Pulled Pork

I'm a Southerner at heart even if I don't live below the Mason-Dixon Line, talk with a slow drawl, or closely follow NASCAR. I love BBQ, and in particular, I love pulled pork. Having finally gotten a crock pot, I got a good recipe from a coworker and set out to make some on my own. For those not familiar with pulled pork, you don't just make a little pulled pork. You shred an entire pork shoulder and make many pounds of it. It was really easy to make, but it takes all day to cook. While I enjoyed plenty of it on a bun and slathered in BBQ sauce, obviously some was set aside for deep frying the following night.

Here's the recipe I used:

5-6 lb. pork shoulder/pork butt
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 cup ketchup
2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup tomato paste
3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
3 tbsp mustard
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp garlic powder
pinch cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
3/4 cup water

Place onion on the bottom of your slow cooker. Place pork shoulder, trimmed of any obvious excess fat, into slow cooker on top of onions. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all remaining ingredients to form the barbecue sauce. Feel free to adjust salt and pepper to taste, if necessary. Pour half of the sauce over the pork and cover. Set remaining sauce aside. Cook over low heat for about 8 hours (or according to your slow cooker's presets). Remove pork to a large bowl and shred with two forks. Transfer meat back into slow cooker and cook for a few more minutes, until meat has soaked up the sauce. Pulled pork can be held on the "warm" setting in the slow cooker for serving. Serve on soft sandwich rolls, topped with extra barbecue sauce.

The pulled pork was delicious, even though I forgot to add the brown sugar and was out of cayenne pepper. As an added bonus, the recipe left me with plenty of extra BBQ sauce to put on other stuff after the pulled pork was gone.

I wasn't too sure how well this was going to deep fry though, given the messy, runny nature of pulled pork. I also didn't initially know what type of batter to use. Bread crumbs didn't seem like they would contain a ball of pulled pork. Tempura or a beer batter didn't seem right either. And pancake batter seems much more suited to sweets. I though I had a good solution though: cornbread mix. I wouldn't simply coat it in egg and then dredge it through cornmeal though; I would make cornbread as if I were making hush puppies. Cornmeal mix is viscous and I figured that had the best chance of holding in a ball of pulled pork. And if it didn't work, hush puppies would go great with pulled pork regardless.

After making the mix, I experimented with some pieces of salami that were in the fridge, covering those in mix and frying until they looked done. (They obviously were not cooked quite enough, as you'll see in this next picture.) I also made a few plain hush puppies and fried some cubes of sharp cheddar. The salami didn't change much, and cheese was tasty, but not as good as mozzarella sticks.

I kept the pulled pork in the fridge. I'd thought about freezing some so I could shape them into balls more easily, but I just stuck with the fridge. I tried to ball up a little bit of pork tightly and surround it with corn meal mix, but this wasn't very easy or effective. I ended up with a ball of pork and cornmeal mix all jumbled up and dropped this into the fryer. What you see below was the result.

It didn't maintain its shape, but at least it all held together in one clump. It was not terrible, but deep frying didn't do the pulled pork any favors. It dried it out too much. If I'd been able to fully enclose it in within a hush puppy, that probably would have helped, but overall the pork starts out so succulent that it's a shame to fry off all that moisture.

Have you ever had a plate of nachos with pulled pork added? This reminded me of that. The pork still tastes good, but it seems out of its element — overheated and a little dry.

Hoping to redeem myself from that last experiment, I decided to go a little simpler and fry up a hush puppy, cut it in half, and use it as the bun for a pulled pork slider. The first hush puppy I made for this attempt turned out to be the perfect shape. It had a wonderfully rounded top, but a flat bottom, an ideal bun.I added some extra BBQ sauce to the slider.This was delicious and really felt like the way pulled pork should be enjoyed. Thinking back, it might be worth it to try deep frying pulled pork again using flour, egg, and breadcrumbs. While I initially worried about that coating not holding a ball of pulled pork together, I realized that in my one attempt deep frying macaroni and cheese, using the breadcrumb mixture created a nice mortar that I could use to ball up a small handful of elbow macaroni quite effectively. This might still dry out the pork too much, but maybe I can combat that by adding extra BBQ sauce.

