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is One Chatty Farker
I picked up a Pit Barrel a few months ago to see what all the hoopla was about. This is my forth cook on the Barrel and first pork butt. Previous cooks were chicken and a rack of baby back. I thought I would share.
I picked up a pair of 6.5# butts from a local grocery store. They were beautiful. Nice size, shape, dark colour, good fat cap. I didn't trim them at all. They were injected with a Chris Lilly 1/2 salt and sugar injection the night before. Then at 7:00 am, I seasoned them up. I used a light coat of Pit Barrel All Purpose, 10 minutes sweat, and then a medium to heavy coat of Pit Barrel Beef and Game (as recommended by Pit Barrel)
Here are the butts all seasoned up:
My last three cooks on the barrel, I've lit it the way Pit Barrel says using lighter fluid. I don't think I've been using enough (yes enough) lighter fluid, because when I light it, it doesn't all go up in flame. Just a small flame at the match. I've tried to throw more matches in etc. The two chicken cooks came out fantastic. But, I swear the babybacks had a strong lighter fluid taste on the first three bones closest to the fire. It was so bad I threw them away. The rest of the rack was good though. Anyway, this cook I decided to go back to using a chimney. I lit about 1/4 of a chimney, maybe 25 briquettes. This is more lit than the lighter fluid method after 20 mins. Here is what it looked like in the Barrel with three chunks of wood. I left the lid off for probably another 5 minutes. My thermometer said it was about 220* right after the lid went on and 20 minutes later it had leveled out 275* - 8:20am.
Here they are hanging. You can see where my Maverick probe is. BUT note, later in the cook I put a thermo on the middle of the grate and it was reading about the same.
Temps fluctuated and dropped down to around 255* for a lot of the cook. Here is after 5 hours. They were just hitting 150* to 160*. I wrapped in foil and put on the grate.
After 7:30 hours, the butts were hitting ~195*. I opened the foil up to firm up the bark a little, gave them another 30 minutes and then pulled them. They were around 200* when I pulled them. I let them sit on the counter for maybe 5 minutes and then wrapped and cooler. 2 hours in the cooler and here is what I had.
and after 8 hours in 30* weather, here is the charcoal left. Probably enough for 2 - 3 more hours.
The butts came out fantastic! Everyone loved it and couldn't stop. I poured the juice off into a jar and then added 1/2 back. That juice was amazing flavor. I really really enjoyed the flavor profile. It was very savory, not the typical sweet spicy that you get with other rubs. Kind of a mix of BBQ and pork roast. This might be one of my top favorite rubs (and I've tried LOTS). I normally don't foil. I somewhat missed the crunchier bark. I need to experiment a little more.
I'm not going to claim the Pit Barrel did anything special that other cookers can't. But, it is a simple easy to use smoker that worked really well. And well built. It is nice for me to have a smaller drum to add to my 55 gal UDS. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend one.
I picked up a pair of 6.5# butts from a local grocery store. They were beautiful. Nice size, shape, dark colour, good fat cap. I didn't trim them at all. They were injected with a Chris Lilly 1/2 salt and sugar injection the night before. Then at 7:00 am, I seasoned them up. I used a light coat of Pit Barrel All Purpose, 10 minutes sweat, and then a medium to heavy coat of Pit Barrel Beef and Game (as recommended by Pit Barrel)
Here are the butts all seasoned up:
My last three cooks on the barrel, I've lit it the way Pit Barrel says using lighter fluid. I don't think I've been using enough (yes enough) lighter fluid, because when I light it, it doesn't all go up in flame. Just a small flame at the match. I've tried to throw more matches in etc. The two chicken cooks came out fantastic. But, I swear the babybacks had a strong lighter fluid taste on the first three bones closest to the fire. It was so bad I threw them away. The rest of the rack was good though. Anyway, this cook I decided to go back to using a chimney. I lit about 1/4 of a chimney, maybe 25 briquettes. This is more lit than the lighter fluid method after 20 mins. Here is what it looked like in the Barrel with three chunks of wood. I left the lid off for probably another 5 minutes. My thermometer said it was about 220* right after the lid went on and 20 minutes later it had leveled out 275* - 8:20am.
Here they are hanging. You can see where my Maverick probe is. BUT note, later in the cook I put a thermo on the middle of the grate and it was reading about the same.
Temps fluctuated and dropped down to around 255* for a lot of the cook. Here is after 5 hours. They were just hitting 150* to 160*. I wrapped in foil and put on the grate.
After 7:30 hours, the butts were hitting ~195*. I opened the foil up to firm up the bark a little, gave them another 30 minutes and then pulled them. They were around 200* when I pulled them. I let them sit on the counter for maybe 5 minutes and then wrapped and cooler. 2 hours in the cooler and here is what I had.
and after 8 hours in 30* weather, here is the charcoal left. Probably enough for 2 - 3 more hours.
The butts came out fantastic! Everyone loved it and couldn't stop. I poured the juice off into a jar and then added 1/2 back. That juice was amazing flavor. I really really enjoyed the flavor profile. It was very savory, not the typical sweet spicy that you get with other rubs. Kind of a mix of BBQ and pork roast. This might be one of my top favorite rubs (and I've tried LOTS). I normally don't foil. I somewhat missed the crunchier bark. I need to experiment a little more.
I'm not going to claim the Pit Barrel did anything special that other cookers can't. But, it is a simple easy to use smoker that worked really well. And well built. It is nice for me to have a smaller drum to add to my 55 gal UDS. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend one.