FOR 36
POOT’S SECRET TENNESSEE BARBECUE SAUCE
HAMBURGER BUNS OR POTATO ROLLS
PAULINE’S DOWN-HOME DOCTORED BEANS
KICK-ASS COLE SLAW
B ring on the guitars and bluegrass music. Ice down the beer keg and pray for good weather, because this rollicking good party, starring real Tennessee smoked pork, deserves an outdoor venue. Nothing makes for a better time than a backyard barbecue. My friend, chef Michael Campbell, who hails from Nashville and has the musical vocabulary to prove it, delights us with this great party every summer, often on the Fourth of July.
Here’s what you need for a real Tennessee barbecue.
A barrel smoker or other real smoker. You can improvise with a kettle grill, but the results will not be as good.
Chunks of hickory wood—it’s the only kind to use. These large pieces do not need soaking ahead of time, but if you are rigging a regular grill to use as a smoker, you will probably use hickory chips, which do need to be wet down beforehand.
A couple of large stockpots. You can probably fit two picnic shoulders in a 4-gallon stockpot, but not three. A second, smaller stockpot will be necessary. Why a stockpot at all?
Traditionally, pulled pork is smoked for at least 16 hours. But Chef Mickey’s adult palate found that after such a lot of smoking, the meat was inevitably dry, and it tasted a lot like wood. Spying a big steam kettle next to the smoker at his favorite barbecue joint, legendary in Tennessee, he realized that professionals were braising the pork first to keep it moist and juicy before smoking it for a couple of hours or less, until imbued with hickory flavor and mahogany brown.
Pork picnic shoulders. Ham comes from the back of the pig, picnic shoulder from the front. The shoulders average 7 to 8 pounds, and if you don’t see it in your supermarket, it should be no problem for the butcher to order it for you. Butchers sometimes call this cut a “Callie.” Each shoulder yields about 12 servings of pulled pork.
Accompaniments to the pork are traditional. The shredded meat, splashed with zesty sauce, is either eaten on a bun with cole slaw or served on a plate with beans, greens, and cornbread. I suggest the buns here, with sides of baked beans, made in a fraction of the time with doctored-up canned beans, a zippy cole slaw, and Southern-style cornbread. For dessert, I suggest Strawberry Shortcake, but peach cobbler, berry crisp, or any ice cream dessert would be just as good a choice.
UP TO 6 MONTHS IN ADVANCE: Make the barbecue sauce. It improves as it ages.
UP TO 1 MONTH IN ADVANCE: Make the Buttermilk Cornbread Squares and freeze them.
UP TO A DAY AHEAD: Make the cole slaw; cover and refrigerate until shortly before serving time. Prepare the beans through Step 2. Bake the shortcake biscuits.
THE MORNING OF THE PARTY: Make the Pulled Pork: Poach the ham shoulders and smoke them while they are still warm. It will probably be late afternoon by the time they are finished, but if you’re serving at night, you can still plan ahead. After shredding the pork, arrange it on heatproof platters, douse the meat with a little of the barbecue sauce to keep it moist, and then reheat shortly before serving in a low oven, being careful that it doesn’t dry out. Reheat the cornbread about 1 hour before serving.
JUST BEFORE SERVING: Assemble the Strawberry Corn Shortcakes.