Pork Cheeks Carnitas

While I was eating lunch a few weeks ago, my friend Matt, of Phat Matt's BBQ in Oakland, CA told me he had seen some pork cheeks at his supplier.  I asked him to get me a few, if he bought a case.  Last Tuesday, he handed me a second bag, with the cheeks already marinating in his rub.  Matt uses a salt-free rub on most of his meats, so having them already in the rub is not a concern for moisture.  I made these...

 

I give you...Smoked Pork Cheek Carnitas!  First I smoked them for 2 hours at 225F, this just seemed like a great way to start the process of building and layering flavors.  Here they were on the grill (lower left corner) with yesterday's ribs and a sausage fattie.

These were then cut in half and placed in a pot with some olive oil, sliced onions, Lucky Dog Hot Sauce and at the last minute, some sliced garlic.  As you can see, the meat had a nice smoke ring and texture before ever hitting the oil.

I am not really sure what to do with them just yet.  I let them cool and they are in the fridge now.  I did test them and they were terrific.  I will probably freeze them for later consumption.

Rib Spray-Pig Honey 2

I felt this part of the post about my experiment with 'Pig Honey' deserved a separate post, as I am extremely happy with the results.  One of the things that occurred to me in my quest to create a liquid that would allow me to enhance the natural flavor of pork, was that I did not want a sauce or glaze.  I wanted a liquid that would not only enhance the appearance and bite flavor, but, would mimic and intensify the flavor of the natural pork liquid (''Pig honey') that comes from ribs.  If you have ever cooked ribs in a smoker or on a grill, you have seen this liquid, it looks like a pale yellow foamy emulsion that coats the pork about 30 to 60 minutes prior to the ribs being done. Test one, how does the texture and bark develop, does it burn or hold it's color.  I think this color is perfect. And there were on the fire just a little too long, the color is still excellent.

I really have to stop shooting with a direct flash from 2 feet away, this rib has a beautiful pink color and a smoke ring and some color that clearly showed that the liquid sauce and smoke worked very well together.  This is definitely going to become a regular part of my rib cooking process.

I developed this recipe in the vacuum of now really knowing how I would use it.  I wanted to create a great deal of complexity, while maintaining balance of the sweet, salty and savory flavors, all with an eye towards enhancing the natural sweetness of 'pig honey'. I consulted with a friend, Rob Bergstrom, who is a highly educated scientist and a food enthusiast also.  We discussed the relationship of proteins, sugars, salts and other elements that might contribute to 'pig honey'  Here is the recipe I developed ( which is the same as on the rib post) based upon the knowledge I could glean from him.

Pig Honey Sauce
1 cup apple juice
1/4 cup Red Boat Fish Sauce
1/4 cup Braggs Amino Acids
1/8 cup Honey
1 Tablespoon turbinado sugar

Combine all ingredients and bring to just short of a boil, maintain heat until sugar is dissolved.

Here is the sauce in the dribble bottle, a spray bottle would have been better, but, I don't own one of those yet.

Now, the why...


Red Boat Fish Sauce: a very high quality fish sauce, unique in that it is not only extremely complex in flavor, but, very high in protein and without added sweeteners or preservatives. Red Boat is one of the only brands that can make this claim, with a unique blending process resulting in an artisanal product of singular quality. This gives me control of the sweetness while allowing me to build protein flavor profiles into the sauce.  I wanted animal protein to be a part of this sauce, it was necessary to have the profile I wanted. Unfortunately, fish sauce, all fish sauce, is high in sodium, so I could not use this solely to provide the amino acids that I wanted.

Bragg's Amino Acids is a food flavoring that is unknown to most cooks. One of the great things about this stuff is it is very low sodium and adds a real punch of complexity to any food. This was my solution to adding more amino acids to the flavor profile while limiting additional salt. This worked incredibly well in conjunction with the fish sauce and has been a go to item in my kitchen when I needed the effect of shoyu or tamari minus the wheat or sodium.

The apple juice, sugar and honey all provide additional sweetness with a variety of sugars and taste profiles.  This, too, adds complexity even as it adds sweetness to the mix.  I used just enough to balance the flavors.  The actual finished taste of the liquid is quite balanced without a pronounced sweetness.

Now, I ended up using this as a spray on liquid during the cooking process with four applications over the last 2 hours of the rib cook.  My hope being that I would not only infuse some of the flavors into the pork, but, also to catch the all important stage where I could get the real 'pig honey' to blend with my new elixir. I don't normally spray or mop, but, this was one of those exceptions.

