- Aug 27, 2008
- 5,170
- 409
I must have flipped my lid, or shook a few marbles loose at some point in time during my last couple of great smokes (full packer brisket and 7-bone whole beef rib). My last all-nighter was of course the full packer, and I figured I’d need several months of recovery time before I’d have the ambition to pull another one…I was wrong! So, what’s the reason for my apparent insanity? The following will explain…
Man, where do I begin…I’ve been so busy @ work since my last smoke on December 24th that I haven’t had a lot of free time for myself…I miss you guys & gals!!!!!!! What else can I say!?!?!?!?!? I’ve only spent enough time here to occasionally check PM’s and User CP for subscribed threads, and with just glancing at the active threads I knew I was missing out on a lot of great stuff happening here.
I do apologize for not being here with everyone…crap happens…I know most of us say that sleep is over-rated, but I drive for a living and have been known to spend 3 or 4 hours here almost every night, so I gotta do the right thing and get my rest. Now, I have 2 scheduled days off work and I‘m taking them both. It’s time for some fun in the thin blue!
I haven’t done ANY outdoor cooking since Christmas Eve…I guess I’ll have to make up for it now with another all-nighter. 18# of bone-in Cryovac-packed butts (9.6# & an 8.4#), one 6# bone-in fresh butt and one 4# boneless tied picnic will make a nice start for the evening.
Why an all-nighter for butts, you ask? Well, I had to work for the past 4 days, and we planned a late combined birthday party for my oldest son and oldest daughter, born the 2nd & 9th, respectively. I wanted to do the smoke on my last days-off so I could freeze/reheat, but, too many things got in the way…so, I’m burning the mid-night propane in mid-30* weather with light winds tonight. I must say, this is unexpected to have such beautiful mid-January weather to smoke in, but I won’t complain!
The first catch here is that I’ll need to move my cooking equipment to the site where the birthday party & dinner will be before 1:00 PM tomorrow, as I’ll need to do the ABT’s on-site so they can be served fresh and hot off the smoker (PS: don’t try reheating ABT’s…been there, only once). So, the plan is to get all my pork into foil for brazing, do a 20-30 minute 300* braze, wrap in towels, load smokers, fryer burner etc, and shake it over to the site about 5 minutes away and finish the brazing on-site while I start the ABT smoke.
I’ll have to post the finish pics after we get back home Sunday night, if I’m still walking and talking that is...HAH-HAH-HAH!!!!!!!!
Oh, one more catch: the fresh pork was handed to me still frozen yesterday after work. I didn’t want to risk doing a cold tap water thaw due to a bad experience with a ruined packer last fall, so they went into my Q-fridge overnight to begin thawing. I started a saltwater brine/thaw on them right after work tonight @ 9:00 PM before I tossed down 3-9“ soft-shell tacos for dinner. They’ll join the cryovac pork in the Smoke Vault early in the morning sometime after 2:00 AM.
Without further delay, let the Q-view begin……..
Here’s the larger cryovac butt in a 12" x 18" pan:
Rubbed with a blend of my ancho chili-based pork rub and my garlic/pepper beef rub:
Just into the SV24 @ 9:00 PM MST, with equal amounts of hickory and mesquite, with about 20% of the total smoke wood being cherry…I’ll continue adding cherry only, throughout the evening…grate temps are running ~225-230*:
The fresh pork are locally-grown and processed...a boneless/tied picnic and a butt…I’m thinking about really spicing up the picnic and trying it sliced…never did that yet…actually I’ve never smoked a tied picnic before either…decisions, decisions……..hmmm….to pull or slice…..hmmm…..
Brine/thawing the fresh pork with 1 cup kosher salt and 5 quarts cold tap water in a tall 12 quart stock pot, giving enough liquids for the meat to remain submerged:
I’m not going to sweat the plateau on the cryo-butts…I don’t think I’ll even stab ‘em with a probe until about the 10-hr mark (around 9:00 AM). I’m planning on foiling @ 180* and towel-up @ 200-205*…the foiling temp may come earlier if I start feeling time constraint pressures, as foiling does speed things up.
There will be appetizers and sides of course, with my home-made cured/smoked cold meats tray with cheese & crackers, ABTs and probably some things I don’t know about yet. I’m not 100% sure, but I think my wife mentioned she was going to make baked “ugly-rotten” potatoes and a cold pasta salad. Pork sammies will be served on freshly buttered/grilled buns……..oh man, what a day this will be!!!!!!
The building we’ll be in for the gathering is a multi-purpose facility with tables/chairs capable of handling a few hundred people, a large multi-appliance kitchen, and equipped with an audio system, with a large smooth-floor open room for roller skating or dancing.
