Smoked Pork Butt with “Hole-in-the Wall” Slaw for Holiday Recipe Club

Happy Almost Memorial Day!

Memorial Day yells “cookout” to us.   To celebrate family and remember all those that are special to us, we decided to spend the day with family and friends.      The Holiday Recipe Club’s “secret ingredients” for Memorial day were watermelon, beer or pork.     We decided to smoke a pork butt (yes, more pork) on the vintage cooker and make some more coleslaw.   (Although some beer was used by the smoking crew—there is none the recipe.)

We love our retro grill/smoker.

Pork butt is really the shoulder roast.   Why is it called a butt then?   I have no idea.

We don’t have a real recipe for our pork butt but I will try to jot something down for you.

5-6 lb. pork butt, pork shoulder, or pork sirloin roast
1/3  c. prepared yellow mustard
1/4 c. favorite dry rub

Remove pork from refrigerator.   Mix together mustard and dry rub.   Score top layer of fat on pork roast.

Porky, fatty goodness!

Rub ALL OVER pork.

Covered with the mustard and spice rub mixture.

Let pork set out for 30 minutes while grill is heating.    Cook at 250 degrees unwrapped in smoker.      Cook until a meat thermometer reads 200 degrees.   (We cooked ours about 6 hours.)

We used a small pork  roast that we bought from our favorite family farmer at the FM, but some butts can weigh almost 20 pounds.    If you have a bigger butt, make more mustard rub.   (Did I really type that?)

When we removed it from the cooker, it looked like a burnt offering.

An offering to the smoke gods.

Look closer though, and you can see the crunchy, fatty goodness.

MMMMM---Crunchy pork fat!

Look even closer and you can see the smokey goodness!

Just like we like it---falling apart with "burnt ends."

I wanted to capitalize on all that mustardy goodness so I revisited a previously posted recipe.   A few weeks ago I was waxing poetic about coleslaw and I came across this recipe in an old cookbook.   I posted the actual recipe earlier, but I whipped it up today to accompany this pork.    Here it is again (with some revisions), an oldie and a goodie:

Hole-in-the-Wall Slaw
Inspired by Mrs. Hurley from Payne County

1 head cabbage, cleaned and cored
1 red onion, halved
1/2 c. prepared mustard
1/2 c. honey
1 t. fine sea salt
1 T. apple cider vinegar
1 t. pepper

Quarter cabbage.    Run cabbage through a food processor with the slicing attachment.    Do the same with the onion halves.     Place in a large sealable bowl and mix together.

Place mustard, honey, sea salt, vinegar and pepper in a blender.   Pulse until smooth and blended.    Pour dressing over cabbage and onions.    Chill for 8 hours at least.

I changed up the original recipe and added a red onion and added honey (instead of sugar) and cut the sweetness (and calories) by 75%.    This is a tangy slaw.   If I were really making a coney topping, I would have grated the cabbage and onion.    (And this is fabulous on a smoked bratwurst in a homemade bun!)

The complete meal with a smoked potato. The verdict is still out on that potato.

Thanks to Erin at Big Fat Baker for hosting the Holiday Recipe Club!    What’s the next holiday?   That would be June 5 for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.    Toodle-oo!

(Thanks also to these clubs for at least forcing me out of my  hiatus!    I hope to give you an update and get back to all my foodie friends after Memorial Day!   Thanks for sticking with me!)  🙂