What should I attempt this weekend? Ready to step it up a bit

Yep - get a butt. Very forgiving and very tasty.
Spare Ribs are good too, bit not as forgiving.
Toss on a NAKED fatty and some ABTs to snack on while you wait for that butt to cook.
And yes... I said NAKED!!!!:-D

^^^ Ron said it. Pork Butt, or Picnic (which are the 2 cuts that make up the shoulder of the hog) are by far the two most forgiving pieces of meat. Mind you, that doesn't mean that you can't ruin them (I know I have; thankfully in the past).

Run a few searches here and look up how to smoke on the Weber. Keep the temps lower than you would grilling; however dont fall into the lure/trap that 225 or lower is magic. It's not. I suggest shooting for 250, give or take. Use a rub on the butt and please keep the sugar to a minimum (if at all). If you'd like, inject it. For me, the injection was the difference in good meat to great meat. An injection can be something as simple as apple juice and a little worchestershire sauce, perhaps a little of your rub in there to tie in the flavors.

Every smoker is different. Mine will blacken the meat pretty dark after a while. As a result, I foil the meat with double wrapped Heavy Duty foil just after that 4th hour. Depending on the size of the butt and the temperature you're cooking at, it'll be done between that 8th and 12th hour; ours are usually done right at 9 hours. Matter of fact, I have 4 "on deck" for tomorrow morning.

Another little trick that I learned along the way is to let the butt rest before pulling/eating it. Take it out and let it rest for an hour or longer. If longer than an hour, wrap a towel or something around it to help keep it warm. The resting allows the juices to re-penetrate the meat.

You'll end up with moist, juicy, tender heaven!

Best of luck.

Like everyone else has said, a pork butt is pretty 'staple' when it comes to smoking meat. If you wanna try something that takes a little less time, toss on a rack of ribs.

Pulled pork is a fantastic way to go.

I'm guessing the comment about the sugars is due to the fact that sugars in a rub will burn after a while, esp. with higher temps. Correct, LD? You can use raw or turbinado sugar and this will help with that.

ABT's are jalapenos stuffed (usually with cream cheese and other stuff - experiment!) then wrapped with bacon and smoked. Some folks (like me) cut the japs in half, others stuff from the end.

Always use caution when handling jalapenos, esp. if you plan on handling anything else afterward. :shocked:.

ABT's are awsome, I make mine with japs, cream cheese, and some green onion all wraped in bacon. I have also made mushrum caps with cream cheese, green onion and bacon. And if you want to add some more add some mini winnies or smoked sausage that is cut in little bit size bits and add them to the middle. and as far as a step up smoke a nice beer can chicken would be good.

After you do the butt (Which I would also suggest), do yourself a favor and smoke a nice big chuck roast for pulled beef soon too.

Make sure you devein and deseed the peppers before stuffing them unless you are a fan of the heat.
For those who can't handle the heat, substitute the tinly sweet peppers... yum...

The first thing I ever smoked on my Weber Kettle was a brisket. Easy as cake. Keep it simple. Buy a packer and dust it with your favorite rub. Put a water pan in the middle filled with warm water or your favorite dark beer, dump a 3/4 chimney of coals on each side of the water pan. Once the kettle is up to temp (300), drop a handlful of pre-soaked wood chips on top of each pile of coals and drop your brisket on the grate. Cooking at about 300-350 (actually BBQing but it is difficult to keep a kettle low for long periods) you'll be done in about 8 hours (give or take an hour). You'll have to add five coals to each side every 2.5 to 3 hours to maintain the temp.

I did some of my best briskets this way and not as difficult as you would think!

Whatever you choose, good luck and don't be afraid to go for it, you've got to go big at some point, why not this weekend?

I'd go for the brisket. Don't know about butts where you are but they are out of this world here. Could not find one to do this weekend. Have about everything else.

Ditto on the butt and naked fatty. My advice to you, since you only cook on a kettle right now, would be to buy Big Bob Gibson's BBQ book by Chris Lilly.

Amazon.com: Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Book: Recipes and Secrets from a Legendary Barbecue Joint (9780307408112): Chris Lilly: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Wqe1szCIL.@@AMEPARAM@@51Wqe1szCIL

He cook almost all of the recipes on a kettle and provides detailed instructions and ingredient lists. You'll be putting out kick arse Q in no time.

Speaking of stuffed jalapeños instead of cream cheese I used crab meat. Good alternative. I'm not fond of cream cheese but will eat it out of a jalapeño but would so crab meet stuffed oh my gosh...

Sorry to just now get back to this. BigRed, where in Dekalb? I grew up in Tucker, off of Chamblee Tucker Rd.

Yeah, the minimize sugars is with all barbecue early on especially. Sugars can burn fairly easily. Mind you, there are people that like the flavors of burned sugar (ala. my father), but most dont. Know that you're early-on in the learning curve. One of the hardest things to learn early on is fire/temperature control, and learning to let your smoker smoke at the temperature that it likes best (so that you're not constantly fighting it). It'll have a sweet spot. It might be around 230, 250, 270.

You can always add sweetness back in with sauce. I/we do this. Even with having a nice sweet spot right at 255, I keep the sugars low and then just add them at the end.

You'll do fine.

Oh, I know that a lot of vendor supplied instructions say to soak wood chips or chunks. Please disregard that advice. It doesnt take much smoke over many hours to do the trick nicely. White billowy smoke is not desired/preferable. It tends to blacken the meat and leave a bitter taste on the outside. One or two chunks, dry, placed on a nice hot bed of coals will work wonders and will produce a very thin blueish smoke; we call it "sweet blue". It can be so thin sometimes that it's almost not visible. When you have this you will be in barbecue nirvana.

Best of luck!

CarlWayne said:

Speaking of stuffed jalapeños instead of cream cheese I used crab meat. Good alternative. I'm not fond of cream cheese but will eat it out of a jalapeño but would so crab meet stuffed oh my gosh...

Click to expand...

Hey CarlWayne.....

I'm not a cream cheese lover either. Do you mix anything with the crab when you stuff your peppers?

I've always been partial to a nice simple pork loin. They are fast and easy, with great flavor. Makes wonderful lunch meat sliced deli thin.

I used to just have an 18" Weber Grill up until I bought my WSM 22.5" - I used to do butts, chuck roasts and briskets on it all the time. Was it competition cue? Nope; but was it tasty? Heck yeah.

If you want to get adventure-some, try a small little brisket (4-5 lbs if you can find one.) What I found is that while the brisket came off nowhere near the way you think a brisket ought to be cooked, (not like butta, not especially tender) if you chopped it up with some onions, garlic and bbq it made the best damn sloppy joe ever. The way I see it, you can pretty much salvage anything as long as you don't burn it to a crisp. If the meat doesn't come out tender, well chop it up so you don't have to chew it so much! Hope this inspires you to test the waters a bit.

Good morning neighbor ~ have you got the pork butt on? :thumb:

I used to smoke exclusively on my Weber 22.5 and if I may offer a few tips:

Bank the coals to one side; I used firebricks to keep them in place ~ you could use your charcoal baskets.

For minion method, mix wood chunks in with banked, unlit charcoal. Fire up a 1/2 chimney full and dump on top of the unlit charcoal. I can get a 12 hour burn without refueling this way.

Foil pan on the other side to catch drippings.

Bottom and top vent wide open until up to temp, 250° - 275°, then shut down bottom vent completely and maintain temp using the top vent only.

No peeking! Although the Weber kettle is quick to recover, you are just slowing everything down by peeking.

That's all I can think of at the moment. Good luck and post some pics if you can. :becky: