Month: December 2013

The story of an old-timey programming hack

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Tom Moertel’s tale of a great old-timey game-programming hack, it reminded me of my computer science days and assembly programming.

A long time ago, when I was a college undergrad, I spent some time working on computer video games. This was in the 8-bit PC era, so the gaming hardware was almost impossibly slow by today’s standards.

It might not surprise you, then, to learn that, back then, game programmers did all sorts of crazy things to make their games run at playable speeds. Crazy, crazy things.

This is a story about one of those things.

Crockpot Guinness Pulled Pork

Pulled Pork

5lb Pork Shoulder
1 can Guinness
1 white onion, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic

Brining

1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 clove garlic
2 bay leaves
1 tsb black pepper

Brined overnight. Placed the onions on the bottom of the crockpot as a base. Put the pork shoulder on the onions. Run a can of Guinness over it. Drop the garlic on top. Set the crockpot on low. Try to go for at least 8 hours, you can play around with temperature and time.

Served on a toasted bun with coleslaw. I prefer something vinegary, but it’s up to you.