Smokey bone-in pork - roasted long and slow

Usually I am pretty lazy on Sunday. On Saturday, I do a lot of chores, but Sunday, I don't do much but relax. Recently, I bought a nice bone-in pork butt roast, which I wanted to roast over wood and charcoal. I seasoned it up and let it rest for a few hours. 

When it was time to cook, I lit two fires in the grill. I put the roast in a cast iron pan on the grate and centered it between the two piles of coals and closed the lid on the grill. Next I found a nice shady spot to sit and read ... for the next five hours. As I said, I am kind of lazy on Sundays.

Every once in a while, I’d get up to add a small chunk of wood to the coals and turned the roast over in the pan. After five hours, it was beginning to fall apart and was smokey good. Here's how I prepared everything.

Rub

1 tsp. cajun seasoning

1 tsp. paprika

1 tsp. cayenne

1 tsp. smoked paprika

1 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. white pepper

1 tsp. garlic salt

1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. thyme

Roast

4 lb. bone-in pork roast

Olive oil

3 limes, quartered

6 potatoes, washed

Flour

Cajun seasoning 

Water

Preparation

Mix the rub together and stir well. You won’t need all of it for this, just save the rest. Rub the roast on all sides with lots of the rub and let it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours, or better yet, overnight.

Make two piles of charcoal on opposite ends in your grill. Place a hardwood branch, about 2” thick and five inches long, as a border for each pile of charcoal. Light the charcoal by placing dry sticks on top of each pile of charcoal and lighting them with a torch.

When the sticks have burned down and the coals are glowing, place the roast on a cast iron pan and drizzle a little olive oil over the roast. Place the pan on the grill centered between the two piles of hot coals. Add the potatoes to the grill, but not over the coals. Squeeze half of a lime over the roast and cover the grill. Sit down and read.

After an hour or so, the coals will start to dwindle. Add a chunk or two of hardwood to the coals to produce smoke. Also, add a few pieces of charcoal to each pile. Not enough to raise the heat a lot, just enough to keep the coals alive and smokey.

Every hour, turn the roast over, add a few pieces of charcoal, and squeeze some lime juice over it. After about an hour or so, you will notice the potatoes are done. Remove them from the grill. 

After five hours, the roast will want to fall apart when you try to turn it over. That’s a good thing. It’s a sign that your roast is ready to serve. Put the potatoes back on for a few minutes to heat them back up and then bring everything in.

Place the roast on a cutting board and pour off some of the fat out of the cast iron pan, but leave enough for gravy (about half a cup, depending on how much gravy you want). Heat the remaining fat on the stove and add enough flour to absorb most of the fat. Season the flour and fat with cajun seasoning. Start adding water, a little at a time to make a gravy. When it is the right consistency, taste it and adjust it for salt and pepper.

You won’t have to slice the pork as much as pull it apart. I was able to pull the bone out of the meat and it came out clean. It should pull apart easily. Place the meat on a platter.

Serving

To serve this, take a potato and break it open. Pile a big pile of the roast pork next to the potato and then smother both in gravy. Add some sautéed broccoli next to that. Slice the fresh baked bread, pour the wine and dinner is served!