- [Babish] This episode is sponsored by ButcherBox.
ButcherBox delivers high-quality beef,
chicken, pork, and seafood directly to your home
in an eco-friendly, 100% recyclable box.
New members will get $10 off their first box
plus bacon for life,
which is one pack of bacon in every box
for the lifetime of your subscription.
Go to the link in the video description for more info.
- If you present your VIP card,
you get access to our exclusive new sandwich:
the Pork Picnic.
(pig snorts)
- Slow-cooked baked beans, hearty coleslaw,
and three different types of barbecue pulled pork.
(sandwich squelches)
Mm, mm.
Now, that's lip-lickin' good.
- [Babish] Hey, what's up, guys?
Welcome back to "Binging with Babish," where this week,
we're taking a look at the Pork Picnic Sandwich
from "Regular Show,"
which gives us the opportunity
to try out three different kinds of pulled pork:
a classic Memphis dry rub with Kansas City-style sauce,
a South California vinegar barbecue,
and the mysterious Alabama white.
Let's start with the Memphis-style dry rub,
courtesy of AmazingRibs.com.
We've got 3/4 of a cup each dark brown and white sugar,
1/4 cup of garlic powder, 1/2 cup of sweet American paprika,
two tablespoons ground ginger, two tablespoons onion powder,
and two teaspoons rosemary powder.
This, along with two tablespoons
of freshly-ground black pepper,
creates Meathead's Memphis Dust,
an amazing all-purpose barbecue dry rub
which, you might notice,
is missing one essential ingredient: salt.
That's because in barbecue,
meat has all different shapes, sizes, and surface areas,
so you wanna season your meat first with kosher salt
and freshly-ground black pepper for two reasons:
first, so that you can make sure
that it is not over- nor under-salted,
and second, so that you can effectively dry-brine your meat.
Salting it and letting it sit overnight in the fridge
is both gonna deeply flavor the meat
and help with moisture retention.
So we're starting by removing any large pieces of excess fat
before generously coating it on all sides and surfaces
with kosher salt and freshly-ground black pepper.
Let 'em sit overnight in the fridge,
and for our Alabama and South Carolina pork,
that's gonna be it.
They're headed under the smoker wearing nothing but S and P.
But our Memphis-style is getting a generous rubdown
with our Memphis Dust.
You can pat down the pork with a little bit of water
to help things adhere, if necessary.
Just make sure that everything's coated
as evenly and as thoroughly as possible.
So, there we go.
All these guys are headed into the fridge overnight
before heading under the smoker,
which gives us time to talk
about what sets the South Carolina-style pork apart:
a vinegar-based mop sauce.
We're combining a cup and a half of white distilled vinegar,
a tablespoon of salt, two teaspoons crushed red pepper,
a tablespoon of sugar,
and a few dashes of your favorite hot sauce.
Tiny-whisk that together until everything's dissolved,
and then we're headed over to the smoker.
I got my Traeger preheated at 225 degrees Fahrenheit,
usin' a mixture of hickory, maple, and cherry wood.
And now we're gonna leave these boys to smoke for 16 hours,
during which time we're only gonna disturb them
to mop our South Carolina-style pork.
You wanna paint the meat down
with the mop sauce every hour or so,
permeating it with spicy, vinegary goodness.
I know 16 hours seems like a long time,
but you will be rewarded with the tenderest,
juiciest, pulliest-apartiest, porkiest pulled pork
you've ever dared dream of.
So I know I've been jumping around a lot.
Let's review our three different styles thus far.
On your left, my right, we have the Memphis-style,
which was hit with the Memphis dry rub before smoking.
On your right, we've got the Alabama-style,
which at this point is just salt, pepper, and smoke.
And then in the center, we have the South Carolina-style,
which was hit with salt and pepper
and then mopped every hour with our vinegar mop sauce.
We're gonna let these guys hang out under cover of foil
for about 45 minutes while we make the rest of our sauces.
First up,
a general purpose Kansas City-style barbecue sauce.
I'm sauteing together half a small onion
and two cloves of garlic
that I'm grating into some vegetable oil,
letting those sweat a little bit
before adding one tablespoon of chili powder,
letting that toast together with the onions
for about 30 seconds before adding my wet stuff,
starting with about a 1/2 cup of good old-fashioned ketchup.
This can be adjusted as per your tastes.
1/2 cup of bright yellow ballpark-style mustard.
2, 2 1/2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar.
One tablespoon blackstrap molasses.
One tablespoon Worcestershire sauce.
One tablespoon of honey.
1/2 cup of light brown sugar.
I know that seems like a lot of sugar,
but barbecue sauce is sweet.
A few dashes of our favorite hot sauce,
and a few pinches of our dry rub.
Bring this guy up to a simmer
and let him cook for about 15 minutes
until nice and thick,
and adjust to your taste.
That's what makes barbecue sauce special.
Is it too sweet?
Add some vinegar, hot sauce, and ketchup.
Is it not sweet enough?
