Pit Mop
A Southern barbecue essential, this vinegar-based pit mop keeps smoked meats moist and flavorful with every baste. A Pit Mop is basically a meat-moistening agent, and its main ingredient is vinegar. The mop also infuses a little flavor into the meat, an added layer of complexity. We mop almost all of our long-cooking meats at varying intervals dependent on how many pounds of meat we’re dealing with—each recipe has a specific time at which to open the pit and mop, ranging from every fifteen minutes to every thirty minutes after a meat’s “crust” forms. Mopping is especially important in smoking because we’re cooking with actual coals beneath the meat, and we don’t want our meat to dry out.
4
servings30
minutes40
minutesIngredients
1 gallon 1 distilled white vinegar
1/2 cup 1/2 red pepper flakes
1/2 cup 1/2 kosher salt
4 4 lemons cut in half
Directions
- Combine all the ingredients and ½ gallon (1.9 L) water in a large pot over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, and let the pepper flakes open up and the pepper seeds open out into the liquid and give it some seasoning.
- Let the mop cool completely, (approximately 1 hour) then funnel it into a container large enough to hold it. It will keep for a year in the refrigerator, and you can portion it out as you cook your barbecue along the way.
- To apply the mop to the meat, take a brand-new floor mop, cutting the handle to a size short enough so that it’s easy for you to manipulate, and periodically use it to dab the liquid mop onto the meat to give it moisture and also to give it flavor, that southern-style barbecue flavor that a mop’s all about.Loading gallery media...
