Recipe Corner Redux: Faygo Roast

I don’t want to have the conversation about it right now, but: Insane Clown Posse really got me and Meg through a rough patch working on the last book. I know we mentioned this earlier, but everyone probably thought it was a joke, but it wasn’t. I’m not going to try to talk anyone else into it, but I want to present two videos just so you can see:

Admit it. You smiled.

Anyway, one of the principal things of ICP is a regional soda called Faygo. It makes a cameo in the “Homies” video – see that blue stuff poured over the guy’s head early on? According to legend (Wikipedia), they also spray the audience with it during live shows. Meg and I are in talks to borrow the technology so we can spray Kendall-Jackson chardonnay on the audience at our next event.

I had so much “luck” with the Four Loko roast that I decided to give it another shot. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present:

Recipe Corner: Faygo Roast

Roasts are fun to make because the only real work required is tossing spices into liquid, pouring it on meat, and doing something else for a few hours. I ordered the Faygo from someone called “detroitwhut” on Amazon, and it arrived quickly and as described. After much thought – seriously, I was willing to do anything to postpone working on that book – I chose the flavor “Rock & Rye,” which is named after a cocktail. A Rock & Rye is a glass of rye whiskey with a piece of rock candy in it, which sounds… effective. The Faygo version of it tastes more or less like birch beer and is actually pretty good.

Don’t you like how the iPod camera really picks up the red in the meat?

Faygo, up close, with thumb.

Not until I saw this picture did I realize that I set this bowl dangerously close to the counter. The marinade contained: base of Faygo Rock & Rye with a splash of Old Crow for luck, coarse ground black pepper, hot paprika, a solid belt of Tony Chacere’s Cajun Seasoning, a solid belt of Lea and Perrins, and about 1/3 teaspoon of ground cloves as the official “what the hell” ingredient. I put a bed of chopped onions down in the bottom of the slow cooker, put the meat on top, then poured the marinade over it. I proceeded to watch several hours of TV.

First turn. The dye has soaked into the beef and turned it an unusual, almost Chinese red.

It’s not a roast without a handful of carrots to keep the roast company!

Results: This turned out fucking great. None of the “well, let’s make the most of this” bravado of the Four Loko roast. Faygo and I just did a genuinely good job here. I started it a little late so it wasn’t as tender as I wanted it, but flavor-wise it was totally solid. The cloves worked and matched the spice notes in the soda, and the peeper kept it from being too sweet. I was super proud of this.

Industrial food dye is cool. Note how the fat is still fat-colored, but suspended in reddish marinade.

The onions, however, were more than happy to accept the dye.

So, that was my meaty tribute to ICP and the soda that helps them keep going. May they both thrive.

Tulane Chris' Four Loko Roast!

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.