Pork Butt Prices Are Up at Costco!

Has the price of meat gone up? Most definitely. I went to Costco yesterday to purchase some pork butt (pork shoulder) to make Chinese Char Siu. Costco packs two pork butts in one package. In the past, the cost was $1.99 per pound for BONELESS pork butt. It's now $2.19 per pound for BONE-IN pork butt.

After cooking the pork butts for char siu, I decided to weigh the two bones that were in the meat after removing all the meat from the bones.

I subtracted the weight of the two bones in the pork butt which was an additional 11 oz. from the total weight. After calculations, that made the cost of the BONE-IN pork butts at $2.31 per pound. The cost of the BONELESS pork butts were $1.99 per pound. So while you think you are only paying $2.19 per pound for the bone-in version, you don't eat the bone so you need to factor that in.

$2.31 per pound is a 13.8% increase in cost. There was also a thicker fat cap too, but I did not add this into the equation.

The Covid-19 situation is of course the reason for the increases. I think that Costco is not taking the bone out because that would require more handling of the meat.

Also, I noticed that the Smithfield Baby Back Ribs used to always have the membrane on the back of the ribs removed for you. Not this time. The membrane is still there requiring you to remove it yourself. Again, most likely helps keep handing from the packing company to be less.

Sign of the times.

By the way, I marinate the meat overnight in gallon-sized Ziploc bags.   I bought one of these Oxo meat tenderizers but keep forgetting to use it! That's three cooks I could have used it on too!  It is used to get the marinade into the meat more than if you didn't do it. Pluse I suppose it tenderizes the meat at the same time.  https://amzn.to/3eAbs08

Beer Can Chicken - Minus The Can And Minus The Beer!

Beer Can Chicken... minus the beer and minus the can.  The chicken was rubbed with Kick Butt Rib Rub - Chipotle Honey.

The stand for the chicken works great.  Catches all the drippings.  The Cowboy Brand lump charcoal along with a mix of Kingsford briquets were placed in side baskets.  This was my first time using lump charcoal mixed with briquets.  The vents on the bottom and top needed to be open wider than usual for the lump charcoal to maintain heat.  The lump in general is hotter than I am used  bringing the lid thermometer to 400 degrees.  The hotter temperature resulted in a slightly charred skin.  But overall, it still tasted good.

What did you have for Memorial Day?

Hom Sui Gok and Tofu Fried In A 22" Carbon Steel Wok

My wife decided to make "Hom Sui Gok" and Fried Tofu for lunch.  These are Chinese Dim Sum items.  For Hom Sui Gok, glutenous rice flour with wheat flour wraps around a savory pork filling.  Fried Tofu is tofu dipped in panko breading.  They are really good... but she didn't like how many of the Hom Sui Gok seemed to break open during frying.  No big deal to me because they still tasted great!  I think if they were totally submerged in the oil rather than the tops to be out of the oil for a while, they would not have broken open.  The fried tofu were perfect.

Fried on my large 22 inch carbon steel wok outside at 350 degrees.  The Hom Sui Gok splattered quite a bit due to the breakage of the sticky wrapping.  The end result is a crunchy outside with soft sticky insides of the wrapping.  The pork was savory and tasted really good.  The Fried Tofu is well, fried tofu!

My contribution is the frying.  She did the rest!

Smoking Up Some Ribs On The Weber 22.5" Smokey Mountain Smoker!

I haven't made Baby Back ribs in a long time.  Knee replacement and the virus scare kept me from doing a lot of BBQ.  But we needed a change from the same things we have been eating for months now... so it was time for a competition of ribs!

One rack of ribs had my fishing buddy Jim's secret "Chinese Ribs" sauce on it and the other two racks had Costco's Flavor Connection rub that was modified with added Cayenne Pepper for a bit of kick to it.

(The photo of the ribs on the smoker is just as I put it on there... it's not cooked yet.)

I will say that my buddy's secret sauce once again wins!  Every time we do this challenge, his ribs always wins!  It is more sweet than the rub (to be expected) but it has a flavor that just works.  Others who have tried this with us in the past always say they like his better too.  Sorry, can't share his recipe with you as I'm sworn to secrecy, but it's really easy.

Smoked on the Weber Smokey Mountain smoker (22.5" version this time), all three racks fit on the top grate of the smoker.  Smoked at 240 degree for 2.5 hours and then placed in a disposable aluminum pan with a little bit of apple juice to help steam it a bit and covered with aluminum foil.  I added Pappy's Smokehouse (from St. Louis) - Jane's Sweet BBQ Sauce to the rubbed ribs and a bit more of Jim's secret sauce to his ribs.  I cooked them for another 1.5 hours at 285 degrees.

Overall, both ribs came out great, but Jim's still wins.  The ribs were not fall off the bone, but still retained a "bite" to them... this is how I like them.  Total disintegration is never my goal for BBQ.  Often, you need to put the ribs back on the grate for a short time to "tighten" them up, but it didn't need it this time.

Congrats once again to my buddy Jim for having a sauce and always winning our taste competition!

