More Barbecue

We had invited some people over for dinner and I had been fretting about what to cook for it. I had some ideas, but nothing was really coming together. My wife’s original idea when she invited people was to do some barbeque. Initially I had resisted the idea, because I wanted to use this as an opportunity to cook something a little fancier, but by the night before, I had no real ideas and opted to go the barbeque route. I had a small pork loin roast from a whole loin that we had bought and I thought it would do well, but when I pulled it form the freezer, I realized it was a little small. It could feed four people, but I don’t like to entertain and be worried that my guests don’t have enough to eat.

I’ve advertised myself as a home sausage maker and in all of my previous posts, I haven’t actually talked about making any sausage. Since the pork loin was a little small, I decided to supplement it with a batch of sausage. The recipe was based loosely on Bruce Aidell’s recipe for Texas Smokey Links. Texas Smokey Links are a spicy pork and beef sausage from Texas and are traditionally smoked before being grilled. I didn’t have time for prolonged smoking, so I opted to do a fresh sausage that I would grill over charcoal with a bunch of hickory chunks thrown in for a smokier flavor. The sausage themselves was one third beef and two thirds pork. It was flavored with coriander, cloves, allspice, salt, black pepper, mace, and red pepper flakes. I went a little light on the red pepper flakes because the barbecue sauce I made was actually a little spicier than I thought it would be. I also inadvertently went a little heavy on the black pepper, but that ended up being a good thing and gave the sausages a distinct bite. I stuffed the sausages into medium hog casings.

On the side, I did some pretty traditional side dishes: corn on the cob, potato salads, home made baked beans (with the last of the home-cured bacon), and tomato salad. I brined the pork loin in 3/8 of a cup of salt and about ¼ of a cup of sugar and let it sit for about 2 hours before putting it on the grill. Pork loin isn’t normally my cut of choice for barbecue, because it is so lean and doesn’t do well with prolonged cooking times, so I opted to cook this over medium heat and planned on letting it go about 90 minutes (it was about 2 ½ pounds). I used about 25 charcoal briquettes at one side of the grill and put the pork on the other side. I also added a fair amount of hickory chips which I had soaked in water to get the requisite smoked flavor. I didn’t do a dry rub on the meat but hoped that the brine would season it enough. The sugar in the brine would also help to get a nice caramelized color on the outside. I let the roast cook until it reached about 155 degrees, and then took it off of the grill and let it rest for 10 minutes. During that ten minutes, I put the sausage on the grill (on direct heat) and added a lot of hickory to get the smoke going again. A couple of the sausage did burst but they held together fine and the internal texture was very nice. I had soaked the casings for about 90 minutes prior to stuffing them, which helps to make the casing a little less tough (smoking can also toughen casings).

The pork was perfect. It was well cooked, but still moist and had a distinct smoky flavor. The sausages were delicious, and the amount of extra black pepper gave them a different bite than the red pepper in the sauce. The beans were also fantastic. Home made beans may not look as perfect as canned, but the flavor is certainly better. The corn was a super sweet white variety that lived up to its name.

The previous evening, I had talked to one of our friends who was coming over and he said he would pick up some Full Sail Session lager (although he did remind me later that the it doesn’t actually say Full Sail on it, so it was a little tough to find). I also had some Pilsner Urquell and my homebrews. The Session lager continues to be a favorite beer for barbecue. It’s easy drinking, very effervescent, which makes it lively, and uncomplicated. It’s a great beer with food. It has enough flavor so you realize you’re actually drinking something, but is light enough to not get in the way. We tried a few other things on the side at times (like homebrewed IPA and Dubbel), but the Session was the clear winner.

I had initially talked about making some kind of fresh fruit dessert, but I got started late and we were serving at 3:00 in the afternoon, so we copped out and took the easy route: store bought ice cream with homemade caramel sauce (which is far superior to anything you can buy and a snap to make).

I had made about 3 pounds of sausage, which ended up being 14 links. I only cooked 6 of them and wrapped the rest up in two 4 packs. I had initially thrown them into the freezer, but our friend who brought the Session lager, also brought us a pack of Zweigles White Hots from a recent trip to Rochester. Zweigles is an upstate NY specialty. They’re a brat-like sausage that, despite its name, isn’t hot. They also make up the famous Garbage Plate (originated at Nick Tahou’s). A garbage plate is a combination of macaroni salad, French fries, baked beans, two white hots (or alternatively two red hots) all covered with a chili-like sauce. I’ve never had the original, but our friend has described them to me in great detail (he grew up several blocks form the original Nick Tahou).

Because he was kind enough to give them to us, I traded him a four pack of the Texas Smokey Links. After all, I do have leftover baked beans, and David Rosengarten has a recipe for the chili-like sauce in his fabulous book, It’s All American Food, so with Zweigles White Hots, we’re almost there.