Project Maryland BBQ: Part 4, Free State Smoked Pork Shoulder

While every barbecue style is defined by a principal protein (beef in Texas, pork in North Carolina, etc.), that style is never limited to just that one protein. Pitmasters also work their magic on other proteins, adding their distinctive regional approaches to the resulting barbecue.

In this multi-part series, Project Maryland Barbecue, I have been exploring what would be true Maryland barbecue if the Free State had its own regional barbecue style. Part 1 generally focused on the elements of a regional barbecue, such as protein, rubs, sauce and wood.  Parts 2 and 3 turned to specific elements of what would be Maryland barbecue.  The discussion in Part 2 explained why, of all the proteins that could be smoked, the principal protein of Maryland barbecue would be chicken. With the protein in place, Part 3 turned to the sauce. Despite the range of sauces,  from white to red, from tomato to vinegar, the discussion in Part 3 explained why if Maryland barbecue had a signature sauce, it would be tomato based, but lighter and thinner than a Memphis based sauce or Kansas City sauce.

Part 4 takes us to the next logical extension of a BBQ style ... to other proteins.  There are a few options, such as beef, pork, lamb or mutton.  If there was to be a secondary protein for Maryland style barbecue, I think it would more likely than not be pork.  There are three reasons.

First, pork figures a little more prominently in Maryland agriculture than beef, lamb or mutton.  Maryland ranks 30th in the United States in terms of the number of hogs and pigs in the State, while it ranks 41st when it comes to the number of cattle in the state. By the numbers, there are over 7,000,000 hogs and pigs in the Free State, while there are only about 197,000 cattle in the state.  More pig farms than cattle ranches supports the conclusion that pork would feature more prominently than beef in a barbecue style. 

Second, the regional barbecues surrounding the state have pork as their primary protein.  The Carolinas are all about pork, whether it is whole hogs in eastern North Carolina or pulled pork in Western North Carolina and South Carolina.  In addition, ham features prominently in Virginia.  The prevalence of pork not just in the State of Maryland, but also nearby States, also supports the conclusion that pork would feature in any barbecue style in the Free State.

Third, a review of the menus from BBQ joints in the State of Maryland features a lot of pulled pork. This factor is a little less reliable than the first or second reasons because BBQ joints often try to feature a range of barbecue, including beef, sausage, and other offerings.  However, when one drills down to what the joint is known for or what it promotes, it is more often than not pork, and, more often than not pulled pork.

So, if there was a Maryland Barbecue Style, and, if there was a secondary protein in that style, it would be pork.  And, more specifically, it would be pulled pork.

With that in mind, I decided to smoke a pork shoulder.  When it comes to pork shoulders, one of the keys is the rub.  After doing some research, I decided to use a rub created by a native son to the State of Maryland ... Steven Raichlen.  I utilized his basic rub, which happens to be my go to rub for barbecue for both pork and chicken. The rub has the perfect balance of paprika, garlic, onion and salt, with the added flavor of celery seeds.  The one thing that this rub lacks, at least in my humble opinion, is a little heat.  If you are a chilehead like myself, then adding a couple of tablespoons of cayenne pepper could provide the requisite heat.

So, in the end, if there was a Maryland Style of barbecue, pork could also figure into that style, with a pulled pork that could be served with the Maryland style sauce.  Stay tuned for the next segment in Project Maryland BBQ, because, who knows where it may lead!

FREE STATE SMOKED PORK SHOULDER

Pork Recipe adapted from and inspired by Steven Raichlen

Rub recipe from Steven Raichlen's Barbecue Bible

Serves many

Ingredients:

1 Boston Butt Pork Shoulder (6 to 8 pounds)
Chunks of apple wood

Ingredients (for the rub):
1 cup sea salt (or kosher salt)
1 cup brown or white sugar
1 cup sweet paprika
1/2 to 1 cup coarsely ground or cracked black peppercorns
3 tablespoons granulated garlic powder
3 tablespoons granulated onion powder
1 tablespoon celery seed

Directions:
1.  Marinate the pork butt. Combine all of the ingredients for the rub. Season the pork shoulder on all sides with the rub, massaging the rub into the meat.

2.  Prepare the smoker or the grill.   Set up the smoker or grill for indirect grilling and get a fire going.  Preheat the smoker or the grill to about 250 degrees.

3.  Smoke the pork butt.  Place the pork but, fat side up in the middle of the grate over a drip pan.  Toss a handful of soaked wood chips (soaked for about an hour) on the charcoals.  Cover and smoke the shoulder until it is the color of mahogany, about 7 to 9 hours.  The internal temperature should be about 195 degrees.  This will require the addition of fresh charcoal every so often,  After about 4 hours of smoking, check the fire and the shoulder.  At this point, it may be appropriate to wrap the shoulder in aluminum foil for the rest of the smoke.