New Wok Chuan and Wok Cover

Since I have been using my 14" wok more, I thought I'd splurge and get a new wok chuan and a 13.5" cover.

It would have been nicer if the chuan was another inch or two longer, but it is at least one inch longer than my standard spatula.  The chuan is slightly cupped compared to a flat spatula and of course the curved edge works well on a round-bottomed wok.  It's nicely made.

The cover fits well.  I originally ordered a 12" cover because that's all I could find, but looking again, I was able to find a 13.5" cover on Amazon.  This fits perfectly for a 14" diameter wok.

Egg Rolls, Hom Siu Gok, and Char Siu

My wife made Egg Rolls with the Char Siu that I baked.  We also made "Hom Siu Gok" - glutenous rice dumplings.

The Char Siu was made with the same basic recipe from America's Test Kitchen.

Taco Salad For Dinner

A change of pace as we continue to shelter in place... Taco Salad with ground meat that was intended as stew meat.  We ground the meat down with a food processor instead of using store bought ground meat.  A lower fat content than the typical 85-15 ground beef, it was less greasy.

Costco torilla chips are a "best buy" with a huge bag costing only $3.99!  I used Kirkland Sharp Cheddar Cheese, diced tomatoes with green Chile, romaine lettuce and refried beans with taco mix and taco sauce.  Yum!

Enjoying My Woks More

Yes, I would have to say... since this "Shelter In Place" order from our Governor, I have been enjoying using my woks a lot more!

While I do enjoy cooking on my cast iron skillets, the wok seems more versatile to me.  Cooking up fried rice (seems I've been doing this at least every other day or more), frying up chicken or egg rolls, browning beef for beef stew or cooking up blue crabs... it works for everything it seems!

The wok heats up very quickly too whether it is on the outside burner or on the stove.  I'm very glad we have a Samsung stove that has an attachment that allows round bottom woks to be used easily!

Does it stick?  Nope.  At first, my rice sticked to the wok.  But after using it so much, the seasoning is building up on the small wok making it virtually non-stick.  Sure, if food is left for a while without stirring or not enough oil placed in the wok, it will stick.  But I'm not talking putting so much oil that it is essentially frying your food.  Just a very small amount in the wok keeps most food from sticking.

Also, when I put oil in the wok, I don't just drizzle it in the middle.  I drip it around the pan's sides so that it eventually just lands in the middle.  This way, the wok has an even distribution of oil on its surface and I don't need to hold the handle and try moving the oil around by rotating the wok.  It's so much easier than putting oil on a skillet!

Looking forward to the next cook with my woks!

America's Test Kitchen Recipe For Chinese Char Siu Pork

I decided to try making Char Siu (Chinese BBQ Pork) using America's Test Kitchen's recipe as seen on this video: https://youtu.be/eRWvWV0UtJI

Turned out pretty good!  If you follow it as I've described here, it works great.  I changed their recipe by moving the oven to 350 instead of 300 degrees though.

Here's the recipe:

America’s Test Kitchen Char Siu

Marinade:

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup dry sherry (I used Rice Wine)

6 TBSP Hoisan Sauce

2 TBSP Grated Ginger

1 TBSP Sesame Oil

1 TSP Chinese Five Spice

1/4 TSP White Ground Pepper

Reserve 1/2 cup of marinade for making a glaze

To make the glaze:

Add 1/3 cup honey

1/4 cup Ketchup

Medium heat for 5 minutes to make glaze

Marinate meat for at least 30 mins to 4 hours in a big bag (I did 24 hours)

To cook, use a rack

Line pan with aluminum foil and spray the rack

Put 1/4 cup of water in pan

Cover with foil

Bake for 1 hour at 300 degrees (I did it at 350 degrees) and put foil on top of the pan

Take off foil after 20 minutes and then continue cooking for the remaining 40 minutes.

Remove pan after the one hour and turn on broiler.

Put the meat back in broiler now for 7 minutes to dry out the meat a bit.

Take out meat and then glaze and broil again for 5 minutes.  Repeat for the second side for 5 minutes.
Keep an eye on this process with the broiler as it can burn fast at this point due to the sugar in the honey.

Rest for 10 minutes at least

Instant Pot Beef Stew While Sheltering In Place

I've made Instant Pot Beef Stew before, but this time it was quicker because I knew what to do.

I used beef that was precut for stewing purchased from Costco.  It is a cheaper cut, but it doesn't matter since the pressure cooking tenderizes the meat really well anyway.  The beef was first browned in a 14" wok on the stove rather than using the sauté option on the Instant Pot since there was so much meat.  It's just easier that way.

I added a large can of diced tomatoes, celery, baby carrots and potatoes (most were wrapped in foil before placing in the Instant Pot so that they would not become too mushy).  Seasoning included salt, pepper, parsley flakes, 3 bay leaves.

I set the Instant Pot to Pressure Cook and set the timer for 30 minutes.  After pressure was reached, the 30 minute countdown happens.  After it was done, I allowed it to sit in the pot for another 12 minutes under pressure before doing a quick release.

Rice was cooked in a rice cooker.

Easy and fast, it tasted great. The meat was so tender as well!