I realize posts are getting more and more spread out, which is partially because I'm spending more time frying the really good stuff (mostly fish and mozzarella sticks) and less time experimenting. The Fry Gal and I will be welcoming another guest soon, however, who will be frying up some Asian cuisine with us. While the full menu isn't yet settled, I'm especially excited for the appetizers: crab rangoon and spring rolls.

Dress Rehearsal

I got a call from Ashley a couple weeks ago, and she had an exciting opportunity to tell me about. You already know she is a fan of the blog, and her sister is a fan of the blog, but it turns out her dad is also a fan. What's more, Bernie English is the general manager of a the Orchards Hotel in Williamstown, MA. In the midst of planning a Halloween event for his guests, he thought a fun way to push it over the top would be to instead push it Off The Deep End.

So, Ashley was calling me up to offer me the chance to drive out to The Orchards in Williamstown and deep fry Halloween candy for a party. I was a little nervous at first, and wasn't sure I could make it work, since it is happening on a Thursday night. I've also never tried deep frying for a large group before, and I didn't know if I could keep stuff coming fast enough for the masses. But, according to Google Analytics, readers on six continents have read my posts. Now here was my chance to bring delicious deep-fried fare straight to my adoring fans. I realized that there was no way I could let this opportunity pass me by. I didn't want to end up like Harry at the end of Dumb and Dumber saying, "Don't worry, we'll catch our break too. . . just gotta keep our eyes open."

I met up with Bernie one weekend when I was traveling up to Williamstown, and we hammered out the details. I also got to meet the chef and I got a tour of the kitchen. I got to see the "small" deep fryer that I'd be using, which was still much bigger than mine, leading to a bit of deep-fryer envy. It did however, allay my worries about not being able to cook enough food quickly. I'm very curious to see the bigger one.

In preparation for this event, I figured I should do some practicing. My roommate, and I decided to cook corn dogs for dinner, and then I bought a ton of candy at the supermarket. I bought so much candy, in fact, that I felt I should reassure the cashier that don't generally eat like this. I won't list everything I bought, because I didn't get around to trying it all . . . but I will eventually.

For dinner, we started with corn dogs. In my last corn dog attempt, all the pieces tasted good, but they didn't stay together at all. I theorized that I should have made the oil hotter. I cooked it at 350F last time, but cranked it all the way up to 375F this time. The batter is the same as last time: a box of Jiffy corn muffin mix made following the directions on the box. And here we go. . .

First try: This one looks more like an ear of corn than a corn dog. But, it stayed on the hot dog, so, this is a good start.

Second try: Not totally covered, but it was a more even coating. We're getting there.

Third try: This time I rolled the hot dog in flour before putting it into the cornmeal. It looks very pretty, with the only real flaw being that crack down the center.

Fourth try: I also used flour on this one, and it looks beautiful if I do say so myself. Again there was a small crack, but otherwise it looked really nice and that crack didn't effect the stability of the corn dog.

Here is a delicious-looking cross section.

What did we learn? Well, corn dogs are awesome, but actually we already knew that. We did learn that 375F is definitely the right temperature, and a light layer of flour on the hot dog is clearly a good idea. Interestingly, it didn't seem like the flour was helping right after applying it, because then the corn meal seemed to slide off the hot dog even more easily. The corn muffin mix starts to stick after a little bit though, and the pictures certainly show a clear difference.

After making four corn dogs, I used the rest of the corn muffin mix to make hush puppies. I didn't quite get the shapes right, but they were good.

Then it was time for dessert. I had sent out an open invitation to a bunch of people to come eat fried candy with me, but aside from my roommates, only my friend Norman showed up. Norman is quite the chef, and is the author of monday night menu, a food blog that is slightly more sophisticated than mine.

I started with a 3 Musketeers bar. This was tasty, but I don't think deep frying added much too it. It might have actually made it a little less fluffy than a 3 Musketeers normally is. I certainly didn't complain eating it, but it didn't blow me away.

