Pork Tails and Snot
Well today was one of the worst dumping of snot we have had this year, here in the tropics of Canada. That of course wouldn't stop me, especially when I have the worlds best guard dog watching my pit.
Squirrel Killer is ever vigilant against the Master's Evil Minion, Ninja Squirrel.
(For those of you in warmer climes, yes that does read 5 on the Treager and no it's not an error)
In order to enter the "lesser known cut of meat" throwdown I trawled the depths of my deep freeze and came up with some pork tails
The were originally purchased to become flavoring for beans but had long since been forgotten. A quick trip to the butcher netted a few more in order to make a meal.
After a few quick searches around here and on the net on how to treat these bad boys met with little success. However, the education given to me by the brethren led me to treat these like a cross between a rib and some pork belly as they are quite fatty yet also contain a fair amount connective tissue.
First up was a rub with some Plowboy's Yardbird
and one more for good measure
After that it was off to the treager on smoke for an hour and then 225F for another hour.
I knew I wanted to wrap them as I wanted a moist cooking environment to help render some of that collagen for that lip smacking mouth feel. After scratching my head I decided that apple always goes with pork. So a few apples were sliced up and tossed with some brown sugar and cinnamon a few other spices.
The top was dotted with butter, because butter is awesome, and a little cherry coke was added for moisture and I thought it would compliment the apples.
Here's what the tails looked like right before they were placed in the pan
Towards the end of the cook the weather broke and it turned into a nice evening
After the tails hung out with the apples for a couple of hours I took them out of the pan and put them back on the grate and turned up the heat to 375 to have them firm up a bit and to hopefully get the skin a little crispy.
Here was the result
(Please use this photo for judging)
and as for Squirel Killer? Well she took a well deserved rest.
I almost forgot, the apples were fan-farking-tastic! :thumb:
So good in fact that I have them cooling in the fridge so I can remove fat and tomorrow after a quick reduction they will be staring as a waffle and/or pancake topping.