Smokin' in the rain

Bless me my moistily heated brethren, it has been some time since my last posting.

After almost a year without barbecue, and a recently rebuilt grill (it still smells great) looking accusingly at us, we decided it was time for the kind of smoke a doctor would recommend.

So, to ease ourselves back into life at the grill we chose a couple of pork shoulders to give us plenty to eat and help stock up the freezer. The frst obstacle was figuring out what a British butcher calls what we know as a pork shoulder, so off I trotted with a copy of a Cook's Illustrated tucked under my arm. A brief chat and we wanted either a sheeted rib or a hand of pork - we went for one of each (we also got the foot and shank!)

Meat sorted, it was rubbed with Magic Dust and refrigerated overnight. For cooking, we found some fancy Weber briquettes which claimed to burn for over 4 hours, and coupled them with some lump (I'm amazed that lump seems more easily available than briquettes here). For smokey flavour we went with some plum wood cuttings from Bobbledog Bob's recently pruned tree (as a note for the future, our new neighbour has an apple tree that may lose a branch or two this winter).

An early Sunday morning saw the meat on by 6:30, with unlit lump and a chimney of briquettes thrown on top to get the heat going. I was really impressed with these coals - they kept the heat up for 6-7 hours and only needed half a chimney adding for the last couple of hours. We did however discover one drawback to smokin' in England - the weather. All was burning merrily, then the heavens opened and helped to control the temperature, instead of smoke, the grill disappeared in a steam cloud. The plum wood worked a treat, and we have plenty left for next time. After about 10 hours of smoking, the shoulders were rested for a couple; and then we invited a mate to help pull our pork :-) It was a novel request and experience for him, but I think he enjoyed it, and certainly the eating bit.

The pork tasted great, lovely smokey flavour and an impressive smoke ring - even Mrs Flamb was grunting in delight. We have plenty of pork in the freezer now, and a bag on one side for the butcher (he thinks we're crazy) just to show him we didn't waste our money on all that pig.

So all is good on this side of the pond, the Flambs are back on the smokin' wagon and pigs are worried.