OK, so after a dumb mistake I made yesterday resulting in cooking temps plummeting about 3 hours into my smoke, I did some research and got some advice here (and dug up a little controversy in the process).
Without dragging the controversy up again, I got a solution I was comfortable with and moved ahead. -Huge thanks to Chef JimmyJ and Jarjarchef for taking the time to give me detailed info in this regard. That's pretty cool of you guys to take the time to explain the details of the situation in PMs to a complete stranger on a Sunday afternoon. I very much appreciate it.
So my girlfriend decided to host a big party at her place yesterday and asked me to run the pit for some PP. Since I was trying to impress, I went with the tried and true. Jeff's rub on a 9.4 lb picnic for pulled pork. Hard to miss there. Here's the picnic after I dressed her up for the party. I used EVOO instead of mustard to stick the rub to the meat. That seemed to work just as well and I didn't make a noticeable difference in the final product.
My girlfriend's dad runs a fruit orchard, so we recently brought back a grip of fruit wood. I decided to try that instead of the hickory I've been using lately. Nothing against hickory, but when you've got an unlimited supply of cherry and apple, it's hard to want to use a $10 bag of hickory chunks any more. Anyway, I realized I could use my charcoal chimney over the side burner of a gas grill to get it going and avoid some of the thick white smoke you get when you toss a new piece of wood on. It worked pretty well. You gotta keep an eye on it once it gets going though because that much fruit wood will burn HOT when it takes off.
After about 13 hours. IT was 185 at this point, I think. I only opened it up to put some chicken in with, so I snapped a quick photo.
I used Jeff's rub on the chicken as well. That is an incredible recipe.
Nothing like a sunny day and a little wispy blue smoke rolling out of the stack. I can't wait to have a better smoker to work with. Don't get me wrong. This is a very capable smoker now that I'm learning some of its quirks and limitations. But what kind of a man would I be if I didn't want something bigger and better some day?
.
After the picnic came off. Total smoke time was 15 hours. I think it would have finished quicker if not for the fuel screw up I mentioned earlier. I lost a little bark because the rack inside the smoker pushes down on the meat when the lid closes and I forgot to take it out before I started. I foiled it and into a cooler for about 3 hours before pulling it. Final IT was 200.
Just as I started to pull it. It pulled like a dream. I made a BBQ sauce based loosely on Jeff's recipe. Only I didn't have the recipe so I made it up as I went. I used a lime instead of a lemon and I really liked it. The sauce was a huge success and I needed probably twice as much as I made people were using it so much. I hope that doesn't mean that the pork itself wasn't good, right? Yeah, this was the best pulled pork I've done yet.
The final product right before serving. It had a slightly grainy texture in some spots that I can't explain. But nothing that made anyone complain, and there was nothing other than brown grease in the bottom of the platter when the party ended and everyone went back for seconds. The lighting wasn't great when I snapped this shot, but it had a BEAUTIFUL smoke ring.
After a 2 hour smoke for the chicken, I finished it on the grill to crisp up the skin a little. No additional finish sauce. Just put it on the grill and let the heat and fat do what they do when you put them together. Man it was good stuff.
Again, a huge thank you to Chef JimmyJ and Jarjarchef. Very cool of you to help a brother out. And a big thanks to everyone else for contributing their wisdom here for that matter. There is no way I would be producing respectable Q had I not stumbled onto this board last November.
Without dragging the controversy up again, I got a solution I was comfortable with and moved ahead. -Huge thanks to Chef JimmyJ and Jarjarchef for taking the time to give me detailed info in this regard. That's pretty cool of you guys to take the time to explain the details of the situation in PMs to a complete stranger on a Sunday afternoon. I very much appreciate it.
So my girlfriend decided to host a big party at her place yesterday and asked me to run the pit for some PP. Since I was trying to impress, I went with the tried and true. Jeff's rub on a 9.4 lb picnic for pulled pork. Hard to miss there. Here's the picnic after I dressed her up for the party. I used EVOO instead of mustard to stick the rub to the meat. That seemed to work just as well and I didn't make a noticeable difference in the final product.
My girlfriend's dad runs a fruit orchard, so we recently brought back a grip of fruit wood. I decided to try that instead of the hickory I've been using lately. Nothing against hickory, but when you've got an unlimited supply of cherry and apple, it's hard to want to use a $10 bag of hickory chunks any more. Anyway, I realized I could use my charcoal chimney over the side burner of a gas grill to get it going and avoid some of the thick white smoke you get when you toss a new piece of wood on. It worked pretty well. You gotta keep an eye on it once it gets going though because that much fruit wood will burn HOT when it takes off.
After about 13 hours. IT was 185 at this point, I think. I only opened it up to put some chicken in with, so I snapped a quick photo.
I used Jeff's rub on the chicken as well. That is an incredible recipe.
Nothing like a sunny day and a little wispy blue smoke rolling out of the stack. I can't wait to have a better smoker to work with. Don't get me wrong. This is a very capable smoker now that I'm learning some of its quirks and limitations. But what kind of a man would I be if I didn't want something bigger and better some day?
.
After the picnic came off. Total smoke time was 15 hours. I think it would have finished quicker if not for the fuel screw up I mentioned earlier. I lost a little bark because the rack inside the smoker pushes down on the meat when the lid closes and I forgot to take it out before I started. I foiled it and into a cooler for about 3 hours before pulling it. Final IT was 200.
Just as I started to pull it. It pulled like a dream. I made a BBQ sauce based loosely on Jeff's recipe. Only I didn't have the recipe so I made it up as I went. I used a lime instead of a lemon and I really liked it. The sauce was a huge success and I needed probably twice as much as I made people were using it so much. I hope that doesn't mean that the pork itself wasn't good, right? Yeah, this was the best pulled pork I've done yet.
The final product right before serving. It had a slightly grainy texture in some spots that I can't explain. But nothing that made anyone complain, and there was nothing other than brown grease in the bottom of the platter when the party ended and everyone went back for seconds. The lighting wasn't great when I snapped this shot, but it had a BEAUTIFUL smoke ring.
After a 2 hour smoke for the chicken, I finished it on the grill to crisp up the skin a little. No additional finish sauce. Just put it on the grill and let the heat and fat do what they do when you put them together. Man it was good stuff.
Again, a huge thank you to Chef JimmyJ and Jarjarchef. Very cool of you to help a brother out. And a big thanks to everyone else for contributing their wisdom here for that matter. There is no way I would be producing respectable Q had I not stumbled onto this board last November.
