jdog1817
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2008
- Location
- Baltimor...
Hello BBQ fanatics,
I joined this group back in 2008 but I fell off the map for quite some time before I could really get up and running. Needless to say, I'm back...and with a vengeance! I'm still a complete rookie when it comes to smoking but I'm an avid cook and high-quality-food-a-holic. I'd like to start posting about my smoking expeditions to share and get feedback and suggestions. Hoping to learn a lot and refine my currently limited smoking skills.
Just picked up my shiny new Weber Smokey Mountain 22.5" beast of a smoker last week and I took it for its first cruise around the block last weekend (if it had wheels, I literally could have...this thing is freaking huge). I live in the city, so I probably should've opted for the 18" but I'm all about the 'go big or go home' philosophy.
I spent my entire Friday evening (as in...until roughly 3am) pouring over the forum; searching for ideas, tips, suggestions, etc. for my WSM and the meat I planned to cook. I had some difficulty finding very clear, specific guidance but I realize that's because there are so many different methods / schools of thought that it's really too hard to nail down specifics. Not to mention, umpteen-jillion threads and posts. :shock:
As a rule, I typically prefer to learn a "tried and true" method of cooking something and then tweak it, experiment, and make it my own once I figure out how it all works. I didn't find too many specific examples of that either, so I went with a smoking cookbook I got several years ago (name escapes me at the moment but I'll add it to the thread later) along with a few pointers I found on some posts here.
Anyway, enough of the context... Here's what I cooked and here's how I did it:
3.5lb local, farm raised, boneless pork butt (wasn't excited about the size and the boneless part but was super excited about the flavor potential because of the quality of the meat - actually bought 3 of them, so this is just 'take 1' of the "Small butt pilot"). Upon opening the package (this is where I made my first mistake - off to a bad start, I know), I saw that the butt came wrapped in a butcher's twine netting. It seemed to hold it together so well and I didn't want to mess with retying it. You know where this is going...I got lazy and ended up losing most of my rub/bark when I removed it at the end of cooking. Tragic.
For the rub, I opted for a fairly basic mix of seasoning & spices (S&P, turbinado sugar, paprika, cayenne, red chili flakes, and mustard powder - I didn't measure any of this out, just added and sampled until I got a good tasting, salty, slightly sweet & spicy rub), rubbed on heavy amounts of it on Friday night, wrapped it in plastic, threw it in the fridge, and took it out the next day about 2 hours before I put it in the smoker.
I prepped my WSM by pouring about 4 Natty Boh cans into the water pan and filling it up the rest of the way with water (couldn't find any clear feedback on whether or not to use liquid). Also quartered an onion and threw it in the pan as well. Next, and second big mistake, I filled the charcoal tray up with about a quarter of a bag of Kingsford. For some reason I figured it wouldn't take longer than a few hours to cook, so I didn't think I needed to use any more than that (let's just say I did some reloading several times throughout the day). I let it get pretty hot and started fine tuning the vents to get it to maintain around 250F. Mistake number three took place when I poured a few cups of apple cider into the water pan right before putting the meat on. Just can’t leave well enough alone.
I unwrapped the butt, threw a fresh coat of rub on it and threw it on the top shelf of the WSM. Then I threw in a few handfuls of Mesquite wood chips (need to get some chunks now that I'm not just adding smoke to a grill).
Meanwhile, I had recently picked up a 1lb pack of spicy italian seasoned goat sausage from my farmer's market. Let me just say, you're missing out if you haven't had some good goat sausage or chorizo. Since it was pretty lean, I decided to mix it together with another 1lb log of JD regular pork sausage. I didn't want to mix it because you lose some of the rich, savory flavor of the goat, but you gain the much needed fat level for...you guessed it…a beautiful, thick fatty. For all of you purists out there, this one's for you. I didn't want to take away any more from the goaty goodness, so I went with no filler and only a good amount of S&P and then coated with EVOO. Threw that precious log of love on the top shelf with the butt, stuck a meat thermometer into the fatty, added a few more handfuls of wood chips and let it go.
I think the fatty took a good three hours or so to get up to 165F. Some of that had to do with my rookie move of adding cold liquid to the pan and not enough coals; so I was fighting to get it back up to 250F pretty much all day long. I'd say it stayed around 220-240F most of the time. I'm thinking I'll probably try pulling the fatty at 155-160 next time since it was a little on the dry side but most of that was probably because of the lean goat meat. However, I let it rest for a good 30-45 mins and cut a few slices to snack on and the flavor and texture was outstanding. Very pleased.
