Day of Meat - Pork Shoulder and So Much More!

It all started with the first Day of Meat.  August, 2002.  I was always a meat lover, but not much of a meat cooker.  I held the party, mandated that no non-meat products would be allowed (except beverages), and cooked meat.  Sure, I sprinkled some store-bought seasonings on pork chops, chicken breasts and steaks, but the flavor profile was immature at best.  Fun?  Absolutely!  Start of a tradition?  To be sure!  But gourmet?  Not so much.

A lot has transpired since August of 2002.  Last night, my wife and I hosted the 13th Annual Day of Meat.  The menu has evolved.  The methods of cooking have expanded beyond just the gas grill, and now include the Big Green Egg for smoking, the oven for baking, two slow cookers for, well, slow-cooking and back to the Big Green Egg for grilling.  All the rubs, marinades and sauces are now homemade.  And the preparation, cooking and care/feeding (literally) takes pretty much from 6:00 a.m. until we put our heads down to sleep after the party.  The 13th Annual Day of Meat was a legendary night.  And like every year, I always say that next year, I'll have to one-up it.  But I have a year to think about that.  Let's talk about last night's menu.

Now, to qualify to have a blog entry on this website, I needed to knock off one of the remaining Year of Meat cuts from Paulina Market.  So, let's start with that.  The Pork Shoulder.  I got the biggest one in the display case, which weighed in at a little under 10 lbs.  On Friday night, I put on a rub (a bit of a hybrid Pork BBQ Rub I got from some recipes and trial and error) and put it back in the refrigerator.  Yesterday morning, I got the Big Green Egg going at 275 degrees (low and slow), and on offset heat with apple wood smoke, let it go until it reached 160 degrees internally.  I then wrapped it in foil, and poured some apple cider into the foil, wrapped it tight, and put it back on the Egg until it hit 195 degrees internally.  I took it out, and let it rest for about 30 minutes or so with the foil slightly opened.  And then I started shredding (and snacking).  After removing the bones and fat, there was a heaping amount of pulled pork..  And man, was it good!  I've written about Fat Dan's BBQ sauce before.  Let's just say that I put Fat Dan's (which is a bit more of a Kansas City or Texas style and I must say I hate pigeon-holing it) against a Carolina BBQ recipe I discovered last year.  And across the board from the guests, there was love.  Some for the one, and some for the other.  It was great to see the appeal of two very different sauces, and how people gravitated to both in equal degrees.  Great stuff!

The menu included the following (for all of these, the meat came from Paulina Market, the ultimate partner for the Day of Meat):

• Honey Pork Sticks Slices
• Pepperoni Slices
• Bacon Wrapped Wieners w/ Chili Powder & Brown Sugar
• American Bacon Wrapped Canadian Bacon w/ Chile Powder & Brown Sugar
• Cocktail Meatballs (Slow Cooked in Homemade Chili Sauce and a Wisconsin Farm Cranberry Jam)
• BBQ Beef Brisket (Slow Cooked w/ Homemade Fat Dan's, Onions and Jalapeno Peppers)
• Grilled Boneless Chicken Breasts (Marinated in Homemade Teriyaki Sauce)
• Grilled Paulina Market Italian Sausage (Naked and Wonderful)
• Grilled Skirt Steaks (Marinated in Homemade Maple Chipotle Sauce)
• And of course, the Pulled Pork w/ Carolina BBQ Sauce and Fat Dan's

With the Day of Meat now a thing of the past for 2014, the focus returns to completing the Year of Meat.  And the remaining cuts are starting to dwindle.  I may need a break for a few days, but the focus will return.

48 down, 13 to go!