4.  Finish the smoke.  Once the pork shoulder reaches the requisite temperature, remove the shoulder from the smoker and let it rest for about 15 to 30 minutes.  Pull the pork and serve immediately.

ENJOY!

Project Maryland BBQ: Part 3, The Sauce

Barbecue styles are not just about the protein, but, also about the sauce (or, in some cases, the lack of sauce).  Many well established barbecue styles have a particular sauce that helps to define that style. The best example of a sauce that defines a barbecue style can be found in northern Alabama. Think Big Bob Gibson's Barbecued Chicken with White Sauce.  Chicken smoked low and slow, finished off in a bath of a barbecue sauce that is part vinegar, part apple juice and part mayonnaise. 

And, in some cases, the sauce can draw the borders of the barbecue. The Carolinas provide the best example of those borders.  Carolina barbecue is pork centric, usually whole hog or pulled pork.  Nevertheless, there is Eastern Carolina barbecue, which is known for its thin, peppery vinegar sauce. If one traveled west toward Lexington, North Carolina, pitmasters add tomatoes to that vinegar sauce or, as they call it, the "dip," That tomato/vinegar sauce is the defining characteristic of Lexington style or Piedmont style barbecue.  And, if that person then travels south, he or she will find that pitmasters use mustard, which is thinned with the vinegar.  That mustard sauce is the cornerstone of South Carolina style barbecue.

Yet, all of the sauces that I have discussed are not even the most well known sauces.  When most people think about barbecue sauce, they think of Kansas City.  A thick sauce, with both sweet and tangy characteristics, that is often slathered on ribs. The sauce is usually made with ketchup, molasses, vinegar, and brown sugar (which gives you an idea where both the sweet and tangy come from), along with a variety of spices to add depth.   A variant of Kansas City style barbecue sauce could be found in Memphis, where the sauce is thinner, and more vinegar based.

With all of this said, the question is, if there was a Maryland style of barbecue, what sauce would be part of that style?

Eastern Carolina BBQ Sauce

One would think that, due to its proximity to the Carolinas, a Maryland-style sauce would be, at the very least, influenced by the use of vinegar, if not vinegar based. Vinegar base sauces have made their way, to differing extents, into Virginia.  So, it is not too difficult to imagine vinegar based sauces in Maryland.  Indeed, if one were to check out local BBQ joints in the Delmarva, he or she would probably fine examples of a vinegar BBQ sauce.  The sauce is not a true vinegar sauce as one would find in eastern Carolina.  Rather, it is probably closer to a Lexington barbecue sauce, because there is usually tomato in the sauce.

With the use of tomatoes (whether sauce or ketchup), I think that brings us closer to what the barbecue sauce would be with a Maryland style of barbecue. But, I don't think that the sauce would go so far as to be a thick, sweet or smoky sauce that one would find in Kansas City barbecue, or even in Memphis barbecue.  I think that the sauce would be a little more basic; tomatoes, apple cider vinegar, and spices.  In this regard, I think I would go there and add some Old Bay, because that spice mix is quintessential Maryland.

So, in the end, I decided to make a Maryland barbecue sauce.  I started with a simple sauce from the New York Times.  That sauce had good proportions of tomato (ketchup), vinegar (apple cider) and sugar (I used dark brown sugar, which I prefer in sauces), along with the use of smoked paprika, which gives a little hint of smoke to the finished product. The original recipe also provides for the use of cumin, and, it is a very cumin-forward sauce.  I decided to swap out the cumin with the Old Bay, which, surprisingly enough, does not stick out as much as the cumin did. The end result is pictured below and it worked out very well.

MARYLAND-STYLE BARBECUE SAUCE

Recipe adapted from NYT Cooking

Makes 1 1/2 cups

Ingredients:

2/3 cup ketchup

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons pimenton (smoked Spanish paprika)

1 teaspoon Old Bay

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan, bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook for 5 minutes.

ENJOY!

Project Maryland BBQ: Part 2, Old Line Barbecue Chicken

The first element of any regional barbecue style, in my humble opinion, is the protein. In the Carolinas, whether eastern, western or southern, it is pork. Whole hogs. In Texas, whether it is brisket or barbacoa, it is beef.  In between, either in Kansas City or Memphis, it may be beef or pork, depending upon the cut. (Go north to Kentucky, it is mutton.)  But, what would the protein be in Maryland, if Maryland had a regional style of barbecue?

