Yesterday morning, lillypond and I took our mother tillyjane to breakfast at Petite Provence. I did my best to eat lightly and carefully in the face of some very good food.

Yesterday midday, lillypond and I took our stepmother and dad to the Chart House for lunch. Again, I did my best to eat lightly and careful in the face of some very good food.

Yesterday afternoon, the_child and I attended the Engstrom-Rees smoked meat cookout chez Engstrom.

The pork butt broke down my resolve.

Those bastards.


Meat slingers Jacob Engstrom and Ed Rees

It was too damned good.


The implement of my destruction

They actually laid on quite a selection of smoked meats, including beef brisket, a whole duck, lamb and the aforementioned pork butt.


The brisket lurks at the top of the photo, clad in foil and awaiting its turn, while Ed slices the pork butt


The duck coming off the smoker


My downfall, the pork butt


Gourds on the smoker, for that pseudo-healthy rationalization


Suckling long pig, a/k/a Ed's daughter

I never got around to the duck or the squash. The lamb had a nice flavor, with a terrific rub, but was a tad tough. The brisket had a good flavor as well, nice bark on it, tasty and a bit chewy, but really needed an hour or two more on the smoker, as it hadn't gone fork-soft yet.

The pork butt, however, was a sin against man and nature. The meat divine, as it were. Pig perfection. Ed had made a very nice, savory mustard BBQ sauce to go with it, more or less North Carolina style, but that was gilding the lily of the well-seasoned, tender meat.

That is what cracked my resolve. I am a weak, weak man. But a well-fed one.

Photos 2012, Joseph E. Lake, Jr.



This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.