First, I want to thank everyone once again for the great advice and I need to give a special shout out to Smokin Gator.
The butts took almost 14 hours, but it's my fault for poor planning and jamming the rig full of stuff. I made the standard Renowned Mr. Brown, some baby backs soaked overnight in an apple cider bath, and a big fatty stuffed with Gruyere and diced Granny Smith apples.
Everything turned out good... not stellar, but I took away a lot of good knowledge. The family and neighbors loved it however so at least I've surpassed the Sonny's BBQ threshold by a long shot. Along with the fatigue, since I never really went to bed... there was some stress, but it was effectively mitgated by an excellent 1997 bottle of cab. I have to say that I was giddy as hell when I finally got to experience what I've read you guys talking about when the you wiggle the bone and it comes free. That was nice moment and I figured things had gone right. I didn't do things quite like I planned... I didn't foil like I wanted, but overall it went well and the advice I was given really paid off. One thing in particular was that one butt was ready at about 190... the bone practically fell out just sitting in the smoker. I'm glad for getting that tidbit of info since I was so concerned just with temps to begin with. I actually spend some time poking the meat all over to get an idea how it should feel for future refrence.
Here are my takeaways from yesterday:
The Mr. Brown recipes just has too much pepper for me. Some of the bark had a very bitter peppary taste to it. I think I definately like the sweet and smokey rubs that I'm more used to and have perfected to my taste over the years. I think next time I'll definately inject as well. I'd like to give the interior meat a bit more flavor so I'll see how that goes next time.
I've never soaked ribs and doubt I'll do it again. I think the vinegar broke the meat down too much. It had an odd texture that I didn't care for. I did offset the vinegar with one of my favorite rubs and the flavor turned out pretty nice. I'll have to toy with that combo more... maybe lean the sauce towards the vinegar side with the sweet rub.
The fatty was awsome though I think I need to use a different type of sausage. It retained the decidedly breakfast taste to it... but it was in fact gone in about 20 minutes as the "taster" prelude to the bbq.
Other things I learned...
- I don't need two 8lb butts for 7 people. Don't know what I was thinking there and just made everything crowded. The pulled pork in the pic is just one butt after my brother already dove in like gang busters while I wasn't watching
- Do not under any circumstances dump unlit coal atop lit coal. I had uncontrolled white smoke for a solid 5 minutes and had to lift all the lids until it dissapated. Perhaps that added to the bitterness I experienced. I'm still having trouble getting the wood chunks not to pour out white smoke either when I add them. I've been putting one or two heated chunks every hour or so.
- As ash builds up... it gets harder to maintain temp and it appears to not last as long as it does with a clean firebox.
- Despite how excited you are... do not grab a large 205 degree pork with your bare hands. :lol:
The butts took almost 14 hours, but it's my fault for poor planning and jamming the rig full of stuff. I made the standard Renowned Mr. Brown, some baby backs soaked overnight in an apple cider bath, and a big fatty stuffed with Gruyere and diced Granny Smith apples.
Everything turned out good... not stellar, but I took away a lot of good knowledge. The family and neighbors loved it however so at least I've surpassed the Sonny's BBQ threshold by a long shot. Along with the fatigue, since I never really went to bed... there was some stress, but it was effectively mitgated by an excellent 1997 bottle of cab. I have to say that I was giddy as hell when I finally got to experience what I've read you guys talking about when the you wiggle the bone and it comes free. That was nice moment and I figured things had gone right. I didn't do things quite like I planned... I didn't foil like I wanted, but overall it went well and the advice I was given really paid off. One thing in particular was that one butt was ready at about 190... the bone practically fell out just sitting in the smoker. I'm glad for getting that tidbit of info since I was so concerned just with temps to begin with. I actually spend some time poking the meat all over to get an idea how it should feel for future refrence.
Here are my takeaways from yesterday:
The Mr. Brown recipes just has too much pepper for me. Some of the bark had a very bitter peppary taste to it. I think I definately like the sweet and smokey rubs that I'm more used to and have perfected to my taste over the years. I think next time I'll definately inject as well. I'd like to give the interior meat a bit more flavor so I'll see how that goes next time.
I've never soaked ribs and doubt I'll do it again. I think the vinegar broke the meat down too much. It had an odd texture that I didn't care for. I did offset the vinegar with one of my favorite rubs and the flavor turned out pretty nice. I'll have to toy with that combo more... maybe lean the sauce towards the vinegar side with the sweet rub.
The fatty was awsome though I think I need to use a different type of sausage. It retained the decidedly breakfast taste to it... but it was in fact gone in about 20 minutes as the "taster" prelude to the bbq.
Other things I learned...
- I don't need two 8lb butts for 7 people. Don't know what I was thinking there and just made everything crowded. The pulled pork in the pic is just one butt after my brother already dove in like gang busters while I wasn't watching
- Do not under any circumstances dump unlit coal atop lit coal. I had uncontrolled white smoke for a solid 5 minutes and had to lift all the lids until it dissapated. Perhaps that added to the bitterness I experienced. I'm still having trouble getting the wood chunks not to pour out white smoke either when I add them. I've been putting one or two heated chunks every hour or so.
- As ash builds up... it gets harder to maintain temp and it appears to not last as long as it does with a clean firebox.
- Despite how excited you are... do not grab a large 205 degree pork with your bare hands. :lol:
