Brined and Smoked Porkside

Smoked pork side is very suitable for a winter barbecue. Sliced on dark bread it is an excellent companion for a rich pea soup or a savory bean soup.

In this barbecue pork recipe I baste the pork side a couple of times with a beer honey mustard glazing, making it nice and shining. Imagine serving this smoked pork side on toast to your friends while you are sharing a couple of cold six-packs...

Prior to hot smoking, I treated this nice cut of pork side to a couple of hours in a spicy brine, giving it the right amount of salt along with a deep spicy flavour.

Ingredients

For this brined, hot smoked and glazed pork side recipe you need the following ingredients:

2-4 pounds

4 pints

4 pints

Pork Side (skin may be left on)

Spicy Brine (see Blue Smoke BBQ recipe)

Beer Honey Mustard Glazing (see Blue Smoke BBQ recipe)

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Spicy Brine

Brining and hot smoking is a perfect combination. I recently developed this spicy brine and tried it on a couple of cuts of porkside, and everybody really liked the results.

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Beer Honey Mustard Glazing

This beer honey mustard glazing is ideal when you want a nice and shining finish on your barbecue meat. On top of that, it will add a wonderful malty and sweet flavour as well!

Preparation

Preparation of the meat

-	Make 4 pints of Spicy Brine in accordance with the recipe; Allow to cool down;
-	Rinse the meat under cold running water, removing all loose particles (especially bone), dangling pieces of meat or excess fat;
-	Blot meat dry using paper towels; If desired, remove the skin of the pork side, or puncture holes in it, to allow the flavours in the brine to penetrate the meat as much as possible;
-	Put the meat in a non-reactive bowl or pan, and add the spicy brine; Make sure the meat is completely submerged in the brine;
-	I brined this cut of porkside, which was about 1.5 inch thick and had the skin still on, for 4 hours. To us, the salt level in the meat wat just right, but I know that some people would prefer it a bit saltier;
-	Blot the meat dry before you put it on the barbecue grate; Discard the brine fluid, the spices go in the drip pan below the meat;

Juancho's Split Grill

To obtain sustained lower heat and improved temperature control inside the barbecue, and to increase the grate area and thus to be able to accommodate more meat or larger cuts of meat, I set up my relatively small Weber Grill for indirect grilling on one side. (rather than in the center as per the Weber instructions)

In short, Juancho's Split Grill is set up like this:

1.	We use only one coal rack, placed further towards the center of the grill to allow sufficient fuel for 3-4 hours of smoking;
2.	By covering the 'cold' part of the coal grate with aluminium foil we will have improved control over the fire;
3.	For this burn I decided to try the "Minnion" method in my kettle grill, and filled half of the coal pocket with cold charcoal briquettes. The "Minnion" method, named after its inventor, originates from the WSM smoking community and was designed to create a slower and longer lasting fire; Also please note that for this burn I used left-over briquettes from a previous burn, and stuck some pieces of oak smokewood in between the cold charcoal; I have discovered that chunks of smoke wood will burn slower if you put them in between the charcoal briquettes rather than on top;
4.	Here you see how the hot glowing charcoal briquettes have been added to one side of the coal pocket; The drip pan has been filled with a pint of cheap red wine and some water, and the grill rack has been placed;
5.	Mike and Yvonne, of Live Fire Concepts, put me on the idea to add some extra vapour inside the barbecue; So I put a steel bowl filled with water above the glowing briquettes; Some sprigs of fresh rosemary add extra flavour;
6.	With the coals glowing, firewood in place, drip pan filled, steam bowl bubbling, and 10-15 minutes pre-heating with the lid on, we're ready to smoke!

Hot Smoked Pork Side = Slow Food

As this slowfood cut of pork side will have to cook on low heat for a number of hours, I use a electronic thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature inside the barbecue.

By opening and closing the barbecue's bottom vent holes you can keep the temperature inside the barbecue within a certain range.

For hot smoking this cut of pork side my goal was to maintain a temperature of around 300F (roughly 150 degrees celcius).

This sounds easy, but you have to watch it...

Winter Barbecue

Here at Blue Smoke BBQ we keep smokin' all year long, winter, spring, summer and fall, just about every weekend.

Even in winter, as long as it doesn't rain too hard, it is always nice to be outside in the yard or the balcony, next to your hot barbecue.

If necessary, put some extra clothes on, set a large umbrella, or organize some make-shift shelter. Huddle together! It does not hurt!

Let's Smoke!

With that cut of porkside sitting in that black backyard coal-fired microwave, take it easy. Time for a drink, sit down, check the fire, look at that whisp of smoke.

While that piece of pork is smoking, read a book, listen to your favourite music. Relax.

Keep checking the temperature inside the barbecue and try to resist peeking under the lid too often. Every time you open your barbecue you will loose heat, and the cooking process will take longer.

On the other hand, if you have time anyway, what the heck...

After an hour and a half of smoking, I opened the lid of the barbecue to check; The pork side is really looking good!

Since the pork side has already developed a nice sun tan, I decided to start mopping this baby on all sides with the beer honey mustard glazing.

After roughly 2.5 hours, 3 hours, and 3.5 hours of hot smoking, I opened the barbecue again.

Checked the coal fire, steam water bowl, and applied glazing on all sides of the meat.

After almost 4 hours of smoking at a temperature of about 300F, the temperature inside the thickest part of the pork side had reached 183F - this meat is very well done!

Transferred the meat from the grill to a cutting board, and let it rest under aluminium foil;

The other white meat? Pork side after almost 4 hours of hot smoking in the barbecue.

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About the "Minnion" Method

As you can see on the accompanying picture, after almost 4 hours of burning there was still plenty of coal left for at least one more hour of smoking at a temperature of around 300F.

As far as I am concerned, the Minnion method works in a regular kettle grill as well!

The PitBoss Suggests

As already stated, smoked pork side on black bread is an excellent companion for a rich pea soup or a savory bean soup.

Also great when served on toast with a dash of mustard!

Keep Smokin' !