The protein for barbecue is defined by what is around you.  If you are in the Carolinas, it is hogs, because there are a lot of pigs.  More than four million hogs are being raised in North Carolina alone.  There are more hogs currently in North Carolina than there are people in the entire countries of Bosnia & Herzegovina or Uruguay.  There are more than 12 million cattle cows (for beef) in Texas.  That means there are more cows in Texas than there are people within the borders of Belgium or Cuba.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, there were only 46,000 cattle for beef production and 26,000 hogs for pork production in the State of Maryland. If there was a barbecue style in Maryland, it would most likely not involve either beef or pork. However, there are 306,700,000 chickens in the State of Maryland.  That's right, there are more chickens in the State of Maryland than there are people in the countries of Pakistan, Brazil or Indonesia.  For a point of reference, there are over 326,000,000 people in the United States.  There are almost as many chickens in Maryland as there are people in this country. 

The location of large scale chicken farms in the State of Maryland.

So, if there is a such a thing as Maryland style barbecue, then the protein would be chicken.  A lot of chicken. And, if one were to drive through the Eastern Shore of Maryland, he or she would agree.  Drive the backroads of the DelMarVa (the region of Delaware, the eastern Shore of Maryland and the Virginian peninsula), and you will see -- and maybe even smell -- a lot of chicken houses.  Many of those chicken houses are owned and run by hardworking chicken farmers (and, just how those farmers are treated by big chicken companies will definitely be the subject of another post, because I have a lot to say on that subject.)  Many more are large scale chicken operations, either CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) or MAFOs (Maryland Animal Feeding Operations).  (Just what is a CAFO or a MAFO, as well as their impact on the environment, is also a subject for another day.)

Thus, the first element of a regional style of barbecue is in place.  Maryland style barbecue, if it exists or existed, should or would be centered around chicken. Just like Texas style barbecue focuses on beef and Carolina style barbecue focuses on pork.  That is not to say that there can't be beef and pork in Maryland barbecue (after all, there are those 46,000 cattle and 26,000 hogs in the Old Line State).  All it means that we need to nail down a recipe for smoked chicken that could serve as the foundation for Maryland barbecue.

It seems only natural that chicken should be the protein.  After all, there is the Delmarva Chicken, which is a tradition on the Eastern shore. Local groups and firehouses get together, marinate large amounts of chicken, grill that chicken and offer it to anyone willing to enjoy it.  The thing is that Delmarva Chicken is as much barbecue as pit beef is barbecue. The recipes for Delmarva Chicken involve grilling the bird or its constituent parts, as opposed to the low and slow smoking of the meat.

Nevertheless, the recipe for Delmarva Chicken can serve as the basis for Maryland barbecue. It starts with the rub.  Delmarva Chicken calls for a rub of poultry seasoning, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and garlic powder.  Rather than use poultry seasoning, I think that a good substitute could be Old Bay seasoning.  Old Bay is practically synonymous with Maryland because of its use with our beloved blue crabs.  What is little known (despite the advertising) is that Old Bay can be used in other recipes, including chicken.  With Old Bay, and the remainder of the ingredients, I have the basic rub for Maryland barbecue. 

The recipe of Delmarva Chicken also includes the use of oil and vinegar.  These liquid ingredients could work well with barbecue chicken and provide a distinctive character. Most recipes for Delmarva Chicken, such as this one, call for the chicken to be placed into a bowl, with the rub ingredients added, followed by oil and cider vinegar. Those instructions baffle me a little bit, to be honest, but, if they are rearranged, then they could provide a basis for preparing the chicken.  Place the chicken in a large bowl, whisk the cider vinegar with the oil to create an emulsion, pour that emulsion so that it covers the chicken, both on the skin and underneath, and then spread the rub over the chicken both on the skin and underneath.  The emulsion will help the rub stick to the chicken and, if you get it underneath the skin, it will also flavor the meat.

While the Delmarva Chicken provides the basis for the preparation for the Maryland barbecue chicken recipe, I have to say it ends there.  If you look at Delmarva Chicken recipes, there are no mops (after all, it is grilled chicken).  The recipes call for a "sauce," but, in my humble opinion, the sauce is somewhat questionable in the context of barbecue.  Many recipes describe a sauce that consists of 1 part oil and one part salad dressing or mayonnaise. Salad dressing is out of the equation.  That leaves mayonnaise.  However, a mayonnaise-based sauce for chicken that is clearly and indisputably identified with Alabama barbecue (see Big Bob Gibson's Chicken with White Sauce).  This project focuses on defining Maryland barbecue. Thus, Delmarva Chicken can take us far towards Maryland barbecue chicken, but, just not across the finish line.

In any event, the sauce for Maryland barbecue is a subject of its own, and, it will have its own post in this project.   Until then. the basic recipe for Maryland-style barbecue chicken, which I have dubbed "Old Line Barbecue Chicken" ...

