Another week ends, another week begins. That means…YOU GUESSED IT! 5 Days 5 Lunches!
On tap this week: Smoked Beef Shoulder with Grilled Corn and Roasted Summer Squash & Mushrooms.
I had not tried to smoke a beef shoulder before, but I figured it would be pretty hard to screw it up. I used my tried and true method of using indirect low heat for a long period of time to cook the meat (Low & Slow for short).
I made my own BBQ sauce for the beef, it’s a mixture of Spicy Korean BBQ Sauce (literally the name, this is a great marinade/sauce if you decide to make pork bellies at home), Hoisin Sauce, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, soy sauce, cranberry/blackberry preserve, a shredded pear and ground mustard.
Because this was a lunch for the week too, I paired this with some grilled corn and some roasted summer squash & mushrooms.
Recipe
1 Beef Shoulder
1 Pear, shredded
3 Cups of Wood Chips (Mesquite)
1/2 Cup of Spicy Korean Pork BBQ Sauce
1/4 Cup of Hoisin Sauce
2 Tbsp. of Worcestershire Sauce
3 Tbsp. of Soy Sauce
1/4 Cup of Ketchup
1 Tsp. of Ground Mustard
1/4 of Cranberry/Blackberry Preserve (This is a homemade preserve I made, you can use some cranberry sauce if you want. I think it gives it a nice sweet but tangy punch.)
First I marinated the beef for about an hour with some of the shredded pear juice, 1 Tbsp. of the soy sauce, and a little bit of water. You can definitely marinate for longer and use more spices. I wanted the smoke to really be the star of the show for the meat, so I didn’t want to overpower the meat with too many flavors/spices.
Once the meat is marinated, set up your grill. See below:
Soak your wood chips in water, this will be vital to creating that mesquite flavored smoke for your meat.
Okay, now you are ready to set your meat on the grill, again I set up two zones. A hot side and a cold side. I grilled the corn (as you can see on the top rack) . Once the meat is on the grill, close the lid and the vents for your grill. This will allow all the smoke to build up in your grill. Set yourself a timer for five hours.
Around hour two, you can put one light glaze of your sauce on the meat. Add some more wood chips if need be to maintain the smoke/heat.
Around hour four, you can start putting another thicker coating of the sauce glaze on. Be careful not to put too much. You don’t want your sauce to burn, since the main component of most BBQ sauces is sugar, it has a tendency to burn and ruin the flavor of the meat.
Now it’s ready to be cut up, slice the meat perpendicular to the grain and serve with the BBQ sauce. Or in my case set it aside for your lunch for the week. Enjoy!
