I have to admit my inner “Tool Man” wants me to have anything that runs on electricity, but so far I’ve avoided buying that one.  When it comes to pulling pork I’m pretty much a two forks and lots of arm action kind of guy.  I’ve always found my technique to be adequate.  So why try anything else.

I found a good reason to try something else recently when I got an email from the gang at Meatrake offering me a couple sets of Meatrakes.  One for me to try and and another to give away.  I replied and told them sure, go right ahead and send them out.  I mean trying something out for free beats the heck out of buying something and discovering it’s not the product you thought it was going to be.  I have to admit, though, I already knew I wasn’t going to like this “tool” at all and I felt a little guilty accepting their offer.

But, I was wrong…

The Meatrake actually did make pulling the pork a lot easier.  I ripped through two 8 pound butts in around five minutes.  This is pretty fast for me.  I thought it was a great tool and now I’m glad I got them.  I’ll probably use them every time I shred me some meat.

The handles are made from polypropylene and fit nicely into my hands.  I wish the handles were a little bigger around than they are, but it’s not really much of a problem.  The tines are make from professional grade stainless steel and tear through meat with ease.  I was even able to separate the pork fat from the pork using the Meatrakes with very little difficulty.

I suppose I could pad this review with lots of hyperbole and big words of praise. Instead I’m just going to tell you these things work and they work good.  In my opinion they are work $19.95 if you are pulling lots of meat.  You can purchase from Meatrake.com.

Now for the giveaway details.  The rules are quite simple.  Leave a comment on this post with why you want a set of Meatrakes.  Then tell all your friends about it.  Have them come here and leave a reply to your comment.  The person who gets the most replies to their comment wins.  Drawing will be held at Noon (Pacific time) on January 2nd.  Winner will notified via email, so make sure you leave your email.  In the case of a tie, I’m just going to pick someone…

Simple enough?  Ready…set…comment!

(And if you don’t mind would you please retweet for me)

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Writing this blog is a hoot!

Every once in a while someone on Twitter or Facebook will ask a question or post a comment and it triggers something in my brain. It’s just something that happens.  I’m minding my own business and all of a sudden I’m thinking about something different.  A couple of days a go someone on Twitter sent out a tweet about pulled pork and a little while later there was a mention of waffles.  It was lunch time here in Northern California and the Pulled Pork and Waffle Sliders just popped into my head.

But wait, there’s more!

I mentioned the idea on Twitter and there were actually a few doubting Thomas’.  Well, here’s my answer to those that doubted The BBQ Grail!  (You can’t see it, but my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek)

Waffles are breakfast food.  You might eat them for dinner, but more often than not when you do it’s called Breakfast for Dinner.  So the BBQ Sauce had to be sort of BBQ like.  What goes with waffles?  Maple syrup.  So I had to have a Maple flavor in the sauce.  And it had to have a little kick!

Maple Chipotle BBQ Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup onion, chopped as fine as you can get
• 3/4 cup Grade A Dark Amber “Real” Maple Syrup
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon Art of Chipotle Gourmet Paste

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently until combined.  Cook for five minutes.  Using an immersion blender or food processor puree until a smooth consistency.  Let it cool a little and serve.

After making the waffles I let them cool, just a little, on a rack and then cut them into rounds.  Piled the pulled pork on top and spoon the BBQ sauce over the top.  The flavor was spot on.  The waffles were a little wimpy in texture but the waffle flavor complimented the sauce and pulled pork perfectly.  This might make a nice little breakfast treat the next time I need something special.

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• Ezra Pound Cake:  Squash Puppies with Roasted Jalapeno Mayonnaise
• Bo’s Bowl: Monte Cubano
• Cooking By Seat Of My Pants:  Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon
• Ang Sarap:  Grilled Pork ala Pobre
• Culinary Cory:  Grilled Steak House Pizza with Chunky Blue Cheese Dressing
• Pork, Knife & Spoon:  Italian Sausage with Pepper Sandwiches
• Sunshine & Smile: Zucchini: Zucchini & Avocado Cold Soup with Crispy Sticks
• Burnin’ Love BBQ:  National Chicken Wing Day
• AlbuKirky BBQ: Pizza on the Big Green Egg
• I Hope You Are Hungry:  Carolina Style Pulled Pork n’ Slaw

*If you visit in any of these great blogs would you leave a comment you read about them on The BBQ Grail?

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But unlike many of my friends in the BBQ community I don’t rail against restaurants who try to do BBQ.  If it’s really bad I’ll tell them (and you) but I don’t just assume it’s going to be a bad dining experience.  After all I’m a huge fan of the McRib and I did eat and sort of like the Burger King ribs last year.  But today’s dining experience is a whole different ball of wax.  I’m upset and I’m going to write about it.  Please bear with me…

Subway you stink!

Subway!  I’ve been a fan.  Not a huge fan, but still a fan.  But today was probably my last ever journey into a Subway sandwich shop.  Your BBQ Pulled Pork sandwich is a crime.  It’s a crime against pork humanity.  The person who came up with this disgusting sandwich must be banned from every kitchen known to man.  Subway!  You should be ashamed of yourselves.  You owe pork producers and even the darn pigs an apology.

