So… I have a confession to make. Remember several months
ago, when Meg and I did our infamous Bum Wine tasting and talked a lot of tall
shit about Four Loko, the formerly caffeinated, sugar-and-booze tallboy the
kids are so into these days? Well… I may or may not (but definitely HAVE) had a
change of heart. I kept taking little sips of other people’s Four Lokos (Fours
Loko? Fours Lokos?) so that I could “make sure it was as bad as I remembered.”
And what do you know? Just like the D.A.R.E. officer said, sips turned into
gulps, and one what-the-hell purchase of the new Green Apple xXx flavor turned
into a three-a-week habit. I use them as meal-replacement shakes, like in a
crash diet. The results are interesting.
Anyway, you know how you can use soda as the base for a
marinade on a roast? The sugar gives the meat that sweet flavor a lot of people
like, and the phosphoric acid tenderizes it. So if you can cook meat in soda and in wine, why not in their unholy foster child? So, for 2Birds1Blog’s
first, and likely last,
RECIPE
CORNER
may I present: Porc au quatre loko.
You
will need:
A pork roast
A can of Four Loko (I used the Lemon-Lime flavor because the
old recipe books I got the soda-marinade idea from recommend Sprite for pork)
A crock pot or other slow cooker (You can do it in the oven
but I didn’t want to fuss with “exact temperatures” and so forth)
Some spices n’ shit. I chose from my spice cabinet by
smelling the spice, smelling the Four Loko, smelling the spice again, and
putting in the spices that didn’t especially clash.
I used paprika, garlic
powder, mustard, a little cayenne, curry powder, coarse ground black pepper,
and a hearty dose of Tony Chachere’s Cajun Seasoning – the extra spicy kind,
which is my default seasoning. I like to throw in a lot of spices, but you
could get by with garlic, pepper, and salt. I also threw in some MSG, which you
may remember us investigating a while ago. I’m already playing fast and loose
with my health and God’s creation, so I might as well go all in.
A pat of butter, more or less for luck
A small glass
Instructions:
Place the roast in the crock pot. This first step is crucial. Pour yourself a small glass of
Four Loko to drink as you cook, then pour the rest in around the roast.
Add the
spices and stir it all up, coating the roast. If you like it peppery, add the
pepper last so the grains are more likely to stick to the roast. Let it sit in
the fridge overnight; ideally make the marinade in the early evening then flop
the roast over before bed. In the morning, flop the roast again and turn the
crock pot on low. Let it cook for several hours: it will get tough, then
fall-apart tender.
Results:
The most alarming part of all this, so far, is that the Four
Loko’s notoriously vivid color leached into the fat on the roast, dyeing the
meat a distressing green. This mostly passed after a few hours of roasting. The
resulting roast is actually pretty good. It kept some of the sweetness, but
most of the Four Loko flavor boiled away, although there is a not completely pleasant aftertaste. It is very tender. I should have used much
more pepper and some more Tony’s, but overall it’s not a bad dinner. I may try
a darker flavor on a beef roast later, and will keep you posted.
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