Sassafraspete's pork butt saga

slydog · Jan 4, 2005

Re: Sassafraspete\'s pork butt saga

( I made a passing comment to my wife about your southern tradition, and behold...she drags a bag of dried blackeyed peas and says that sounds like a good idea.)

We too had the traditional, southern, black eyed peas for New Years day, but for the taste we actually prefer Purple Hull peas. They are a variety of black eyed pea, but they aren't nearly as mushy and mealy tasting as dried black eyes. I can eat a pot of purple hulls and a pan of good buttermilk cornbread for a meal! I've got a great recipe. (Not the gummy, hard, deep yellow cornbread like you get at most restaraunts, or in a cornbread type mix! That ain't good conbread). If you don't like black eyes, and you've never tried purple hulls, I think you would definitely have a change of heart if you tried some.

Kenny

sassafraspete · Jan 4, 2005

Re: Sassafraspete\'s pork butt saga

Well, I came home late from work tonight, and had what else? .... a BBQ sandwich with some soup. Trying to wind down now , and caught up with today's posts . You guys are getting me all fired up again!

What is it with guys? Give them a hunk of meat and some fire....it's gotta be a man thing , right?

I'm still trying to picture Jeff's 250 butt event.... I'd like to see that one. I bet those guys on the VFD are good with that much practice.

I will have to try the OAK. Now would that be red oak, white oak, chestnut oak, pin oak, swamp oak, black oak....or what? We probably have more oak trees here where I live than just about any other tree. My take on oak , is that it probably has a stronger smoke, than say a fruitwood. It has a lot of tannic acid. I like the smell of fresh split white oak, but I can split some fresh red oak, and that sitting around in the woodpile drives my wife crazy...doesn't like the smell of it. It takes awhile to cure out and the smell to mellow out. I would think pecan and hickory would probably be similar in terms of smoke. In fact, I have heard people call our hickory lumber , pecan sometimes. As for the nuts, pecans are good, but hickorynuts have the best taste in my opinion. What do you think , Hickorynut? Maybe because I am a yankee and pecans don't grow too well here. Just make sure
you eat the shagbark hickorys....as those other ones will make your mouth pucker up worse than eating a green persimmon or a mouthfull of alum.

And Dave, I had to read your post a couple times... as now you got me wanting to try brisket. Ok, already planning the next experiment...brisket and oak.

Now Egon....what the heck do you use up in Canada to burn. Can you use pine, or does that have too much tar. Would you use alder, poplar....maple? What kind of trees you got around you that you could use?

OK, here's a great BBQ book you guys might be interested in getting. Steven Raichlens's "BBQ USA" .....425 fiery recipes from all across America. He goes all across America and shows BBQ places, what they cook, and how they cook it....with recipes to boot. If you can BBQ it....then it's described in this book and tells you where. I liked all the pictures, and reading how people in different parts of the country set up their grills, etc.

To heck with that prime rib....I am now on a quest for brisket.....just have to figure out what kind of oak it's going to be....

sassafraspete

sassafraspete · Jan 4, 2005

Re: Sassafraspete\'s pork butt saga

Kenny , the purplehulls your refer to are the same thing that I call crowder peas right? They are milder than the blackeyed peas.

Egon · Jan 4, 2005

Re: Sassafraspete\'s pork butt saga

I use what ever is at hand but prefer willow.

Egon

Bird · Jan 5, 2005

Re: Sassafraspete\'s pork butt saga

( the purplehulls your refer to are the same thing that I call crowder peas right? )

Nope, two entirely different things. Crowder peas are much smaller, different color, more spherical in shape. etc. It appears to me that Kenny may have compared "fresh" purple hulls with "dried" blackeyed peas, and there's naturally quite a difference there, just as there's a lot of difference between the fresh and dried blackeyed peas. The purple hull peas are pretty popular in our area, too, and they seem to sell better or be more popular than the blackeyed peas at the farmer's markets.

When I bought seed for what I'd consider the old fashioned, normal blackeyed peas, they were sometimes labelled "No. 5 california blackeyed cow peas". I'm not sure how many types there are.

My parents moved from Oklahoma to Baltimore when I was a baby and said they couldn't find blackeyed peas in the grocery stores, but someone told them to go to a feed store. Dad said the feed store had them in 100# bags for cow feed, but the store owner opened a bag and sold Dad 5# of dried blackeyed peas. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Panache · Jan 5, 2005

Re: Sassafraspete\'s pork butt saga

(
I'm still trying to picture Jeff's 250 butt event.... I'd like to see that one. I bet those guys on the VFD are good with that much practice.
)

We cook 125 at a time. Our pit is 16' long by 4' wide. We preburn all wood before going under the meat. The meat is cooked for about 8 hrs. We start the fire at noon on Friday with the first batch put on at about 2pm, second batch put on about 10pm, last off about 6am Sat. Start making plates about 8am. Sales start at 10am. Soldout by 1pm. We sell plates w/ beans & potato salad or whole butts. Very few buy just one butt other than the first time. Good for about $4000 profit.

slydog · Jan 5, 2005

Re: Sassafraspete\'s pork butt saga

Bird is correct about purple hulls vs. crowders. When you buy pea's around here during farmers market days, they are referred to as "purple hulls" as they have dark purple hulls that will leave your fingers stained almost black after you shell a bushel by hand /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif They generally run about $18 a bushell, in the shell. ....... just did a google search and found this:
http://www.purplehull.com/growingpeas.htm

sassafraspete · Jan 6, 2005

Re: Sassafraspete\'s pork butt saga

It has been some time since I grew the cow peas. The ones I grew were the California Blackeyed peas, and Mississippi Silver (brown crowder). The crowders were more round in shape like a pea, where the blackeyed peas were more bean shaped (elongated). I remembers some hulls being purple, so I may have planted some of those sometime along the way as well.

Ken's site link was pretty good. One year, I had these 2 beautiful rows of the above 2 mentioned varieties, they were probably 100 ft long and the plants were simply loaded. Before I got to pick them, the deer came in one night and stripped them clean....I mean mowed them down. There may have been a few left behind, but after the second night, they had them pretty well cleaned off. I believe if I was planting deer plots, I would definately throw in some of these because deer love them. Ken's site link showed an interesting double electric fence arrangement....that I may have to try for my garden.

Jeff, do you guys do mail order on the pork butts? Sounds like quite an operation.

We have had rain here like you wouldn't believe....and looks like were in for quite a spell of warmth and rain. I believe if it had been cold, we would have had 3-4 feet of snow here this week. I can run my cooker in the snow and cold....but not in a constant rain.

The weather, the chit chat.... has all got me longing for planting season....and the winter just started. If it has to be winter...then I need some more snow to plow I guess.....bring on some white!!

Egon, I believe I have never burnt any willow wood. The only large willow I have seen around here has been "weeping willow" that people plant in their yard. Most of any wild stuff I see around here is probably more like a bush, and growing in the river bottoms.

Egon · Jan 6, 2005

Re: Sassafraspete\'s pork butt saga

( more like a bush, and growing in the river bottoms. )

Pete, the willow I'm taking about grows like a bush and will have some trunks of maybe 6 inches. They only grow about 20 feet tall at best and prefer wet ground.

Egon

Panache · Jan 6, 2005

Re: Sassafraspete\'s pork butt saga

( Jeff, do you guys do mail order on the pork butts? Sounds like quite an operation.)

I'm sure something could be arranged for a price. Where in Southern IN are you?