Smoked Pork Rib End Roast

I am uber-lucky, and live next door to some astounding neighbors who are not only adventurous foodies, but also hail from pork-butt-smokin’-country.  This means every now and then, I get to inhale the aromas of wood on coals and sizzling pork fat as a big ol’ pork shoulder cooks low and slow to perfect, tender, smoky barbecue perfection.

It is maddening, in the most perfect and positive way.

All winter, I dreamed of smoking my own hunks of beef and pig and cluck and moo and fish and PORK.  Ribs, butts, picnics, roasts, bellies, and did I mention pork?

One impulse trip to Home Depot later, I came home with a MasterForge vertical water smoker ($60), a charcoal chimney, bag of Stubbs charcoal, and some apple and hickory wood chunks and started reading.  I browsed forums and recipes (and let’s be honest, I’ve seen every season of BBQ Pitmasters with that talented cuss Myron Mixon) and played around with some different things — lamb ribs, pork ribs, making my own BBQ dry rubs, and even a pork picnic roast.

As the long weekend approached, I was on a quest for the perfect pork butt for some pulled pork to feed friends and family before fireworks.  I found boneless butts everywhere, but my wallet threatened to kick me in the face if I couldn’t find a good deal!  I was hunting bargains.

As I was trying to figure out if they’d notice me trying to smuggle an 8 pound $25 roast out of the store under my shirt, a young butcher waved me over.  I asked him if there were any deals on pork shoulder, and what happened next amazed me.  The butcher let me know that “tomorrow,” pork rib end roasts would be on sale for $0.99 a pound.

SCORE!

He told me to come back early in the morning so he could “hook me up.”  We finished our dark alley black market pork negotiations and I went home to find out more about this Pork Rib End Roast.

Turns out, it’s a combination of a pork rib roast (almost like a little prime rib of pork) and one side of the pork shoulder where it meets the ribs.

The next morning, I returned to the grocery half expecting to find the butcher wearing a trenchcoat with Super Secret Cheap Pork sewn into the lining.  Pssst!  Lady!  Wanna score some pig parts?

What he did give me were two beautiful pork rib end roasts and a total of 7.5 pounds of porky goodness.  I took them home, unwrapped them, slathered them with yellow mustard and sprinkled them liberally with my homemade dry rub, and wrapped them tightly in plastic wrap to marinate and start to soak up all those flavors.

I wanted to make sure they didn’t dry out on the smoker, so I also wrapped them each in bacon.  Hey, part of that roast is some of the loin and BECAUSE BACON.  Bacon is magic.

Early morning on the 4th, I started the coals and added some persimmon wood (I am learning that fruit woods really make nice smoke for pork and chicken) and put the two roasts on.  Six hours later, I had this:

 

After letting them rest an hour wrapped in foil, I had this:

And after I shredded the pork with my spiffy bear claws, we had this:

Then we had full bellies and got food drunk on smoked pulled pork sandwiches and homemade vinegar barbecue sauce and snacks and sides.  Deeeeeeeelicious!  Oh, pro tip: smoked bacon that then sits in a smoker for six hours so then it is SUPER SMOKED BACON is not deeeeeeeelicious, so it should just be pulled off and thrown away.  Take my word for it.  Learn from my mistakes.

Seven pounds of pork goes a long way.  There have since been pulled pork nachos, more sandwiches, pork as a snack, pork with BBQ sauce in a bowl with a fork, and I think next is pork tacos.  DELICIOUS PIG.

Do you have a smoker? Are you a fan of BBQ? I’d love to hear your BBQ stories!