It’s sure to be a great day with the family and friends!!!!
More to come!
Thanks for peeking at my return to the thin blue smoke!
Eric
Man, where do I begin…I’ve been so busy @ work since my last smoke on December 24th that I haven’t had a lot of free time for myself…I miss you guys & gals!!!!!!! What else can I say!?!?!?!?!? I’ve only spent enough time here to occasionally check PM’s and User CP for subscribed threads, and with just glancing at the active threads I knew I was missing out on a lot of great stuff happening here.
I do apologize for not being here with everyone…crap happens…I know most of us say that sleep is over-rated, but I drive for a living and have been known to spend 3 or 4 hours here almost every night, so I gotta do the right thing and get my rest. Now, I have 2 scheduled days off work and I‘m taking them both. It’s time for some fun in the thin blue!
I haven’t done ANY outdoor cooking since Christmas Eve…I guess I’ll have to make up for it now with another all-nighter. 18# of bone-in Cryovac-packed butts (9.6# & an 8.4#), one 6# bone-in fresh butt and one 4# boneless tied picnic will make a nice start for the evening.
Why an all-nighter for butts, you ask? Well, I had to work for the past 4 days, and we planned a late combined birthday party for my oldest son and oldest daughter, born the 2nd & 9th, respectively. I wanted to do the smoke on my last days-off so I could freeze/reheat, but, too many things got in the way…so, I’m burning the mid-night propane in mid-30* weather with light winds tonight. I must say, this is unexpected to have such beautiful mid-January weather to smoke in, but I won’t complain!
The first catch here is that I’ll need to move my cooking equipment to the site where the birthday party & dinner will be before 1:00 PM tomorrow, as I’ll need to do the ABT’s on-site so they can be served fresh and hot off the smoker (PS: don’t try reheating ABT’s…been there, only once). So, the plan is to get all my pork into foil for brazing, do a 20-30 minute 300* braze, wrap in towels, load smokers, fryer burner etc, and shake it over to the site about 5 minutes away and finish the brazing on-site while I start the ABT smoke.
I’ll have to post the finish pics after we get back home Sunday night, if I’m still walking and talking that is...HAH-HAH-HAH!!!!!!!!
Oh, one more catch: the fresh pork was handed to me still frozen yesterday after work. I didn’t want to risk doing a cold tap water thaw due to a bad experience with a ruined packer last fall, so they went into my Q-fridge overnight to begin thawing. I started a saltwater brine/thaw on them right after work tonight @ 9:00 PM before I tossed down 3-9“ soft-shell tacos for dinner. They’ll join the cryovac pork in the Smoke Vault early in the morning sometime after 2:00 AM.
Without further delay, let the Q-view begin……..
Here’s the larger cryovac butt in a 12" x 18" pan:
Rubbed with a blend of my ancho chili-based pork rub and my garlic/pepper beef rub:
Just into the SV24 @ 9:00 PM MST, with equal amounts of hickory and mesquite, with about 20% of the total smoke wood being cherry…I’ll continue adding cherry only, throughout the evening…grate temps are running ~225-230*:
The fresh pork are locally-grown and processed...a boneless/tied picnic and a butt…I’m thinking about really spicing up the picnic and trying it sliced…never did that yet…actually I’ve never smoked a tied picnic before either…decisions, decisions……..hmmm….to pull or slice…..hmmm…..
Brine/thawing the fresh pork with 1 cup kosher salt and 5 quarts cold tap water in a tall 12 quart stock pot, giving enough liquids for the meat to remain submerged:
I’m not going to sweat the plateau on the cryo-butts…I don’t think I’ll even stab ‘em with a probe until about the 10-hr mark (around 9:00 AM). I’m planning on foiling @ 180* and towel-up @ 200-205*…the foiling temp may come earlier if I start feeling time constraint pressures, as foiling does speed things up.
There will be appetizers and sides of course, with my home-made cured/smoked cold meats tray with cheese & crackers, ABTs and probably some things I don’t know about yet. I’m not 100% sure, but I think my wife mentioned she was going to make baked “ugly-rotten” potatoes and a cold pasta salad. Pork sammies will be served on freshly buttered/grilled buns……..oh man, what a day this will be!!!!!!
The building we’ll be in for the gathering is a multi-purpose facility with tables/chairs capable of handling a few hundred people, a large multi-appliance kitchen, and equipped with an audio system, with a large smooth-floor open room for roller skating or dancing.
It’s sure to be a great day with the family and friends!!!!
More to come!
Thanks for peeking at my return to the thin blue smoke!
Eric
