomenal flavor while keeping it very moist. It will still develop bark, don't worry, it just helps with it not drying out... not that it's likely it would anyways. DO NOT SHAKE IT TO MIX. I say this because beer is carbonated. You will have spray shooting everywhere... whether or not you're squeezing the handle. Just lightly sway the bottle around and it will mix fine. 

I bought my sprayer at winco, get whatever works for you.

Time to get the party started

Okay, now we turn the grill up to 225° put the meat on, fat side up, spray it all over, and let it go... for about 12 hours, or until it's 197-200° internal temp. Depending on weather this can take longer or less, but you should be cooking it at least 12 hours. Every 45 minutes or so, open it up and spray it with the spray. Here's a progression from a few hours in to completion. It shrinks A LOT.

Last step.

Spray it again once it's off the grill, heavily, on all sides. Then cover with foil and let rest 10 minutes. 

After that, slide and serve, you can make burnt ends out of the flat if you want, I'll have another guide for that another time. 

This stuff is heaven. I'm getting hungry writing this blog... good thing I have some pork burnt ends on right now. Enjoy. Make your friends think you're some genius pitmaster, let me know how it turns out for you.

#HardWoodsOnly