AgriTalk host Chip Flory stopped by the Ralco hospitality tent at the World Pork Expo in Des Moines, Iowa, to try some of the popular barbecue served up by Bill Mulso with Sons of Butchers.
Sons of Butchers, based out of Marshall, Minn., started out as a competitive barbecue team consisting of Mulso and his brother, both sons of butchers. They joined with Mike Kramer, a good friend, and they started participating in some competitions across the upper Midwest.
“We competed for about seven to eight years, but life took us in different directions the last few years,” he told Flory. Now Sons of Butchers caters events on occasion such as Ralco’s hospitality tent at World Pork Expo.
Pork Secrets Revealed
When it comes to putting pork on the grill, Mulso says his go-to is a great pork steak.
“It’s something that doesn’t get cooked a lot because you’ve got to cook it correctly,” Mulso says. “But I love it.”
The pork steak is a cut that comes from the shoulder, which is often used for pulled pork, he explains.
“It’s a very forgiving cut of meat. You can cook it a long time and it gets tender like a pork butt. It takes really well with sauce and whatever your favorite seasoning is,” Mulso adds.
Plus, it’s an economical piece of meat. Mulso says it’s a cut everyone should try. Flory pointed out one of the big discussions at World Pork Expo was increasing domestic demand for pork.
“Everybody’s talking about the pork loin,” Flory says. “Any tips for how to do it right?”
Mulso prefers thick pork chops if he doesn’t cook the loin whole. When he’s tailgating, he likes to put the chops on a skewer and do a pork chop on a stick. Another popular way he prepares them is to add some veggies and create pork kabobs.
Pork pairs well with a lot of different flavors. He says that was one of his focuses at World Pork Expo, in addition to finding fun ways to feature ground pork.
Meat Candy Draws a Crowd
One of the popular items Mulso served in Des Moines was his meat candy made from pork belly.
“I take a fresh pork belly and cut it into about one-inch cubes. Then I season it with a nice barbecue rub. You can use anything on it, but I just hit it with a nice barbecue, all-purpose rub and then spread it out on the racks in my smoker and let it go for a couple hours until cooked to about 135 to 140 degrees,” Mulso explains. “Then I put the cubes in an aluminum pan, cover the pan and put them back in the smoker and just let it render down until it’s nice and tender.”
Once it renders down, Mulso says the result is a “little cube of bacon that melts in your mouth.”
“After that, I hit the meat with a little bit more of that barbecue rub and then with the sauce. We used Texas pepper jelly, or rib candy. It’s an apple-cherry habanero glaze, and we just sprinkle that over it, and it gives you a little bit of that saltiness from the rub, some sweet and a little bit of heat from that glaze,” he says.
Flory adds that people don’t need to get wound up with seasoning when it comes to pork because salt, pepper and a little bit of garlic do the job just fine.
“You don’t need anything fancy,” Mulso agrees. “There are so many different kinds of rubs out there. Use whatever is your favorite.
Don’t get caught up in the rub and what type of seasoning you’re using because pork takes well to any of them.”
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When the Smoke Clears: Pork Barbeque Secrets Shared at World Pork Expo