Next, I tried a marshmallow. I had been wanting to try this (and eventually a s'more). I stuck the marshmallow on a skewer and rolled it in the batter. The marshmallow expends like you'd expect, so it pushed its way out of the batter shell slightly. This was good, but it didn't change substantially. The marshmallow itself tasted like a marshmallow that had been blown up in the microwave, only it had a delicious coating on it. Looking back, I missed a chance here to put sprinkles or something else on the outside of the batter. I think that could have made a huge difference here.

Norman, meanwhile, tried a Baby Ruth, and he really liked how toasty the deep frying made the peanuts. Dan deep fried a Twinkie, one of his favorite deep fried treats, and Tyler got a little creative. He folded up a slice of white American cheese, dipped it in the batter and deep fried it. I should note that Tyler is a very picky eater, and he loved American cheese dipped in pancake batter and deep fried. This gave me a lot of confidence that whatever I deep fry for the hotel guests, they are going to like. He also dipped a colby jack cheese stick in the same batter and fried that. I tried bite of both of these things, and I also thought they were quite good.

Then I tried a Snickers bar and added a little powdered sugar for good measure. This was good, and I've had a lot of debates with people about which would be better, a Milky Way or a Snickers, but this is actually this first time I had tried the Snickers. I always said I thought I would like the Milky Way more, and after trying both, I do, in fact, prefer Milky Way. The Milky Way is a simpler, and it really gives the caramel center stage.

I finished up with a Milky Way covered in rainbow sprinkles. Although it still wasn't as good as the cookie dough, it was totally delicious, and the sprinkles definitely improved an already delicious deep-fried Milky Way.

Norman deep fried a Butterfinger covered in sprinkles, and he liked it, but it turned into a very different candy bar after coming out of the oil. All those flakes fused together in a solid core that Norman was chewing on for a while.

We didn't try a lot of what we had bought, but I was very full and from what we had tried, I was very satisfied that I could deliver a delicious, fattening, evening of snacks to the Orchards guests.

In addition to this round of practice deep frying, I also had officially-licensed Off The Deep End postcards made up to give out during the event. And, I am told a couple of different media outlets will be covering the event. This could be just the exposure I need to get that seventh continent. (Deep frying is very warm, so you'd think it'd be a popular activity in Antarctica.) My write-up will be the next post, and as of press time, the party begins in one hour!

Corn Dogs

I've been excited for this one ever since I got a deep fryer. I love corn dogs. I used to eat a ton back in high school. I think my family used to buy them in packs of 20 or maybe 40; I don't exactly remember, I just know we always had a lot of them around. They microwaved in 1:05, (The package said one minute, but the extra five seconds really puts them over the top!) and they were basically the perfect snack for late night after a party, in the afternoon, and once in a while I even ate them for breakfast. After hearing this, my high school baseball coach once remarked, "You're going to die a very young man."

Upon starting the blog, I realized a lot of stuff gets deep fried on a stick. But, ridiculously, I couldn't find normal popsicle sticks anywhere in Boston. After checking out several supermarkets, a Target, and a craft store, I hadn't found any. This delayed my first attempt at corn dogs until I finally found 50 in a hardware store. Soon after, my Mom found a ton at a dollar store (200 for a dollar!). Aren't Moms great! Bottom line is, I now have 650 popsicle sticks, so that shouldn't be a problem for me for a long time.

Once I had the popsicle sticks, I bumped corn dogs up to the top of my deep frying list. You can find a lot of different corn dog recipes out there. This recipe is amazingly easy -- exactly what I am looking for in a recipe! And it was perfect since we always keep Jiffy corn muffin mix in the house. I'll even post the full recipe here for you:

1 pkg. Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix
1 pkg. hot dogs
Mix corn muffin mix following directions on box. Roll hot dogs in batter. Deep fry.

Rolling them in the corn muffin mix was easy enough, although it was slightly challenging to get a full and even coating over the dogs. Like my last post, I used one Hebrew National dog and one Nathan's dog.

