This summer I've been missing North Carolina barbecue. That's called "pulled pork" elsewhere. I didn't have any in the freezer, and for months I haven't seen pork shoulder roasts, which I like to make pulled pork with, in the supermarkets.
So what's the solution? Turkey leg and thigh sections. Cuisses de dinde in French. They are always available here in France, and they're not expensive. I bought four of them at the supermarket — about 3 kilos (nearly 7 lbs.) in all — for less than 11 euros. As I do with pork shoulder, I cooked the turkey in the slow cooker for about 10 hours on low temperature. I don't brown them first, but they look pretty good when they come out of the cooker, don't you think?
Before cooking it, I season the meat just lightly with some cayenne pepper, black pepper, salt, and a splash of vinegar, along with some thyme and bay leaves. After long slow cooking, take the meat out of the cooker and put in in a pan or on platters to let it cool down. Then it's easy to pull off the skin, pull the meat off the bones, and get rid of the cartilage, veins, and most of the fat. You can cook pork, turkey, or even lamb (lamb barbecue is a Kentucky specialty) this way. Boil down the cooking liquid to reduce and thicken it, and then season it to make a good sauce.
You can chop or shred the meat and season it before you heat it again for serving, or leave it in big chunks. I like it seasoned with hot pepper vinegar, but you might enjoy some other kind of barbecue sauce — with tomato paste or ketchup, sugar or molasses, and spices, for example. Serve it on a bun as a barbecue sandwich if you want. That's what we did, with fried potatoes and some collard greens.
You know what? You really can't tell the difference between pork and turkey cooked this way. You have to think turkey is less fatty and better for you. Googling around on the web, I see several eastern North Carolina restaurants that are now serving pulled turkey barbecue. Good for them. After all, N.C. is one of the top three turkey-producing U.S. states, raising and marketing nearly 30 million of them annually.
An American lunch?
ReplyDeleteYes, an American lunch. Wanted to tell you that right now I'm cooking some white beans in what is sold as eau déminéralisée at the supermarket. The last time I cooked white beans, in tap water, I thought the skins were a little tough. We'll see this time.
DeleteI'll be waiting for the results of your experiment. I think I still have some of those red beans which were so tough and, if we're right about the soaking and cooking water, see if it works with them. In any case, I'll use some white vinegar in soaking and regular one in cooking.
DeleteThe beans are good. I didn't soak them. I just cooked them for 3 hours at low temperature. The skins are not tough. I seasoned the beans with bay leaf, garlic, onion, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and powdered allspice (piment de la Jamaïque).
DeleteI add a little bit of baking soda to the water in which I cook dried beans - literally just a pinch for about a half cup of beans. It seems to help soften the skin, and also help the beans cook a little faster. I think I picked this up from a "Cooks Illustrated" article, but I can't find a link.
DeleteCarol, I think CHM has tried baking soda in the bean water. He hasn't had much luck though. He bought dried beans in the U.S., cooked them there, and they were tender and good. He brought some of those dried beans to France, cooked them in his apartment in Paris, and the skin of the beans was very tough. He thinks it's the water in France, which as you know is fairly hard (calcaire).
DeleteYes, I always use baking soda for the soaking and the cooking of the red kidney beans (my favorite) as well as alcohol vinegar in the soaking water and some regular vinegar in the cooking liquid (water and red wine).
DeleteKen, I’m glad your experiment was positive. I’ll try eau déminéralisée for soaking and cooking my American red kidney beans as soon as my back is back in shape!
That last photo looks good enough to eat..... I should know better than to read your blog before breakfast!
ReplyDeleteOne thing that Pauline and I noticed when we had bought the house, was the quality of turkey meat here....
In comparison with that on sale in the U.K.
Here the meat is meat, rather than the flavourless crud we used to get.
I used to occasionally get my hands on a proper Norfolk Black turkey.... now sold as bronze.... huh, wotsallthatabout?
And what we get here is the same....so I presume free-range and not crammed in a barn, Bernard Matthews style.
The turkey and the pork here are both very good compared to what you mostly get in the U.S. And the chicken too.
DeleteDo you put any 'liquid' in the the slow cooker with the turkey?
ReplyDeleteNo, just a squirt of vinegar. I oil the bottom of the cooker. The turkey makes its own liquid. Better to have just that and not the gallon of liquid you get if you add any water or wine.
DeleteI had no idea that anyone made lamb BBQ, let alone that it was a specialty in Kentucky. Hmm!
ReplyDeleteJudy
I think the centre du monde du barbecue de mouton is Owensboro, KY. Walt and I had a meal there in 2006. I've made lamb barbecue and posted about it.
DeleteI am of a certain age and I really don't get pulled pork. It has been embraced by hipsters here, and at times can be a pretty rugged cut of meat. There are even jokes about hipsters and pulled pork. Why not just serve the meat sliced?
ReplyDeleteYou can get sliced barbecued pork in restaurants in North Carolina. It's tougher than shredded or pulled pork, because to be tender pork (or turkey) needs to be cooked long enough or hot enough to start to fall apart. It's done at about 200ºF / 90ºC, and is tender. Then it can easily be shredded or pulled easily with two forks or with fingers. You are welcome to have tough, sliced pork if that's what you want.
DeleteThey were pulling pork in North Carolina way before anyone knew what a hipster was :)
DeleteDo you cook died beans in your slow cooker? I want to try some pintos in mine soon.
ReplyDeleteI cooked the white "lingot" beans in the slow cooker once, but they were over-cooked and the skin of the beans was too tough. So this time I just cooked them on the stove on low heat for about three hours, and in distilled "demineralized" water. They seem to be very tender. We'll eat them tomorrow. Is your water very hard? Ours is. In other words, it is very calcaire — it has a lot of calcium (from limestone) in it.
Deleteyummy
ReplyDelete