Here at the Sickos Committee, we’re big fans of weird ballpark and stadium food combinations. We love the gigantic portions or weird combinations of food and even things that seem really humanly impossible to eat while seated for a game. So in that spirit, our resident weird food connoisseur, the Corn Correspondent (Corn-espondent, as so many of you wish we called it, but damn it is too difficult to say out loud), Andy, will be doing a weekly food blog where he combines ingredients from two different teams randomly selected each week and gives you the recipe here each Friday during the season. Here is the Week Five Edition.

After the Chicken Philly last week, I was looking forward to making another sandwich. Looking at this week’s schedule, I was trying to find a team combo that would make for a good sandwich. People who know me know that I’m a BBQ guy at heart, so I thought to check out the North Carolina schools to see if there were any good sandwich match-ups. Duke plays at Syracuse, but mixing pulled pork in a garbage plate didn’t seem right. UNC and Clemson play but combining the two Carolina’s into one BBQ is just asking for trouble. So then I looked at NC State. I see they’re hosting Virginia Tech, and that set up the perfect opportunity. You see, a few weeks ago a friend sent a recipe to our group chat. Another friend, coincidentally an NC native, said it grossed him out and I knew it’d be a perfect thing to save. (Again, people who know me know that I have an affinity for food crimes.)

Pulled Pork Sandwich with Cheese Slaw

First thing’s first, we gotta make the pork. I love a good pork shoulder. It’s easy, it’s forgiving, I can throw it on the smoker before going to bed…It’s nearly perfect. Some people will say that all you need for pork is a generous helping of salt. But I wanted to add a little more to the rub, so I did a 1:1:1 ratio of salt, pepper, and garlic. I seasoned it in the morning and then put it back in the fridge to dry brine throughout the day before I smoked it overnight. Once the pork was finished, I pulled it off and gave it a good long rest in a cooler before pulling it a few hours later.

Next, it was time to make the Virginia portion of this sandwich. According to Southern Living, the Roanoke area of Virginia has a unique dish called Cheese Slaw. They say that it’s a cousin to pimento cheese, which I can agree to plus it does have a similar texture to cole slaw. I knew it’d be perfect on this sandwich! The recipe is pretty simple. You shred the cheese, mince the other ingredients, and mix it all together with mayonnaise. Let it rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes and that’s it!

I combined the two onto a hamburger bun, and topped it with some leftover NC style vinegar sauce from my Week 1 post. It made for another tasty sandwich and a happy corn correspondent with my leftovers!

I would definitely recommend trying this cheese slaw. It’s interestingly tangy and cheesy, and worked great with a pork sandwich!