Pig Honey Ribs

On the BBQ forum I frequent, The BBQ Brethren, there is a current thread where one of the members is going through the extraordinary process of testing out all sorts of recipe for sauces.  I submitted one that is unique to me that uses a lot of reduction to create sweetness, texture and complexity.  This spurred in me a new idea, the idea being that ribs can be so good when you get a good rack that gives off what we call pig honey.  It is the mixture of proteins, sugars and rendered tissue that rises to the surface of the meat.  A sauce will not achieve this, but, what if I could find a moisture that would enhance the moisture and appearance of this material. Just posting this to keep you looking...

I decided a start would be to develop a mix of sugars, proteins and lquid that would create a sweet/salty/proteiny blend (how you like that word?).  This would be thin, but, with enough sugar to create a surface glaze.  This would be sprinkled on the meat just as the real 'pig honey' starts to weep from the ribs.  Next, the rack was prepped and the kettle fired up.  The kettle is loaded with the standard Kingsford briquettes and a few lumps of apple wood.

Yes, that is a large cast iron skillet in the bottom, half full of water to add both moisture, catch drippings and act as a thermal mass on the fire rack.  The kettle was stabilized at 235F and had a nice sweet blue apple smoke.  The ribs were Beeler's Heluka breed pork, prepared St Louis style and trimmed up free of loose fat.  I really like this brand of pork, it is always fresh, the fat is clean and white and the meat is very similar to older heritage breeds in that it tastes porky and is well marbled.  Yeah, fat, I get it, just don't eat the whole rack. Here is the raw rack...

The ribs were treated with a no-salt black and white pepper rub (courtesy of a friend just back from Vietnam, Phu Quoc Pepper is the real deal) and then some Simply Marvelous Cherry rub when going onto the grill. The rack was allowed to sit for two hours with a no-salt rub and then 1/2 hour with the Cherry Rub.  Here it is, ready for the grill.

And here is the meat on the kettle, along with a fatty with Salt-free Dizzy Dust (this stuff is great sliced and on an egg sandwich) and some pork cheeks with Phat Matt's Signature Rub, also a salt-free rub. This will end up becoming something more once they get smoked up for a couple of hours.  Pork cheek carnitas anyone?

I digress, so I took the sauce and out it into a bottle with holes popped into the top which would allow me to sprinkle the pork.  The sauce ended up being a thin and very complex liquid that I felt would be best applied during the cooking process.  I then let the ribs cook at 235F for 5 hours and got these out of the cooker.

These were quite good, in fact, the sauce worked just as I had hoped.  The flavor and texture of the bark was exceptional with the possible issue of a little too much black pepper.  These ribs ended up just a little too long on the kettle, the problem with cooking while working, you get on the phone at the worst time.  Ended up the ribs were a little too easily pulled from the bones, which, I am sure many would love. 

Bob's Black Pepper Rub
3 parts medium grind white pepper
2 part medium grind black pepper
1/4 part powdered mustard
1/4 part chile powder
1/4 part lime powder or citrus peel
1/8 part fresh ground nutmeg

Combine all ingredients and use immediately.  This rub relies heavily on the black pepper and loses pungency rapidly. I used black and white pepper from Phu Quoc Island, as this is my new standard for the best black pepper available.

Pig Honey Sauce
1 cup apple juice
1/4 cup Red Boat Fish Sauce
1/4 cup Braggs Amino Acids
1/8 cup Honey
1 Tablespoon turbinado sugar

Combine all ingredients and bring to just short of a boil, maintain heat until sugar is dissolved.  See above for use.  I believe it is important not to boil this mixture as I believe the boil process will cause the proteins to denature and not function in the manner I want it to work.  I have also become aware of the loss of character that fish sauce can suffer when excessively boiled.  I am starting to think it needs to be added late in the cooking process, although I have not discussed this with any scientists.

Kishu Mandarins

I decided to hit one of my favorite places to find groceries, this would be Berkley Bowl, it was perfect timing for me, as I was meeting a friend for lunch (Phat Matts and a brilliant brisket today).  I picked up a baggie of marinated pork cheeks from Matt's over run as well as a baggie of Phu Quoc Island white pepper.  This already started out as a promising run for gathering interesting foods.  Then I saw these at Berkeley Bowl West, a lovely display of kishu mandarins. 

Now, you may be thinking these look just like those Cuties easy peel Mandarins that are in every store, but, these are far from those in a few key ways.  They have a different flavor that is heavily influenced by a strong aromatic component and a flavor profile that is a sweet/sour/bitter balance that creates a much more complex flavor.  In a market space that seems to lean ever more to super sweet, these run contrary to the trend.  I think they are a connoisseurs' citrus.  They are also...tiny!

