Baked Potatoes with Topping

Fourth of July weekend coming and I'm smoking a pork shoulder. Started Friday night — ten pounds, bone-in, rubbed with brown sugar and paprika and garlic and salt and black pepper and a little cayenne, set on the smoker over hickory at 225. It'll take fourteen hours, which means I'll be up through the night tending the fire, which is fine because I don't sleep through the night anyway. The back wakes me at three AM regardless, and if I'm going to be awake I might as well be useful, and useful means smoke and fire and a pork shoulder turning slowly from raw to something holy.

The shoulder came off Saturday afternoon. Rested in a cooler wrapped in towels for two hours while I made coleslaw and baked beans and cornbread. Pulled it apart with two forks, the bark shattering into the meat, the fat rendering into silk, the smoke ring a quarter-inch deep and pink as a sunset. Connie made her vinegar slaw — cabbage, carrot, vinegar, sugar, celery seed — which is sharp and cold and perfect against the sweet, smoky pork. I piled a plate and ate it on the porch and the fireworks from the neighbors started popping before dark, which is illegal and traditional and I don't care about one of those things.

Amber and Travis and Jolene came over Sunday for the leftover shoulder. Clay was there too, wearing a T-shirt that said ARMY on it, which he hadn't worn since before Afghanistan. I noticed. Connie noticed. We didn't say anything. He ate pulled pork on a bun with coleslaw and hot sauce and sat on the porch with a can of Coke while the rest of us had beer and he didn't seem to mind, or if he minded he was managing it, which is what Dr. Rivera calls 'sitting with discomfort,' which is a phrase Clay repeats like a prayer he's not sure he believes yet.

Called Betty. She doesn't do much for the Fourth anymore — she's eighty-two and fireworks make her dog nervous, though the dog died four years ago and the nerves might be Betty's own now. She said she made a flag cake — white cake with strawberries and blueberries on top in the shape of a flag, which she's made every Fourth of July since 1974. I said is it good, Mama. She said it's cake, Craig, cake is always good. She has a point.

The pork shoulder is the centerpiece, but a cookout lives or dies by what surrounds it — and that Sunday when Amber and Travis and Jolene and Clay were all on the porch together, I needed sides that could hold their own without a lot of fuss. A loaded baked potato does exactly that: it’s filling, it’s forgiving, and everyone at the table gets to make it their own, which feels right when you’re feeding a group where some people are healing and some are celebrating and most are doing a little of both.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 1 hr | Total Time: 1 hr 10 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

6 large russet potatoes, scrubbed clean
2 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup sour cream
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
6 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
4 green onions, thinly sliced
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
Salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat your oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with foil for easy cleanup.
Prep the potatoes. Pat the scrubbed potatoes dry, rub each one all over with oil, then sprinkle generously with kosher salt. Pierce each potato 6–8 times with a fork to allow steam to escape.
Bake. Place potatoes directly on the oven rack or on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 55–65 minutes, until the skins are crisp and a fork slides easily into the center with no resistance.
Rest and cut. Remove potatoes from the oven and let them sit for 5 minutes. Cut a lengthwise slit across the top of each potato, then gently squeeze the ends toward each other to open the potato up and fluff the interior.
Add butter first. Place a pat of softened butter into each opened potato and season with salt and black pepper. Let the butter melt into the flesh for about 30 seconds.
Load the toppings. Top each potato with a generous spoonful of sour cream, a handful of shredded cheddar, crumbled bacon, and a scatter of sliced green onions. Serve immediately while the potato is still steaming hot.

Nutrition (per serving)

Baked Potatoes with Topping — The Side Dish That Holds a Cookout Together