The pork, however, was a bit of a different story. I think it was around hour 4 or 5 that it hit the plateau and stayed around 160F, as many of you have mentioned. I have also experienced this a time or two, back in the day. Made it through that and once it hit 170 and was looking pretty dark, I put a small strip of foil around it (I ran out of foil and the piece was only wide enough to cover the middle 4 inches of the butt) for the remainder of the cook. I let it go until it finally hit 195 (roughly 7 hours total, which I thought was a long time for 3.5 lbs of pork but I'm sure the temp struggle played a part in that) and pulled it. Decided to try the 'towel and ice chest' method, so I wrapped it in a cotton kitchen towel and threw it into a small ice chest for an hour. I then took it out, removed the netting (along with 95% of my rub/bark :doh: ) and started pulling with two forks.
Now, I have to say, after all that work and excitement and build up, I was a little disappointed in the results. The meat was tender and juicy but still pretty resistant to the pull. I've smoked a few other butts and experienced the same results but I always figured it was the smoker I was using or the wrong temp or something. This one may have been because of the actual pork that I got, as it didn't seem to have very much fat throughout and only a small fat cap on it. Not quite sure. I just know that I've done two 5-6lb Costco butts with Tyler Florence's pulled pork recipe that's cooked in the oven (hold the tomato throwing, I didn't have access to a smoker and wanted to make some pork!) at around 325F for 4 or 5 hours and it was the most tender, fall apart pork I've made so far.
Because of the bark blunder and the somewhat chunky texture, I didn't even bother taking a picture of my pork. I did, however, make a delicious and super simple Carolina style sauce that was just ACV, the last of my rub mixture, a finely diced shallot, and some brown sugar. I actually used the sauce as a mop about halfway through the cooking process too. That sauce mixed into the pulled pork, piled on a potato bun with some homemade slaw (Tyler's recipe but tweaked to my liking), some sliced dills…still makes for one darn good pulled pork sandwich. Maybe I'll just take a picture of the fully assembled sandwich and post that. If that doesn't make your mouth water, check your pulse.
Last but not least, the chicken. I picked up a 6-7lb chicken at the grocery store on Saturday while my pork and fatty were bathing in smoke. As soon as I got home, I rinsed the chicken, dried it thoroughly, spatchcocked it (the directions I used said to separate the breast meat from the breastbone and cartilage with your thumbs and remove the bones and cartilage – that was NOT as easy as they made it sound plus that bone is connected to several others so it’s hard to tell where to stop…pretty sure I took the wishbone out as well), and made an improvised rub (S&P, smoked paprika, curry powder, and cayenne – mixed to taste). I carefully separated the skin from the meat and, underneath the skin, rubbed the meat down well with my rub. I sprinkled the rest all over the skin, wrapped it up in plastic and threw it in the fridge to dry brine. Once my pork was done, I refilled the pan with water (probably my next mistake) and opened all of the vents to try to get the temp up to around 325. Turns out, I was only able to get it up to 290-300 with the freshly refilled water pan.
I’ve only smoked a chicken one other time and it was the juiciest, most flavorful chicken I’ve ever had. Unfortunately, the skin was like leather and completely inedible. I’m pretty sure I smoked it somewhere around 225-250, which is apparently too low if you want to be able to eat the skin. With that in mind, since I was only able to smoke this one at around 285-290, I figured the skin wouldn’t make it this time either. Starting out, I put it skin side down for the first 45-50 minutes, flipped it and smoked it with my thermometer in the thigh for another 45-60 minutes until it hit 175F. The skin looked and felt bad so I improvised and pulled the water pan out, put the chicken down on the lower rack and let the coals fire up with the lid off to crisp up the skin quickly. I probably should have started this earlier since it was still cooking the chicken and now I’m just losing moisture and tenderness.
However, missteps aside, the chicken turned out amazing and I was able to salvage the skin too. Note to self, use curry powder more often! I’ve never really used it and I’m so glad I did. It added an incredible depth and complexity to a simple smoked chicken.
All in all, I think it was a pretty successful day. I learned a lot and also realized I still have a lot to learn! Thanks for taking the time to read my overly detailed saga and I really look forward to hearing any and all of your feedback, critiques, and suggestions.
