Going Cuban

msocko3 · May 5, 2015

Got a couple butts just begging to be rubbed and egged.

All trimmed and rubbed down with a paste rub instead of the normal dry rub.

On a different note, if you haven't seen the book, Arron Franklin put out a book. Not a cook per say, he calls it a Manifesto, it's a pretty good read.

Stay tuned for the rest of the cook, they'll be hitting the egg this evening for a nice overnight low and slow. Then tomorrow I'll start putting together the Mojo which will go with the finished pulled pork.

msocko3 · May 6, 2015

Well some good and some bad, the pork turned out pretty good. I wasn't very fond of the Mojo, it just didn't strike a cord with me.

Put the butts on around 9:30 pm.

The smaller of the 2 finished in about 11 hours, the other took 15 hours, but then it was a pretty big one.

Mojo cooking.

If anyone wants to play here is the recipe.

It is 3 steps

Mojo Smoked Pulled Pork from http://www.nakedwhiz.com/ceramic.htm

his recipe for Mojo (moy'-yo) Pork is an adaptation of a recipe generously given to us by Chef Antonio Riaos. We took his oven roasted version and turned it into a low and slow smoked version for the ceramic charcoal cooker or other smoker. As you will see, it is a three-step process: marinate the pork in a spice paste, smoke the pork, and then pull the pork and finish with a sauce.
So real quickly, what is Mojo? In Cuban cooking mojo applies to any sauce that is made with garlic, olive oil and a citrus juice, traditionally sour orange juice. It is commonly used to flavor the cassava tuber and is also used to marinate roast pork. Now that we know what it is, let's cook our version of Chef Riaos' Mojo Pork!
You may wish to assemble your ingredients:

Step 1: The Paste
The first step in making this Mojo Pulled Pork is to make a spice paste that you will use to marinate the pork butt.

Ingredients
7-8 pound pork butt
3 Tbsp ground cumin
3 Tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp dark brown sugar
2 Tbsp crushed garlic
1 tsp Cholula Chipotle hot sauce (the small bottle to the left of the olive oil)
4-5 Tbsp olive oil
Directions
Prepare the paste by combining all the ingredients, adding enough oil to make a thick paste.
Save 2 Tbsp of the paste for making the sauce later.
Rinse the pork butt and pat dry. Place the pork butt on a platter, fat side down. Apply all of the paste to the top and sides of the pork butt.
Cover the pork butt with plastic wrap. This will allow you to push the paste around to get even coverage, and it will make sure the paste is kept in contact with the pork.
Refrigerate the pork butt for at least 4 hours.

Step 2: Smoking The Butt
Once the pork butt has marinated in the paste for a good long while, it's time to smoke the pork butt. This is done just like any other low and slow pork butt smoking you have ever done. We smoked our butt at 230 degrees for about 15 hours to a final temperature of 200 degrees. We happened to use four fist-sized chunks of maple for this particular pork butt, but use whatever wood strikes your fancy.
The set up we used in the photo below was a large Big Green Egg ceramic cooker, a plate setter inverted on the fire ring, a drip pan sitting on the plate setter, a grid on the plate setter, and finally the pork butt goes on the grid.
When the pork butt is done smoking, you don't really need to do any wrapping in foil or resting. We just took the pork butt out of the cooker and pulled it. You are going to drench it in Mojo sauce (the next section) so you don't really need to worry about juices redistributing or anything like that. (You should prepare the sauce during the last 2 hours or so of smoking the pork butt so that the sauce is ready when you are ready to pull the butt.)

Step 3: The Mojo Sauce
Ingredients
2 cups orange juice
1/2 cup lime juice (about 6 limes)
1/2 cup lemon juice (about 3 large lemons)
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup beer
1/3 cup Pyrat Pistol rum
1/2 cup Pinot Noir red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp crushed garlic
5 bay leaves
1 tsp cracked black pepper
1 packet Goya Sazon con culantro y achiote (see the photo of ingredients)
20-30 whole garlic cloves, peeled
2 Tbsp of the reserved paste from step 1
Directions
Add all the ingredients to a medium sized sauce pan.
Bring to a boil and let simmer, stirring often. Allow the sauce to reduce by half. The sauce should begin to feel a bit thicker than it started at this point.
Pull the pork and place it in a aluminum or glass baking dish large enough to hold it all. Make sure you get all of the bark broken up and mixed in with the pork.
Pour the reduced sauce over the pork. Stir it into the pork to make sure all the pork gets coated.
Allow to rest for an hour or so.

FuzzyWuzHe · May 6, 2015

You're killing me .... when I lived in Wisconsin my neighbor was cuban ... used to bring me pork all the time .. man I miss that.

msocko3 · May 7, 2015

FuzzyWuzHe said:
You're killing me .... when I lived in Wisconsin my neighbor was cuban ... used to bring me pork all the time .. man I miss that.

I love me some smoked pork butt

epper:.

FuzzyWuzHe · May 7, 2015

msocko3 said:
I love me some smoked pork buttepper:.

Nobody doesn't love some smoked pork ... I got a yard full of bbq's all bought to get good smoked pork ... finally found an indirect heat one, smoke chamber and fire chamber ... works well ... but i can't figure out what my cuban buddy did, his wife would never tell me the rub/paste she used ... that was some great pork

sgtmitch · May 9, 2015

msocko3 said:
I love me some smoked pork buttepper:.

Well, if I wasn't hungry enough before, I am now after reading that and drooling over the pictures. I'll have to try this one.

One hell of a wrench and a chef to boot! Nice one M3 thanks for sharing..

Papa Zook · May 9, 2015

M3 never fails to deliver on the tech advice or the BBQ. He gets my vote for top contributor! Thanks much Mike!!

msocko3 · May 9, 2015

You all are welcome, 2 things I love, eating and wrenching. I fiddle around with all types of food, sometimes its just a mix from the pantry. Last night I had ground beef and didn't know what to do. Broke out the skillet and started browning some beef.

Once it was browned I added a couple tablespoons of butter to increase the amount of fat, before adding some flower for a roux. Added a touch of tomato paste and a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce along with a little fresh ground black pepper. Then started adding some beef stock until I got to the consistency I was looking for. Put that over some mashed potatoes, wife liked it.