Add any of the ten kinds of sugar that we added.
Just make sure it's cooled completely
before bottling and selling on Kickstarter.
And now, for the enigmatic Alabama white sauce.
We're starting with one cup of mayonnaise,
one teaspoon each horseradish and mustard,
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, 1/2 cup of vinegar,
the juice of half a lemon,
and one or two cloves of grated garlic.
These guys come together
to make a rich, bracing, beguiling sauce,
which, when seasoned with kosher salt
and freshly-ground black pepper,
tastes really quite good,
and I'm excited to see how it's gonna play on our sandwich.
And with that, it is time for the blessed ritual,
the pulling of the pork.
We're starting with the South Carolina stuff.
It shouldn't be complete mush,
but it should absolutely be tender enough
to do this by hand.
You should also see a deep pink smoke ring
around the outside of your meat.
Once the South Carolina stuff is shredded
and all the extra fat and bone is discarded,
we are tossing it together
with a very, very, very generous amount
of our vinegar mop sauce.
Our Memphis dry rub is gettin' a squirt
of our Kansas City-style sauce,
and the Alabama stuff is gettin' the Alabama stuff.
And there you have it, folks: three distinct...
Whoop, excuse me.
Three distinct regional styles of pulled pork.
The Memphis-style dry rub and Kansas City sauce
is probably what most of us associate with barbecue,
sweet, smoky, and saucy.
The addictive South Carolina-style
has a lovely, spicy, vinegary bite to it.
And the rich, bracing sauce of the Alabama white
is honestly not for me,
but I think it's gonna be great on a sandwich.
Speaking of which,
I completely forgot about the baked beans
and coleslaw that I need to make.
So for the baked beans,
we're browning up 1/2 pound of thick-cut bacon
that we've cut into bite-size pieces,
removing it once all the fat is rendered out
and it's nice and crisp.
And then one tablespoon of the remaining fat,
we're going to saute 1/2 small chopped onion.
Deglaze the pan with two cups of water.
Scrape up all that good stuff off the bottom of the pot.
That is where all the flavor lives.
Then we're adding two tablespoons of brown sugar,
one tablespoon of blackstrap molasses,
one teaspoon of dry mustard powder,
and, of course, the titular ingredient:
two drained 15-ounce cans of navy beans.
And a bay leaf, for good measure.
Add our bacon back to the party,
and this guy's either gonna simmer over low heat
or bake at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for two hours,
until it's nice and thick
and has a texture reminiscent of baked beans.
Season liberally with kosher salt
and freshly-ground black pepper,
add more sweet if necessary,
and that's all there is to it.
For our coleslaw,
we're doing a vinegar-based Carolina-style slaw.
3/4 of a cup apple cider vinegar, 1/4 cup of water,
1/4 cup each vegetable oil and sugar,
one teaspoon celery seeds,
one teaspoon Dijon mustard,
big ol' pinch of kosher salt,
and freshly-ground black pepper.
Then we're gonna go ahead and tiny-whisk this together
until everything's dissolved and it forms a lovely dressing.
Then, for a nice rainbow effect,
we're using half a head of thinly-sliced purple cabbage,
a half head of green cabbage, two grated carrots,
and one small, thinly-sliced onion.
Toss this all together by hand.
There really is no other way to do it.
And there you have it, a nice vinegar-based slaw.
Now all there is left to do is assemble our sandwich.
Those who know me know
that I only toast the inside of my sandwich.
This both protects the roof of your mouth
and the sandwich itself from all of its gooey fillings.
Speaking of which,
I'm starting with a layer of baked beans
and then topping with each
of our regional styles of pulled pork:
Alabama white, followed by South Carolina,
followed by Memphis-style,
with extra Kansas City barbecue sauce.
A big ol' pile of coleslaw, and then it's time to top it up.
The VIP-only pork sandwich in question was garnished
with a single olive.
I'm going with two,
both for structural stability
and so I can make it look
like my sandwich has two little eyes,
lookin' around the room,
wondering what's going on.
Oh, no.
Sorry, little buddy, but we do need a cross section.
And what a cross section it is,
just about everything I imagine
when I think of the words "pork picnic."
But how's it taste?
And as you can imagine, it tastes really, really good.
When you take all these delicious things
and shove 'em together,
it's gonna taste nice.
The distinct style of each barbecue kinda gets lost
in the cacophony of flavor,
and I'm honestly not digging baked beans on a sandwich,
but those are about all the complaints I can muster up.
Now, if you'll excuse me,
I'm off to have my cholesterol checked.
Thanks again to ButcherBox for sponsoring this episode.
ButcherBox sources from farmers and fishermen
who meet the highest standard for quality.
You choose your box type and delivery frequency
and can skip or cancel a month at any time.
Your order will come frozen at the peak of freshness
in an eco-friendly, 100% recyclable box.
You can create your own custom box
or choose one of the boxes that they curate for you.
New members will get $10 off their first box,
plus bacon for life.
Head to the link in the video description for more info.
(easygoing music)