No-Work Smoked Pork Shoulder or Spareribs

A gas grill works best here (though an oven will do for the first variation). You’ll be amazed by the ease of this lowand- slow technique and downright shocked at the result: The meat can be served straight off the grill, with no more than a squeeze of lime and a few drops of Tabasco, or with any salsa or chutney. Or your can refrigerate the whole thing, slice the shoulder or cut between the ribs, and put it back on the grill—this time over direct heat—to add a crisp steaklike char over the super-tender insides.

2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons mild ground dried chile, like ancho or New Mexico

2 teaspoons good paprika

One 5- or 6-pound pork shoulder or spareribs

• Start a gas grill, using the burners on only one side to achieve a heat of 250–300°F. Put a couple handfuls of wood chips in a tin foil pan and set it over the burners that are on. While the grill heats, mix together the dry ingredients and rub them all over the pork, including under the skin as best you can and in any crevasses you find.
• Put the pork on the cool side of the grill, cover, and walk away. Check about 15 minutes later to make sure the chips are smoking and the heat is below 300°F. Now you can ignore the pork shoulder almost entirely; check every hour or so to make sure the heat hasn’t escalated too much and the chips or charcoal do not need replenishing. If you’re cooking ribs, turn them every half hour or so.
• The pork shoulder is done when it reaches an internal temperature of about 190°F, about 4 hours later (less if you used a smaller piece of pork, more if larger). More important, the pork will be very tender. The ribs are done when they have lost much of their fat and developed an unquestionably cooked look, anywhere from 2 to 6 hours later.
• This next step is optional for the shoulder but a must for the ribs: Just before you’re ready to eat, raise the heat to high (or add a bunch more briquettes and wait a while) and brown the meat on both sides. Be very careful; they should still have enough fat on them to flare up and burn, ruining all your hard work in an instant (believe me, I’ve done it several times). Watch them constantly and move them frequently. Browning will take about 10 minutes. Serve immediately with any sauce you like or refrigerate overnight, slice, and grill (or pan-grill) individual slices.

MAKES: 6 to 8 servings

TIME: About 4 hours, largely unattended