Made an Alton Brown style ceramic electric smoker - dry meat

* See Pictures of Smoker on Page II

I'm relatively inexperienced at the art of BBQ, but I've successfully smoked chickens, pork shoulders and ribs on a standard weber kettle grill using patience and a wireless electric meat thermometer.

Recently I decided that using a charcoal grill as a smoker was a Pain in the ___, as I decided to build an electric ceramic smoker from two terra cotta flower pots, a $12 electric single burner heating element from wallgreens, and a standard weber grate for the food (and a pie pan for the wood chips).

I decided to try a small piece of meat, so I used a 4.5 lbs bone in piece of pig shoulder. It cooked for about 6.5 hours before the temp said the internal temp was correct. I kept the temperature of the smoker between 225-250...if it got close to 250 I'd shut it off and then turn it back on when it approached 225...at first it took a lot of on/off to make it the right range as even the "low" setting on the burner easily warmed up the smoker to 250 or higher but as time went on the heat stabilized more.

I immediately knew something was wrong, as in the past when I did it on the kettle, the meat was "fall off the bone" tender and easily "pulled" with two forks. This time the meat was incredibly dry and very tough, though the flavor was good. I put it in a slow cooker with a beer for another few hours to try and add some moisture back in and maybe make it more tender, but it didn't get much better. With the sauce and slaw it was totally edible in sandwich form, but I considered it a failure. I should note I even brined the meat for over 16 hours as well.

Should I have wrapped the shoulder in foil perhaps after the initial 2 hour smoking period? I used wood chips and I found a pie pan full lasted for 45-60 minutes of smoke.

Should I try and add a second grill under the first one and add a water pan?

Should I just do the initial smoking on the smoker and then oven finish?

Or, perhaps the meat was just too small for a 6.5 hour cook? When I did an 8-10 lb shoulder on the kettle it cooked for over 16 hours without drying out before it hit the right internal temp and was fabulous.

Any thoughts on improving the setup?

I'd need to find a smaller grate to place under the main one to hold the water pan. Will this make a big difference?

Now that I think about it I always had a water pan in the weber so that makes sense.

I'm new, what is a UDS?

bluetang said:

You had to ask:wink:

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I googled it. Quite cool, but larger than what I need. I'm in San Francisco and I'm lucky I have any kinda of balcony or backyard at all to do this in.

SmokinAussie said:

I'm thinking the brining did not help either. It wouldhave drawn fluid out of the pork. Combine that with not using a water pan, and you get one tough peice of pork...

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Isn't brining for the purpose of adding moisture to meat? I thought the salt caused the meat to absorb water?

I'll try again this weekend with a similar sized piece of meat, and add a water pan.

Weird, Alton Brown didn't mention that on his show.

Is it possible a shorter brine would have been better?

Ron_L said:

First, check the meat label to see it it has been "enhanced" with some sort of solution. If it is, don't brine.

Second... Brine for about an hour per pound. Doing it longer will start to cure the meat and also give you a salty end result.

Third... You mentioned that you "cooked for about 6.5 hours before the temp said the internal temp was correct" What was the internal temperature? Also, you really can't go by internal temperature. Some pieces of meat are done at 190, others not until 205. When the pork is done the temp probe will slide in like it is going into warm butter.

Fourth... I have cooking small cuts. Cook a whole pork butt (boston butt) next time (at least 8 lbs). The extra mass and fat help keep it moist.

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1. The meat was from a Chinese butcher in the Mission district of SF, they don't pre-package anything and I have no idea where the meat comes from. All I know is that it was super cheap

2. Will not overbrine in the future.

3. I cooked it until 190....it was clearly dry as heck at that point so cooking till 205 wouldn't have done anything.

4. I wanted to start with a small cut that wouldn't take 8-12 hours to cook, guess that's a mistake.

Thanks a ton! I know what I'm doing this weekend1

See attached pics. I don't have a waterpan level though that will be my next move.

You can see how the meat turned out too. I really should rebuild it with pot sizes 1 larger, the heating element doesn't quit fit flat on the bottom of the pot and I think the temp gets too high because the pots are smaller. I'm not good with soldering or wiring but I'd also like to pay someone to extend the wires from the element from 6 inches to a few feet so I could keep the control unit further away from the smoker and mount the smoker properly on bricks instead of using cardboard to insulate the plastic control housing.