What to have with BBQ Pork?

Method

The day before:

1. Prepare the rub. Mix all the ingredients for the rub together, breaking up any clumps. Taste the rub as you make it and see if you like the taste, adjust accordingly.

2. Rub the roast with the rub. Unwrap the pork roast and place it on its butcher paper or in a roasting pan, something that can catch the rub. With your (clean) hands work the rub mixture into the pork shoulder all over, including inside any crevasses you may find in a boneless roast where the bone had been. Be generous with the amount of rub. Rewrap it in the butcher paper or wrap it in plastic and place it in a pan (to catch any liquid that may drip out), and refrigerate it overnight.

The night before:

3. Soak the wood chips. Take 3 or 4 large handfuls of wood chips (hickory, oak, apple or other fruit wood) and place them in a bowl and cover them with water to soak them overnight (can also do for an hour before using). I think it helps to have a mix of sizes, from small chips to larger (1-inch x 2-inch) chunks. The smaller chips will get smoking more quickly, but will burn out more quickly too. The larger chunks will take longer to catch, but last well past when the smaller chips have burned themselves out.

The Day Of:

4. Bring the chilled roast to room temp. 1 to 2 hours before you start the barbecue, take the pork out of the refrigerator to come to room temperature. Now, if you forget to do this, which I have done, you can still go ahead and BBQ it. You'll likely be finishing it in the oven anyway. It will just take a bit longer to cook.

5. Prepare your grill. Remove one of the grill grates. This will be your "hot" side, where the wood chips will go. The other side of the grill will be the "cool" side, and where the meat will be, away from direct heat. Depending on the structure of your grill, you may want to remove the "flavor bar", the thin metal piece with lots of holes in it that sits over the burner. The wood chips will smoke more easily if they lay in a (fireproof metal or foil) container directly on the burner.

6. If there is room on your grill, place a small aluminum tray of water on the grill to help moderate the heat and help keep the roast from getting too dry. A good place to place this is on an upper rack if you grill has one.

7. Get the grill smoking. Create a double layered aluminum foil boat with a handful or two of damp wood chips in it. Place the boat directly on the burner on the "hot" side of the grill if you can (otherwise place on the flavor bar). Turn the grill on to medium flame, cover the grill and let it heat up until the the wood chips start smoking. You'll either see smoke coming out of the grill, or if you raise the lid, you'll see smoke coming out of the wood chip boat. You should see and smell the smoke. You'll be replenishing the wood chips periodically for the next several hours so put more dry chips into water to soak if needed.

8. Once the grill is smoking, place the roast on the grill grates on the cool side of the grill, away from direct heat. If your grill has a hot spot, position the roast away from it. If there is a fatty side to the meat, put that side facing up; the fat will render over time and baste the pork. Cover the grill, lower the flame, and let the cooking begin. The temperature you want to maintain ideally is 225°F. Try to keep it close to that temperature, within a range of 210°F to 240°F. If the temperature goes too high, the roast may dry out. If it's too low, it will take forever to cook.