Shredded beef, pulled pork and other mysteries.

[zippyt]

Beans can Start tinned , but that is just a start , Yew HAVE to have Bacon or Pork Drippings in them to make them taste RIGHT !!

[Perry Winkle]

Originally Posted by limey

And by "beans" you mean tinned baked beans in tomato sauce? or the homemade equivalent? or ?

My dad's recipe:
Tinned beans
Fried bacon, in small pieces
Diced onion, sauteed in the bacon grease
Brown sugar
Dry mustard
Worcestershire Sauce
BBQ sauce

Then bake them low and slow until thick and caramelized.

I wish I could be more precise, but it's really an art more than a science. Correct measurements are "enough" and "taste this for me."

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by limey

OK, so what's the deal with "shredded beef"? You Merkins roast a perfectly good joint of beef and then pull it apart with a pair of forks, douse it in bbq sauce and call it food?
And pulled pork - apart from the snigger quotient, is that the same sort of thing?
And what are "hominies"?
And "grits"?

Shredded beef is about what you do with pressure-cooker chuck roast, potroast or other massive but cheap cuts. Gets the sauce all intimate with the meat, which is the point of the entire exercise, as well as getting it good and tender. Quite a good approach for a BBQ-beef sandwich (pulled pork too, which has a similar texture and saucing) or a Sloppy Joe -- a messy, saucy version of a hamburger.

Hominy is specially treated corn. Once it was treated with a lye solution. Now they don't do it that way. The stuff cans well.

Grits is hominy-treated corn broken up into a creamy starch food that may be treated either savory or sweetened, in a texture quite like pinhead oats. As they said, polenta, but it comes to you dried and needing reconstituting. It is cooked like so much groats, by simmering in salted water. Soak it at least five minutes in cool water before adding it to a pot of boiling water, so it will go in smoothly and not lump up. Poorly prepared, say as instant grits out of a box, it tastes of the box. No good -- stay away from that stuff. Use the kind of grits that take some time to cook. Done right, it tastes about like what cornbread would taste like if cornbread were hot cereal. It is to the American South what oatmeal is to Scotland -- it's the regional grain dish.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by Pie

Pulled pork can be the food of the gods. What do you think the heroes are feasting on at Valhalla? Boneless skinless chicken breast? Puh-leeze.

Well, it's more or less canon that the pork is always boneless. They insist, you see, on gathering up all the roast boar bones to reconstruct the critter for tomorrow's feasting.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by limey

And by "beans" you mean tinned baked beans in tomato sauce? or the homemade equivalent? or ?

Could always refer you to the Boston baked beans recipe in the first couple of pages of the "Okay, this is the most recent recipe thread." Further on, there is a little bit on using a pressure cooker to fix baked beans. I find I don't buy a lot of tinned beans these days. Depends on how creative I feel; my fellow church parishioners really seem to like them when I bring them to a church luncheon.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

First, some Grits Geekage. Scroll a little to get past the ads links on top.

Laid in a box of Quaker Five Minute Grits yesterday. Cooked some up today, slowly until it was spoon-standing thick. Added in a little Benefiber and will probably include more next time for the good of my tract. Comes out real good with a hefty pat of butter on top, sugar optional. Brown sugar's okay too. Depends on whether you want a plain-jane starch or something like hot cereal.

[dar512]

Mr. Tipton: No self respectin' Southerner uses instant grits. I take pride in my grits.
...
Vinny Gambini: You sure about that twenty minutes?

[Urbane Guerrilla]

It seems to work just as well turning off the flame when they're done and just letting the 5-minute grits sit, covered, for ten or fifteen minutes with a good pat of butter put in to melt.

[Sundae]

I know this ship has sailed, but I've not been here a lot and wanted to add my opinion.

Limey, given that my Mum cooks the buggery out of every non-poultry roast we have, I love the idea of these saucy furrin foods.

I like my meat rare, but if I can't have it soft and rare, I'd rather have it doused in saucy sauce. As has been mentioned before, traditional roasts are usually served with appropriate sauce AND gravy. And most any pub lunch you have will use gravy powder as opposed to real gravy. I don't think I've had real gravy since we used to go and stay with Nanny and Grandad in London - Mum hated it because it takes too much time and is greasy.

As long as it's served with peas I don't mind

[TheMercenary]

Shrip and Grits are big in the South. We never had them until we moved to the South. It took a few years before I ever got up the nerve to try them. I wish I hadn't waited. The wife made an awesome Smoked Gouda Cheese Grits with some really fancy and spicey shrimp the other night.

[zippyt]

Smoked Gouda and grits , ok id try it ,
I Prefer EXXXXTRA Sharp Cheddar and a dob of garlic ,

[Glinda]

Originally Posted by dar512

Mr. Tipton: No self respectin' Southerner uses instant grits. I take pride in my grits.

Mmmmmm, grits! Even better - fried cornmeal mush!

That's it. MUST HAVE!!! *heads off to kitchen*

[jinx]

So I'm watching this food network show about frying turkey, and about 90% of it has been about how to get the bird into the oil-over-open-flame without setting the neighborhood on fire. The guy (Alton Brown) has built a derrick out of a step ladder and attached a pulley system with a carabiner to connect to the turkey dunking-chair framework so he can lower it from a distance.
Why wouldn't you just turn the gas off for a sec while you plop the bird in?

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by jinx

So I'm watching this food network show about frying turkey, and about 90% of it has been about how to get the bird into the oil-over-open-flame without setting the neighborhood on fire. The guy (Alton Brown) has built a derrick out of a step ladder and attached a pulley system with a carabiner to connect to the turkey dunking-chair framework so he can lower it from a distance.
Why wouldn't you just turn the gas off for a sec while you plop the bird in?

Fun sponge.

[zippyt]

Yeah Whats the Point if you Dont have the chance of catching the house on fire ??!!