Beautiful Night

It's just after midnight, 64* outside, 13# brisket has been in an hour and change, got a shoulder going in later. Life is good 8) :wink: .

Almost 3, 61*, shoulder is out of the fridge, skinned and the freshly bared area rubbed. Time to reset my fire and get the pig next to the steer!

Got the fire reset and butt on @ 3:30, slept 'til 6:30, threw a couple sticks on the fire, ate a chunk of pork I "accidentally" cut off the shoulder and placed where it could become the tasty cook's treat it was. It's 59* now, high today is supposed to be 82! We are having some of the nicest summer weather this year I ever remember. Time for another nap, I'll get up about 8:00 and set up another 3hr load of fuel. JM you da man!


So what's cookin?

How are you doing your 3 hr. burns?

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Should have been specific, I'm cooking in the cimarron. I'm using a modified Minion method (3M mod) basically as described by Jim Ball

http://www.yellowjacketsystems.com/que/minion/

I use briq with wood chunks (hickory and cherry today) instead of the lump in Jim's article. I think I could extend this time with a larger load of fuel but I need to add flanges to the firebox door to be able to control the rate of combustion. I use a 1/2 chimney of lit lump and or oak scraps from the shop to start and a chimney measure (mine hold just a bit more than a 3# coffee can) of briq and get 3-4 hrs before having to start over.

Got my stuff wrapped and in the oven and my smoky arse is takin' a nap. Hope to be havin' dinner at 7:00. Cooler be my friend!!

Had a few coals left over so I put some cayennes and japs in the smoker for drying, just as an experiment. If they are charcoal when I wake up no big deal, there's lots more peppers where those came from.

Brisket was great, picnic shoulder should have gone to the ants, cayenne peppers dried out nice, I couldn't get the japs dry they stayed leathery even after bringing them in and trying to finish them in the oven. They were tasty on my pork sandwich though. I went about 50-50 this time, if I was a weather man or baseball player that would be pretty good.

How'd the butt get ruined?

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It wasn't ruined, just one of those things I think would have been better if I had done it different. Next time I'll brine the thing (or at least inject) to add some flavor, I won't wrap it at all, and although I find spraying in all but the latter stages of a cook(on most things) to be generally counterproductive, this is something I would regularly open the smoker to spray. pulling @ 170 to 180 max as was suggested to me would have helped too.