OLD LINE BARBECUE CHICKEN

Recipe adapted from Lang BBQ Smokers

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken, spatchcocked

1 1/2 cups of apple cider vinegar

1 cup of olive oil

2-3 teaspoons of Old Bay Seasoning

2 teaspoons sea salt (or kosher salt)

3 teaspoons of freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper 

1  1/2 teaspoons granulated garlic powder

Chunks of hickory, pecan or apple wood
     (I used apple wood)

Directions:

1.  Prepare the chicken.  Place the spatchcocked chicken into a large bowl.  In a separate small bowl, combine the spices (Old Bay, salt, pepper, and garlic powder) and mix well.  In a medium bowl, add the vinegar and then whisk in the oil.  Once the oil and vinegar have been whisked into an emulsion, pour some of the mixture over the chicken, rubbing it into the skin and beneath the skin on the meat.  After the entire chicken is covered with the oil/vinegar mixture, move the chicken to a cutting board.  Apply the rub to all sides of the chicken, both on the skin and under the skin on the meat.  

2.  Prepare the smoker.  Start a chimney and, when ready, place the coals in the smoker.  The desired temperature is 275 to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.  

3.  Smoke the chicken.  Place the chicken on the smoker.  Add the wood chunks to create the smoke.  Smoke the chicken until it reaches 160 degrees Fahrenheit.  Remove the chicken from the smoker and cover with foil.  Let rest for 10 minutes until the temperature comes up to 165 degrees Fahrenheit.  Carve the chicken into pieces - sliced breast meat, thigh, legs and wings for service. 

ENJOY!

Project Maryland BBQ: Part 1: The Beginning

Barbecue is regional, albeit the names are more local.  There is Eastern Carolina barbecue, with smoked whole hogs served with a piquant vinegar sauce (perhaps my favorite).  There is also Western Carolina barbecue, which is still pork based, but there is an added tomato tang to the sauce.  Then, there is Southern Carolina barbecue, which goes its own way with a mustard based sauce.  Travel west, and one finds Kentucky barbecue, Memphis barbecue, Kansas City barbecue, Texas barbecue and, even further west, Santa Maria barbecue.  Add to all of these the international styles of barbecue, brought to the United States by immigrants who brought their culinary traditions with them (think, barbacoa, for example).  

I am a big fan of barbecue, but I don't live in the Carolinas.  I don't call Memphis, Kansas City or any part of Texas my home.  I live in the Mid-Atlantic, the State of Maryland to be exact.  These questions got me to thinking about barbecue in the State where I live.  To be sure, there are a lot of good barbecue joints across Maryland, and, I have eaten at quite a few of them.  Those restaurants feature barbecue that draws its inspiration from those major regions ... Eastern Carolina vinegar-based pork; pork ribs with the tangy, spicy Kansas City barbecue sauce; and central Texas style brisket.  

If one were to look past the barbecue joints and ask what is true Maryland barbecue, the first answer might be Baltimore Pit Beef with Tiger Sauce.  But, as much as I love pit beef, it does not fit the definition of barbecue, that is, the low, slow cooking of proteins over wood smoke.  Pit beef is more about grilling, using a higher heat to generate a crust on the beef, which is thinly sliced, piled onto a bun and dressed with the sauce.  Others may say Delmarva chicken (which someday will be a post of its own), but that is really just grilled chicken dressed with a sauce that is one part oil and one part salad dressing or mayonnaise.  To be sure, one could have smoked chicken with a mayonnaise sauce; after all, Big Bob Gibson's in Decatur, Alabama perfected it. (You can check out my effort to make the recipe here.)  However, there is little doubt that Delmarva chicken is more about grilling than it is smoking.  

So what is Maryland barbecue?  Is there such a thing as Maryland barbecue?

There is no easy answer to these questions, because there is no accepted concept of a Maryland style of barbecue. That does not mean that it does not exist.  I will need to look around the Old Line State.  I need to go beyond the barbecue joints and focus upon the essence of barbecue: cooking protein over over wood smoke in a low and slow fashion. Even if there is no such thing as Maryland barbecue, I will take the initiative to create one.  Hence, the Chef Bolek's "Project Maryland BBQ" Series.  

A disclaimer ... this entire endeavor is for fun.  Over a series of posts, I will explore those fundamental elements of barbecue -- (1) protein; (2) rubs; (3) mops/sauces; and (4) wood/smoke -- and how they fit into a style of barbecue that could be called Maryland's own. I will also focus on other aspects of barbecue as they would relate to a style. Only time will tell whether or what will come of this endeavor.  Until then ...

ENJOY!