I like my rub the same way I like my men. . .

Hot and Spicy!

The 4th of July holiday weekend I decided to try my hand at smoking meat. Pork butt to be specific, AKA pulled pork.

Let me start at the beginning. First, I had to get a smoker. I did.
Then I had to put it together. That took two days! Note to self: Don't try following directions and pictures after drinking a margarita or three. (Click here Perfect Margarita Recipe.

Sunday morning I managed to take the smoker apart and put it back together again so by late Sunday morning I was ready to cook some meat.

First step in smoking pulled pork is soaking the meat in a brine.

Brine Recipe:

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sea salt
4 cups water

Soak meat in brine for 4 hours upto overnight.

Then you have to rub the meat. Now be careful here. If you rub the meat right, uh, wrong, this could cause excitements and giggles. Oh! And it will definitely be messy.

Pork Rub Recipe:

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup paprika (half regular paprika/half smoked paprika)
3 tablespoons sea salt
2 tablespoons black pepper
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons dry mustard
2 tablespoons Mexican chili powder
1 teaspoon white pepper

Once you have throuroughly rubbed your meat, you then are ready to smoke it.

To smoke the meat you heat up the grill to 220 to 230 degrees. The charcoal (which is the only thing I use...no gas for this girl) is heated up to the side of where the meat will be placed to cook. This is indirect heat. No flames are allowed to kiss this butt.

Depending on the size or weight of you meat you will be slow cooking AKA smoking the pork for at least 4 to six hours. The key to making this fun is to invite a few friends over to keep you company. That and bring out the beer.

About the time you finish one beer you will want to go back and check the heat, more than likely add some more charcoal to the fire. Sometimes my heat got a little too hot, well, duh, we are talking about me. Of course the meat got overheated.

Not to worry, just walk away slowly, no swish in your hips, have another beer and the next time you visit the meat its temperature will be back down to warm and not smokin' hot.

The pork is ready when it's meat thermometer says 160 degrees or when you can pull the meat apart with your bare fingers or a fork, whichever you prefer.


When the meat is done, Pull it apart and chop it up and serve it with homemade BBQ sauce and coleslaw. Something I had to teach a few friends this weekend. You cannot have southern style pulled pork without having coleslaw. It's a MUST!

Stay tuned and I will share the BBQ sauce recipe on Saturday.

This weekend I will be trying my hand at pork ribs. Going to use the same rub and sauce, so I'm all set except for cooking the meat and making some fresh coleslaw.