Pork Chops

Pork chops generally kind of suck, right? Apparently they used to be these nice tender cuts of meat, until chicken caught on (for being tender and lean) and breeders started raising pigs who would be leaner as well. The result, pork chops have a proclivity to turn out try as hell at basically all times (such is why I don't care for them much). [History lesson courtesy my Good Eats book]

There is, however, a trick to putting moisture in dry meat -- brining. Give your meat an hour or two in the fridge while soaking in a brine, and it will come out a good deal moister then otherwise. The brine itself is simple too - something like 3 cups water, 1 tablespoon salt & 1 tablespoon sugar (or 4 cups water, 1/4 cup salt & 1/4 cup sugar for larger portions) - mix that up in a pyrex container or something, add your meat, and seal it up in the fridge for a 1-2 hours. Just be sure when you're done to rinse and dry the meat off before cooking.

BBQ Pulled Pork

Got 12 hours and a desire for a weeks worth of pulled pork? Well then I have a recipe for you. All you really need, is a crock-pot.

Let's start with our software -- you can improvise a bit with the spices. At its core, you're going to want a 7-8 pound pork shoulder (a surprisingly cheap cut of meat, by the way). I also consider the cola (I use a 16 oz. bottle of Cherry Coke, NOT diet - you can sub Pepsi, Ginger-ale, whatever), salt (koshering), and brown sugar to be essential parts of the spice rub / cooking liquid (also don't forget the sauce -- any good quality one you like will do). I also like to add 2 diced onions, 7-8 cloves of minced garlic, and paprika, red pepper and lemon pepper to the rub. The final ingredient is time.