Look I’m not a stupid person.  I know the commercials and pictures don’t often depict the actual products exactly like you get them in the establishment.  But how in the world does the picture on the left even come close to what I actually got for a sandwich?  Come on really?

When Carl’s Jr. drops that nice big $6.00 burger on the commercials it at least has some resemblance to the actual hamburger.  But this disgusting mess couldn’t be further from what they advertise.

Smokey?  Not a freaking chance.  There’s not hint of smoke.  Not even artificially created smoke.  Savory?  Who are you kidding.  If I hadn’t had the clerk put some tomato on it, it would have been devoid of flavor.  How bad does something have to be that tomato is considered savory?  Sweet:  Well you got this one right.  It was so sickening sweet that I thought I might go into a sugar induced coma.

It’s my fault.  I set my expectations to high.  After seeing the ad and picture I figured the pulled pork was kept in some type of au jus and was placed on the bread when you ordered it.  How stupid can I be?  Again I didn’t listen to my inner BBQ voice.  You know the voice that whispers in your ear.  “Don’t eat here…”  I walked up to the counter and ordered my pulled pork sandwich and the clerk asked the normal subway question:  “Would you like this toasted?”  I chose to not have it toasted and it was at this point I should have run for my life.  The clerk took out a white cardboard container with already sauced pork in it and popped it into the microwave for 40 seconds.  A microwave! The container of pork had obviously been pre-packaged because it was packed and stuck in the container where it looked like a mass of plastic.

I wanted to taste the smoky, savory flavor so I added no cheese or other toppings other than tomato and a little onion.  I should have added every possible topping I could have because it might have compensated for the mass of crappy sauce covered pork on my sandwich.  Oh wait, you couldn’t call that a mass of pork because then it might have resembled the ad.  No it was enough pork to hold the sauce together and barely covered the meat.

I’m not sure what makes me madder.  The fact that Subway trashed what was beautiful pork.  Or that they just blatantly lied to use consumers about what we were gonna get.  The advertisement is so far removed from the actual sandwich that “creative license” can’t be used as an excuse.  It’s one thing to call something BBQ that isn’t.  But turning out a mess like this sandwich is and tricking people into coming into the store is inexcusable.

You’ve been warned!  Don’t eat this sandwich!  I took three bites and the last picture tells you what I thought of it.  If Jared had any self-respect they’d pull this sandwich off the menu immediately.

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Coming up with new ways to use BBQ leftovers is always a fun thing to do.  This time I decided pulled pork in a fried quesadilla was the way to go.  Normally a quesadilla has cheese in it.  But because I wasn’t sure how the tortillas would stay sealed when fried I didn’t include cheese.  Since they stayed sealed I’ll be making these again with the cheese inside.

Take each of the uncooked tortillas and cut them into quarters.  Place about a 1/4 cup of pulled pork on each quarter.  With a wet fingers dampen the edges of the tortilla.  Make sure it’s good and wet.  Fold the one side over the other and crimp all the sides.  Make sure you seal the edges tight.  This will make a nice little pillow of pulled pork and tortilla goodness.

Fry the quesadilla in hot oil (about 350 degrees) for a couple of minutes on each side.  They’ll puff up and turn a nice golden brown.  It doesn’t take long so keep an eye on them.  Drain on paper towels.  Enjoy!

I made a little easy guacamole by cutting up an avocado and adding some diced tomatoes and cilantro.  I added a little chipotle mayo I had in the refrigerator.  This added a nice flavor and some creaminess.

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There’s a voice in my head that I hear when I’m thinking about eating at a BBQ restaurant.  I call it the BBQ Force.  It steers me away from horrible dining experiences.  Yesterday was one of those times when the Force spoke to me.  I should have listened.

I pulled into Smokey’s Kitchen and performed my normal “check list” inspection.

• Smoker visible –Check
• Smoke visible from smoker –Nope
• Woodpile –Nope
• Smell of BBQ –Nope

It was at this point the voice began whispering to me. “Larry!  Don’t go in that restaurant.  You’ll be sorry.   Larry…use the Force.”  I didn’t listen to my inner BBQ voice and parked the car and walked in.  And that’s when Smokey’s Kitchen in Truckee, California failed the final part of the “check list.”

• Smells like smoke –Nope

My Inner BBQ voice tried once again.  “Larry!  It’s not to late to leave.  You’ve got to leave now.”  Did I listen?  No, I didn’t.  Should I have?  Yes, I should have.

I checked out the menu board and chose a two meat combination.  When I do try a BBQ restaurant I usually choose pulled pork and brisket.  By having the same meats I have some basis for comparison.  I asked the guy behind the counter if the brisket was chopped or sliced.  Since he told me it was sliced I decided to go ahead with the pulled pork and brisket.  For sides I picked cole slaw and beans.  Cornbread also came with the combo.