Happy smokin' (the only kind there is),
Jeremy
I joined this group back in 2008 but I fell off the map for quite some time before I could really get up and running. Needless to say, I'm back...and with a vengeance! I'm still a complete rookie when it comes to smoking but I'm an avid cook and high-quality-food-a-holic. I'd like to start posting about my smoking expeditions to share and get feedback and suggestions. Hoping to learn a lot and refine my currently limited smoking skills.
Just picked up my shiny new Weber Smokey Mountain 22.5" beast of a smoker last week and I took it for its first cruise around the block last weekend (if it had wheels, I literally could have...this thing is freaking huge). I live in the city, so I probably should've opted for the 18" but I'm all about the 'go big or go home' philosophy.
I spent my entire Friday evening (as in...until roughly 3am) pouring over the forum; searching for ideas, tips, suggestions, etc. for my WSM and the meat I planned to cook. I had some difficulty finding very clear, specific guidance but I realize that's because there are so many different methods / schools of thought that it's really too hard to nail down specifics. Not to mention, umpteen-jillion threads and posts. :shock:
As a rule, I typically prefer to learn a "tried and true" method of cooking something and then tweak it, experiment, and make it my own once I figure out how it all works. I didn't find too many specific examples of that either, so I went with a smoking cookbook I got several years ago (name escapes me at the moment but I'll add it to the thread later) along with a few pointers I found on some posts here.
Anyway, enough of the context... Here's what I cooked and here's how I did it:
3.5lb local, farm raised, boneless pork butt (wasn't excited about the size and the boneless part but was super excited about the flavor potential because of the quality of the meat - actually bought 3 of them, so this is just 'take 1' of the "Small butt pilot"). Upon opening the package (this is where I made my first mistake - off to a bad start, I know), I saw that the butt came wrapped in a butcher's twine netting. It seemed to hold it together so well and I didn't want to mess with retying it. You know where this is going...I got lazy and ended up losing most of my rub/bark when I removed it at the end of cooking. Tragic.
For the rub, I opted for a fairly basic mix of seasoning & spices (S&P, turbinado sugar, paprika, cayenne, red chili flakes, and mustard powder - I didn't measure any of this out, just added and sampled until I got a good tasting, salty, slightly sweet & spicy rub), rubbed on heavy amounts of it on Friday night, wrapped it in plastic, threw it in the fridge, and took it out the next day about 2 hours before I put it in the smoker.
I prepped my WSM by pouring about 4 Natty Boh cans into the water pan and filling it up the rest of the way with water (couldn't find any clear feedback on whether or not to use liquid). Also quartered an onion and threw it in the pan as well. Next, and second big mistake, I filled the charcoal tray up with about a quarter of a bag of Kingsford. For some reason I figured it wouldn't take longer than a few hours to cook, so I didn't think I needed to use any more than that (let's just say I did some reloading several times throughout the day). I let it get pretty hot and started fine tuning the vents to get it to maintain around 250F. Mistake number three took place when I poured a few cups of apple cider into the water pan right before putting the meat on. Just can’t leave well enough alone.
I unwrapped the butt, threw a fresh coat of rub on it and threw it on the top shelf of the WSM. Then I threw in a few handfuls of Mesquite wood chips (need to get some chunks now that I'm not just adding smoke to a grill).
Meanwhile, I had recently picked up a 1lb pack of spicy italian seasoned goat sausage from my farmer's market. Let me just say, you're missing out if you haven't had some good goat sausage or chorizo. Since it was pretty lean, I decided to mix it together with another 1lb log of JD regular pork sausage. I didn't want to mix it because you lose some of the rich, savory flavor of the goat, but you gain the much needed fat level for...you guessed it…a beautiful, thick fatty. For all of you purists out there, this one's for you. I didn't want to take away any more from the goaty goodness, so I went with no filler and only a good amount of S&P and then coated with EVOO. Threw that precious log of love on the top shelf with the butt, stuck a meat thermometer into the fatty, added a few more handfuls of wood chips and let it go.
I think the fatty took a good three hours or so to get up to 165F. Some of that had to do with my rookie move of adding cold liquid to the pan and not enough coals; so I was fighting to get it back up to 250F pretty much all day long. I'd say it stayed around 220-240F most of the time. I'm thinking I'll probably try pulling the fatty at 155-160 next time since it was a little on the dry side but most of that was probably because of the lean goat meat. However, I let it rest for a good 30-45 mins and cut a few slices to snack on and the flavor and texture was outstanding. Very pleased.
