The Pulled Pork Adventure

So we cooked the pork butt today and it took a lot longer then I thought. Yesterday, I bought a 10.5 lbs Pork Butt, I divided the butt into 2 separate pieces. I tried my best to get them the same size but it ended up being around 4 lbs to 6 lbs.

We started smoking with apple wood around 8 this morning. We were able to keep the temperature around 225, by making sure that before we put the pork butt in when the smoker was at 250. This worked well for the first 5 hours. Then we started to fight ash.

We were able to keep the temperature up but it got harder and harder as it went on because we had 3 inches of ash.

I allowed the smaller pork butt to cook to 180 instead of 190. I am not sure if my thermometer is a little off but we were easily able to shread the pork butt. I would have let it go longer but we were really hungry.

The pork was really really good, especially the crust. The pork inward meat tasked like really juicy, tender pork. The Crust had excellent flavor. So the 4 lbs butt was a great success and pretty much it fed 4 of us and there was only a little bit left over. My only complaint was the bbq sause that we bought Ed and Ned really loved it but I thought it was too sweet. Next time or tomorrow I am making my own.

Our next hurdle was the the remaining pork roast. I was having the hardest time getting the smoker up to temp. I finally relented and did a a big batch of briquettes and got the temp to 270. I decided that this was fine because we were doing our best to get the pork past the stall.

We finally got it past 170 and decided to take it off the grill and wrap it with foil and eat it with the family tomorrow night.

My plan to reheat it is to put a little bit of apple juice in the tray and put it in the oven at 225 and let it heat up 190. I believe that it will be a great success.

So today was overall a great success, except for a small burn on my hand :) We are going to start making modifications to Smoker by placing another grill grate so that the coals can get removed from the ash.

So good success today, our next project is smoking whole chicken.

Starting Pulled Pork

The plan for tomorrow is to make some pulled pork. Normally I would write this tomorrow but there are a few things that I need to do in order to prepare.

Item 1: Make Meatheads Memphis Dust.

Item 2: Split 11 lbs Pork Butt (bought from Midwestern Meats) into 2 even pieces and trim fat.

Item 3: Put rub on pork. I have heard only putting on 4 hours prior but we decided to put it on the night before and then put another coat right before we put it on.

The plan is to start the meat smoking no later then 7 in the morning. That way the longest it will take to cook is 10 hours, which will mean that it is done by 5. Works for us because Ed's Grandfather likes to eat dinner no later then 5.

I will report on our success tomorrow!

Starting Bacon

Today I started day 1 of making bacon. I bought 2 pork bellies from Midwestern Meats totaling around 8 lbs. I coated with an equal mixture of dark brown sugar and kosher salt and stuck it into the freezer. I will let it cure for 7 days then remove from the bags and put them in the fridge for I hope 12 hours. I have a little of a time restraint since I need to get this smoked by Wednesday evening. They are a little on the thinner side so I imagine that they will cure fairly quickly.

So lets hope this works and I will have an awesome Christmas gift.

First Attempt at Ribs

Started my first Smoking experience yesterday and I decided that I needed to log my smoking endeavors. Normally, I would have done this in a spiral bound notebook but unfortunately I can not find a spare. So obviously the next step is to create a blog.

I purchased my first Smoker yesterday settling on the Brinkmann. Eventually I will buy the full size Weber Smoky Mountain, but since I have never smoked before I decided a 60 dollar investment would be better.

I started out yesterday using BBQ Galore Mesquite Charcoal calibrating the grill till it was 225 F. This was my first mistake. Even though the Smoker was at ideal smoking temperature by the time I added the water pan which was only luke warm (going to boil the water next time) and the cold meat (NEED TO DO ROOM TEMP) by the time I added the meat it dropped the temperature of the smoker to 180.

This is where I made my second mistake I added unlit coals to the the fire. I have had issues in the past getting these coals to lite and I should have known that they would take forever to light. Eventually I got smart and I started pre lighting the coals in the chimney smoker. We finally got the temp up to 225 and was able to keep it there.

We had to stir the coals a few times and had to add pre lit coals 2 more times. We also added 1 additional piece of apple wood. So we were able to get things really cooking around 1:30 and we pulled the ribs off at 6.

The ribs were done but would have done better to cook them for one more hour. The ribs were not quite pull off the bone. The cut nicely and did pull of the bone with a little bit more work. So I think 1 more hour would have been key.

So a little bit of back ground info: Bought the Saint Louis Spare ribs from Frys, they are a little too fatty for my taste. Next time I am going to try one of the local butchers to see if the ribs are a little better, used Mesquite Lump Charcoal, I am going to switch to Kingsford briquets. I know that they will be a lot easier to work with. I used apple wood, I would have preferred to measure it but unfortunately I did not have a scale so I had to wing it. I chose 2 fist size chunks and guessed that they were around 4 oz a piece. My husband with out asking me added an additional piece 2 hours in. Luckily it did not overpower the meat.

We kept the smoker between 180 to 225, with the last 4 hours being mostly 215.

Now for flavoring, it is pretty simple to say that I cheated. I bought Famous Daves Rib rub. I will be making my own rub in the future because that is the only way that I can modify the rub to fit my taste. But I will say that Famous Daves Rib Rub is really good.

So over all I have been really happy with how they turned out. I know the modifications I am going to make next time and I am really starting to enjoy the hobby.

So my plans for this week. Start curing some bacon on Wednesday and do a pork butt on Friday. Since I have to work on Friday I am going to utilize my husband since he does not have school or work that day.