See that quarter, that is no perspective trick, these little guys are no more than a golf ball in size, and have been cultivated to be easy to peel, seedless and really rather cute.  A perfect snack for a child, or an adult who is willing to pop a half dozen out of their soft peels.  They have a nice tender flesh with a strong aromatic hit even as you are popping one after another into oblivion.

One of the joys of shopping at a location that carries a little more variety, even if sometimes the cost is a few pennies more per pound, is that you find super seasonal and not altogether common treats that are what fruit can be at it's best for those of us who do not live with an orchard in back.  I always find interesting fruit and veggies at these types of stores, this is what being food centric is really all about.

Pork Cheeks and Chops

Well, it is hard to decide, whether this was a miss or a hit.  This is the cook part of the previous post where I had brined some pork chops and pork cheeks.  By now, I had hoped to be back on the kettle, but, the nagging ankle injury remains both nagging and injured.  These little morsels would have been so much better with some smoke and more time.

Here is the finished shot, they do look good.

And the flavor is where I had wanted it to be.  Of course, this was not going to be the hard part, what with brining, then letting them sit in rub for 24 hours and slow roasting them.  The chops got a liberal coating of Simply Marvelous Cherry Rub and the cheeks got a similar treatment but with Simpy Marvelous Sweet and Spicy rub.  Then wrapped in plastic and stored for 24 hours.  Here is what the meat looked like minutes before cooking.

Notice how the cheeks look sort of like little, smooth, pink brains...no?  Perhaps it was just me.  Anyway, as you can see, the rub as dissolved, and I hope gotten into the meat a little.  Good old osmosis, eh?  Into a 265F oven for 3 hours hopefully to mimic the low and slow cooking, if not the actual smoke.  These really miss the effect of smoking over a fire, and I think that is where the disappointment lay for me on this one.  Here are the morsels upon removal.

Not really a failure, just a slight miss.  I think another hour and the use of the kettle would have really helped a whole lot with the texture and an even better flavor.

Pork Experiment

I came into the possession of some exceptional pork chops and pork cheeks, the pork chops are a kurobuta chop I get from the local Japanese grocery store, the pork cheeks came to me via Matt from Phat Matt's BBQ, they were a few chunks that escaped being used for his weekly special.  One of the things I look for whenever buying pork is a bright white fat.  Yellow or cream colored fat means the pork has gotten a little shelf aged.  Here is a shot of some exceptional pork.

The pork was to be combined with a cure, but, I could not find my Tenderquik, so I went with a simple brine of 1 tablespoon Turbinado sugar, 2 tablespoon of sea salt, 1 teaspoon of black pepper and 1 teaspoon of Simply Marvelous Sweet and Spicy BBQ rub.  This was heated until things dissolved, then cooled with ice.

The brine looks a little dark here, more ice was added to get it cold, it is important to get it cold for safety from bacterial growth.  After enough ice was added to cool it, which brought the total water content to 2.5 cups, the whole thing was combined in a vacuum marinade container. I put a plastic sheet over it to aid in keeping the pork submerged.

The top was put on and a vacuum was established to aid in getting the brine into the meat. Once the meat has sits for at least 12 hours, I will take it out and soak it in clean water for at least 8 hours to get some salt out.  This process was started on Friday, so I expect that by Sunday, this meat will be ready for the smoker.  My hope is that I can use cold rainy weather to smoke this in a very moist environment at 200F to 225F and have a few pieces of smoked meat similar to Canadian bacon.  We shall see.

Burger Time!

Some days you just want a burger.  A simple all-American burger is what is needed.  The one problem I have right now, is that I am still nursing yet another ankle injury and cannot get to the kettle for another day.  Still, I needed a burger, cast iron grill pan to the rescue.  One of the most useful implements one can have in the kitchen, in fact, is an array of cast iron skillets and Dutch ovens.  Nothing cooks quite as well as these things.

Here is the burger, a simple 1/3 pound of ground beef, rubbed with my own basis rub, very similar to a Santa Maria rub, with a little added sugar this time.  The patty of beef was 'grilled' in the cast iron on the stove and dressed lightly with some Big Butz Hot BBQ sauce.  Then it went onto a potato bun, with some bib lettuce, tomato and red onion. Delicious, salad, carb and protein all in one.

This makes Bob happy, Bob was also happy with the Hornsby Cider he enjoyed with it.