The pork, however, was a bit of a different story. I think it was around hour 4 or 5 that it hit the plateau and stayed around 160F, as many of you have mentioned. I have also experienced this a time or two, back in the day. Made it through that and once it hit 170 and was looking pretty dark, I put a small strip of foil around it (I ran out of foil and the piece was only wide enough to cover the middle 4 inches of the butt) for the remainder of the cook. I let it go until it finally hit 195 (roughly 7 hours total, which I thought was a long time for 3.5 lbs of pork but I'm sure the temp struggle played a part in that) and pulled it. Decided to try the 'towel and ice chest' method, so I wrapped it in a cotton kitchen towel and threw it into a small ice chest for an hour. I then took it out, removed the netting (along with 95% of my rub/bark :doh: ) and started pulling with two forks.
Now, I have to say, after all that work and excitement and build up, I was a little disappointed in the results. The meat was tender and juicy but still pretty resistant to the pull. I've smoked a few other butts and experienced the same results but I always figured it was the smoker I was using or the wrong temp or something. This one may have been because of the actual pork that I got, as it didn't seem to have very much fat throughout and only a small fat cap on it. Not quite sure. I just know that I've done two 5-6lb Costco butts with Tyler Florence's pulled pork recipe that's cooked in the oven (hold the tomato throwing, I didn't have access to a smoker and wanted to make some pork!) at around 325F for 4 or 5 hours and it was the most tender, fall apart pork I've made so far.
Because of the bark blunder and the somewhat chunky texture, I didn't even bother taking a picture of my pork. I did, however, make a delicious and super simple Carolina style sauce that was just ACV, the last of my rub mixture, a finely diced shallot, and some brown sugar. I actually used the sauce as a mop about halfway through the cooking process too. That sauce mixed into the pulled pork, piled on a potato bun with some homemade slaw (Tyler's recipe but tweaked to my liking), some sliced dills…still makes for one darn good pulled pork sandwich. Maybe I'll just take a picture of the fully assembled sandwich and post that. If that doesn't make your mouth water, check your pulse.
Last but not least, the chicken. I picked up a 6-7lb chicken at the grocery store on Saturday while my pork and fatty were bathing in smoke. As soon as I got home, I rinsed the chicken, dried it thoroughly, spatchcocked it (the directions I used said to separate the breast meat from the breastbone and cartilage with your thumbs and remove the bones and cartilage – that was NOT as easy as they made it sound plus that bone is connected to several others so it’s hard to tell where to stop…pretty sure I took the wishbone out as well), and made an improvised rub (S&P, smoked paprika, curry powder, and cayenne – mixed to taste). I carefully separated the skin from the meat and, underneath the skin, rubbed the meat down well with my rub. I sprinkled the rest all over the skin, wrapped it up in plastic and threw it in the fridge to dry brine. Once my pork was done, I refilled the pan with water (probably my next mistake) and opened all of the vents to try to get the temp up to around 325. Turns out, I was only able to get it up to 290-300 with the freshly refilled water pan.
I’ve only smoked a chicken one other time and it was the juiciest, most flavorful chicken I’ve ever had. Unfortunately, the skin was like leather and completely inedible. I’m pretty sure I smoked it somewhere around 225-250, which is apparently too low if you want to be able to eat the skin. With that in mind, since I was only able to smoke this one at around 285-290, I figured the skin wouldn’t make it this time either. Starting out, I put it skin side down for the first 45-50 minutes, flipped it and smoked it with my thermometer in the thigh for another 45-60 minutes until it hit 175F. The skin looked and felt bad so I improvised and pulled the water pan out, put the chicken down on the lower rack and let the coals fire up with the lid off to crisp up the skin quickly. I probably should have started this earlier since it was still cooking the chicken and now I’m just losing moisture and tenderness.
However, missteps aside, the chicken turned out amazing and I was able to salvage the skin too. Note to self, use curry powder more often! I’ve never really used it and I’m so glad I did. It added an incredible depth and complexity to a simple smoked chicken.
All in all, I think it was a pretty successful day. I learned a lot and also realized I still have a lot to learn! Thanks for taking the time to read my overly detailed saga and I really look forward to hearing any and all of your feedback, critiques, and suggestions.
Happy smokin' (the only kind there is),
Jeremy
