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View Full Version : Grillin with Soda: 2 Recipes for the Price of One


GrillinFool
06-03-2011, 11:06 AM
In conjunction with Joe Bonwich's article in the Post Dispatch about Ski Soda (http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/food-and-cooking/article_cee9f76e-5c0a-5b6c-acb4-0aa68db52ca8.html), Joe, my dad, and I did some serious grillin with soda. It was an epic day of grilling. The recipes included: soda marinated high heat brisket; soda brined and reverse seared pork tenderloin; and orange soda and hot sauce glazed smoked chicken wings. At one point we had four grills going at the same time.

Only two of the recipes made the article (check the links under the picture on the left). The brisket didn't make the cut. It's not that brisket was bad. In fact it was really good, but the soda flavor wasn't as prevalent in the final product as the other two dishes. I will have the brisket up on the site as soon as I tweak it a little and see if I can bring the soda flavor out more.

For the recipes that made the article, the wings were glazed in an orange soda, hot sauce reduction that also had fresh ginger, garlic, Chinese five spice powder, black pepper and some butter. Click here for the full write up on how to make the sauce and smoke the wings (http://grillinfools.com/2011/05/31/smoked-wings-in-an-orange-soda-and-hot-sauce-glaze/). And here are the tasty pics:


http://grillinfools.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/SodaWings11.jpg

http://grillinfools.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Intro-Shot.jpg

http://grillinfools.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Intro-Shot2.jpg

And then I did soda brined pork tenderloin. I did two different sodas - orange and root beer. The orange turned the meat orange, made it very juice and tender, but nobody could really taste the orange flavoring in the end. The root beer on the other hand made it juicy and tender as well as had the root beer flavor in the finished product. It made an outstanding brine. Click here for the step by step instructions on making the brine, trussing the tenderloins, and doing the reverse sear (and why you would want to do so) (http://grillinfools.com/2011/05/31/reverse-seared-pork-tenderloin-brined-in-root-beer/). And here is some grill pr0n:

http://grillinfools.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Intro1.jpg

http://grillinfools.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/SodaPTL9.jpg

LoveBBQ
06-03-2011, 11:22 AM
Root beer pork tenderloin? :shocked: I'm so there!!! :thumb:

1FUNVET
06-03-2011, 11:35 AM
Something to try this weekend. Love Barq's rootbeer :thumb::thumb:

LoveBBQ
06-03-2011, 11:39 AM
Also, nice note about the Bradford pear. I was wondering if it would be good for smoking! I don't have any at my current house, but with as many times as branches break from those around here I can scrounge some wood up easily!

GrillinFool
06-03-2011, 05:39 PM
Also, nice note about the Bradford pear. I was wondering if it would be good for smoking! I don't have any at my current house, but with as many times as branches break from those around here I can scrounge some wood up easily!

I stopped my FiL's that morning to grab something I had left there the night before and I see all these branches he had trimmed off a Bradford that were encroaching on a walking path to the back deck. My eyes lit up as I LOVE pear wood. He fired up the table saw and we chopped nearly ever decent size branch into chunks and threw them in the back of my SUV.

And don't stop with ornamental pear. Crab apple, double blossom cherry, etc, can be used exactly like regular apple and cherry.