MmMmMmm, spiiiiine.
They aren’t easy to find, you have to really look and even ask around to find them. But when you do? There’s nothing like fresh pork spine grilled over a real fire.
How best to grill thine spine?
When you get your fresh spine, it’s always good to trim the fat a bit and remove any silver skin or leftover trachea. Ya know, when I was spicing up these spines last night I kept thinking of an old Far Side cartoon. The image was of a barn yard, filled with chickens all laying on the ground. The caption read, “Boneless Chicken Ranch”. I can’t help giggling to myself at all the poor little piggies without their spines.
Tonight’s spicy was on the easy side, fresh lime juice, chile pepper, salt, pepper & celery seeds. Set your grill up for indirect cooking!
See that cherry log there? Not only is it lending smoky goodness, but am also using it as a heat shield (take notes ya foo). Attempting to keep one side of the grill that much cooler, works good too. With some fire tending, moving meat around and love, we get this about an hour and a half later.
Summer is coming up here pretty soon, show your friends and family that you love them and grill them a good pork spine. You’ll be glad you did.
Never seen such a thing. Looks intriguing. Gutsy, too.
Nice, looks damn tasty too. Lots of bone-knawing goodness there!
I’m so hungry, I thought the first colour picture (with the fork) was the finished product! It all looks so good, I’d probably eat the log, too. Why do we only eat the ribs?!?
What was for dessert? People toes?
Hey Cookie,
People toes? Ick!
Biggles
Hiya Meathenge
What on earth is that contraption/device are you cooking the spines on? Was it part of an old circular staircase? Seriously.
Hey Dominic,
It’s a Rotal Barby! And it does look like a circular staircase, doen’t it? It’s got 3 triangle shaped levels, stacked on top of each other. The bottom one is for the charcoal, the two uppers are to be filled with food. Pretty darned cool. Here’s a post with some more pictures:
http://www.meathenge.com/archives/001216.html
Biggles
You must know someone who makes whole hog sausage to get spines like those. I like to get the backbone sawn through with meat bits on either side, like a chop. Hard to find but worth it (hint – don’t look in Safeway!) Stew them slow and long with white wine, green olives, onion, and whatever else strikes my fancy. The spine marrow gives it a special rich quality. Eat close to the bone, suck the marrow, and you can’t go wrong.