It was a beautiful day in Truckee so I decided to sit outside.  It was a few minutes later, when my plate appeared, that I realized I had neglected to ask a very important question.  “Is the meat already sauced?”  It was at that very second I realized my Inner BBQ Voice was correct and I should have listened.

The pulled pork and brisket came covered in sauce.  Take a look at the picture you can’t really tell where the pulled pork stops and the brisket ends.  What a mess.

The meats were cold and lacked any real BBQ flavor.  No rub…no smoke…just sauce.   And the sauce was just a sweet BBQ sauce that lacked any real spice flavor.  Not much better than the generic store bought stuff people find appealing.

The brisket was sliced.  Sliced about as thin as a brisket can be sliced.  Since the slices lacked any trace of a fat cap it appears they use a trimmed flat instead of the whole packer.  There was a little smoke ring on the brisket and some resemblance of bark on the pork but not much.

I love cole slaw!  You’ve got to really screw up to serve a cole slaw I don’t like.  The cole slaw at Smokey’s Kitchen is so full of cilantro that it’s almost inedible.  I’m not one of those cilantro haters.  I love cilantro.  But cilantro doesn’t even come close to matching the flavor profile in the meat/sauce.  It I’d ordered some nice fish tacos this slaw would have been perfect with a little chipotle sauce.  But with BBQ it failed.

The beans were good but the bar, by this point, was pretty low.  They had nice flavor and appeared to have been made fresh.  The corn bread was awesome, the best part of the meal and the only thing I completely finished.

Smokey’s Kitchen has quite an extensive menu.  And there’s a good chance some of the other dishes are good.  But whatever you do stay away from the pulled pork and brisket.

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Combining BBQ with sushi is not an original idea.  I’ve eaten sushi rolls, here in Sacramento, that contained BBQ items, but they really were more BBQ than sushi.  But I wanted to go a different direction. I wanted the finished product to have a true fusion between Asian and American flavor profiles.

To start with I wanted to take the actual sushi rice a different direction.  Normally, sushi rice is seasoned with rice vinegar and sugar. My idea was to use a North Carolina vinegar based BBQ sauce instead.  I picked George’s Original Barbecue Sauce because it has a strong vinegar base but is sweetened with ketchup, sugar and apples.  I thought this would be a great match up with the other ingredients we would find in the sushi restaurant.

In addition to the BBQ sauce I took along some freshly smoked pulled pork and pastrami.  I thought these two meats would give us flavors that were quite different.

With the help of Executive Sushi Chef Ranee Delacruz (pronounced Ronnie) was great to work with.  Even though he had a sushi bar to take care of he was patient and friendly as I tried to convey my thoughts on what was to come.  His knowledge of flavors helped us to come up with great sushi rolls.  The don’t have names yet, but here they are.

This roll had sauted Shiitake mushrooms, garlic, onions and pastrami.  Rolled with a soy wrapper and topped with some avocado.  This roll rocked!  No question this one has a lot of potential.

With this roll we attempted to mimic some of the flavors and textures of a pulled pork sandwich.  I like cole slaw with my pulled pork so this roll included tsunemono.  Tsunemono is a pickled cucumber and worked awesome with the pulled pork.  This gave the roll a little crunch and added a little tartness to the bite.  It was topped with fried shoestring potatoes.

Pastrami, wasabi, grilled asparagus and cream cheese!  Wow what a combination.  We tried all the rolls just as you see them and tried them with some of Chef Ranee’s signature Miso Garlic sauce mixed with a little BBQ Sauce.  It was so good.

I can’t even begin to express how happy I was with the results.  There’s still some additional tweaking to be done and I hope to get the chance to continue working on this project.  Thanks to Jeff, Al and Ranee for a great evening.

“Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to repurpose the incredibily popular McRib that has reappeared in restaurants across the Country. As always, should any member of the BBQ Grail Force become incompassitated or captured the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions…”

There may not be a fast food item more loved or hated than the McRib. It rears it’s head off and onacross the country. No one really knows when you’ll get to buy a McRib, they just appear on the menu board of your local McDonalds. Every few years they appear nationwide in all restaurants all over the country. Suddenly, with little word or fanfare they appeared on November 2nd.

As is often the case a few members of the BBQ Brethren took on the challenge to either repurpose the McRib or some up with your own version. I decided to take the repurposing option. The result is The McRib Three Ways…

              McFlatbread Pizza                                                       McPigs In A Blanket                                                    McSlider

 Taste Results:

McFlatbread Pizza: Actually pretty darn good.  I ate both pieces I made.  The pumpkin BBQ sauce complimented the tomato and worked well with the Plowboys Yardbird Rub.  On a scale of 1 to 10 it was a 7.  Not to bad.

McPig In A Blanket:  It was a little bland until I added the BBQ mustard.  A good dose of sweet mustard will make anything darn near tasty.  This one gets a 5 on the edible scale

McSlider “Pulled” Pork:  All I can say is DON’T foil and cook a McRib.  The texture was all messed up.  The flavor was good, again the coles slaw and BBQ sauce made all the difference.  On the edible scale a 3.