For a small New Year’s Eve party, a meal cooked primarily in the smoker (tacos with pulled pork, homemade tortillas, and salsas made from smoked tomatillos and pineapples):
23-hour slow-smoked pork shoulder:
- A roughly 7lb chunk of pork shoulder (a.k.a. pork butt) from Niman Ranch
- Dry rubbed with copious amounts of salt and mustard, smoked paprika, and black pepper and let rest in the fridge for 4-5 hours
- Smoked very low-and-slow at 215-225F for 23 hours over lump charcoal with some fist-sized chunks of apple and pecan wood for smoke, until the internal temperature was in the 195-200 range (for overnight smokes I have a ‘baby monitor’-style wireless temperature probe I rest on the bedside so an alarm will ring and wake me up if the pit temperature gets too high or low and I can adjust the airflow or add fuel)
- No intermediate basting, mopping, foiling, etc– just keeping it simple
- Wrapped in foil and let rest for 45 minutes
- It was so tender I could pull off strands by hand, and with a nice ‘bark’ and smoke ring…
It didn’t even need any sauce– I just squeezed a few limes over it.
Smoked tomatillo salsa, a puree of both smoked and raw ingredients:
- 8 large tomatillos, smoked/roasted at about 225F for two hours
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 whole jalapeno
- 1/4 of a large white onion
- Juice of 1/2 a lime
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- Salt and minced cilantro to taste
I’ve tried a few ways of using smoked tomatillos and this is the highlight for me– I’ve even frozen excess in ice cube trays to save for later:
Smoked pineapple salsa:
My friend judit turned me on to how well smoking treats pineapple– the low slow cook caramelizes it, and this sweetness helps balance the woody smoke.
I started by slicing two pineapples into discs and smoking / roasting them at 225F for two hours (at the same time as the tomatillos and pork– in the initial, smokier two hours). I pureed:
- One of the pineapples
- 4 cloves roasted garlic
- juice of 1 lime
And then added for texture/contrast:
- The other pineapple, somewhat coarsely chopped
- 1/4 of a red onion, finely chopped
- salt to taste
The meal turned out really well, if I may say so myself.
Plus, we had a lot of tomatillo salsa and pulled pork left over the next day for breakfast…
The Robot Must Eat 