The only problem is that it didn't say what temperature to use. Normally, I would just go straight to 375F with that, but since I had just cooked the rippers at 350F, I decided to put these at 350F as well. I think this wasn't the right call. At first, the corn dogs looked like they were cooking great. But, a couple minutes in, the corn meal opened up and fell off the dogs. I suspect that if I had cooked them at 375F, then they would have hardened a little more on the outside faster, and they would have stayed on. So, although I haven't proved it yet, from this, I may have stumbled upon another rule of thumb for deep-frying: When in doubt, max out the temperature (375F). I am looking forward to trying this again soon, and seeing if that works. If it doesn't work, my next variation will be to roll the hot dogs in flour first to help the corn meal stick.

Despite them falling apart slightly, I enjoyed these a lot. It was a little bit of a letdown, since I had been so excited, but I am now motivated to try these again soon and get it right. Again, I liked the Nathan's dog more than the Hebrew National one, but both were good.

After the cooking the tempura veggies that weren't that great, the rippers that didn't rip, and now the corn dogs that fell apart, I was feeling like I was in a bit of a deep frying slump. To help get me back on track, I used some of the corn meal batter I had mixed to make hush puppies. These were excellent just like last time, and right off the bat, I was able to make nice round ones, so I felt good about that.

I was still left wanting to try something else though. I took a quick look through the refrigerator, and saw some leftover macaroni and cheese. This recipe for deep fried mac and cheese specifically mentioned chilling it overnight before coating and deep frying, so I felt good about this one. Also it is a bread crumb recipe, which I think always get the job done.

When I removed chunks of the mac and cheese from the container, they would start to fall apart almost instantly. When I put them in the flour, they fell apart even more. Then when I moved the loose flour covered macaroni pieces into the egg, they still didn't form easily into clumps. BUT...once I put them into the bread crumbs, I could easily shape them into small little golf ball sized spheres. I cooked these at 350F too (the recipe says so).

These were really good! And, they were made with several day old mac and cheese leftovers. I can only imagine how good they would be if the mac and cheese was a little fresher and a little cheesier. The next day my roommate and I made more of these with the remaining leftover macaroni, and they were again very tasty. So, bread crumbs came to the rescue again in hopefully snapping me out of a mini slump.

For my next post, a friend who is an avid reader of my blog, a blogger herself, and a fellow deep frying enthusiast was visiting from out of town and was excited for the chance to cook something with me. She'll provide some comments as well as we try a new take on two classic kids' breakfast favorites: Pop Tarts and Toaster Strudels.

Hush puppies

The fish were great, but that's not a meal by itself. Traditionally hush puppies accompany a fish dinner, especially fried fish. I'd only eaten hush puppies in restaurants, and I'd never loved them, but they seemed easy enough to make, especially since I was using corn meal anyways.

And these were very simple. basically, you can just follow the instructons on the box for making cornbread, but instead of baking it, you carefully plop big spoonfuls of the mix into 375F oil. the moment they hit the oil, they take shape and start to solidify. They are made a lot like beignets, a New Orleans delicacy (and likely to be a future post). The first couple I dropped in took weird shapes, but after a little practice, I was making pretty nice, spherical hush puppies. Like the fish, these float, so you have to pay attention while cooking and flip them as necessary. And after a couple minutes, they are done.

Also, if you haven't deep fried before, when letting food that has just come out of the fryer cool down, you'll want to lay a couple paper towels on a plate, and set the food on the paper towels so the oil that drips off gets absorbed. This is true for just about everything you'll cook in a deep fryer.

My previous complaint with hush puppies was that they can a bit dense, and not particularly flavorful. Well, these were incredibly soft, fluffy, and surprisingly sweet. They almost had a honey taste. They were incredible, like biting into a sweet cloud. We ended up making way more than we could eat (and we ate a lot), and I had some with lunch the next day. Eating them as leftovers doesn't do them justice, however, so you'll really want to enjoy them soon after cooking.

Also, as good as these were, there are countless recipes out there that add jelepenos, bacon, and tons of other things. So, you can expect me to cook more of these soon enough. I just have to catch some more fish first.