I watch and learn from this forum with some regularity, but have rarely posted. But I thought that I would share last weekend's smoke. I posted in the "General" section because multiple meats were cooked, so it doesn't really fit in the "Beef" or "Pork" section.
This was the first "big" cook with my new self-built (with help from several friends) smoker. Everything was a success and we put a lot of meals in the freezer - vacuum sealed packing. Well, here are the details.
Here is the bulk of the meat prior to preparing it for the smoker. It included 5 Boston Butts ranging from 8 to 9-1/2 lbs. each, an 11-1/2 lb. beef brisket, a 6 lb. pork tenderloin, and a 3-1/2 lb. corned beef brisket. This was over 66 lbs. of meat before cooking.Also not shown in this photo are a 3 lb. meat loaf (pork and beef mix) and a garlic bologna butt.
All of the meat (except for meat loaf and bologna) was prepped in exactly the same way the evening before the smoke. I used a modified verson of Jeff's rib rub recipe and yellow mustard to help the rub stick to the meat. It was covered with plastic wrap and put into the fridge until the smoker was loaded - about 7 hours or so. I got up a 2:30AM, added all of the thermometer probes,, loaded the smoker, and fired it up. everything was put on the smoker at this time except for the smaller pieces - the corned beef brisket, pork loin, meat loaf, and bologna would go on later. The smoker was closed and the smoke was rolling by 3:15AM. The internal meat temperature was about 55 degrees at that time. I kept an eye on it until 4:00AM to be sure that everything was working OK and then went back to bed until about 7:30 AM. When I went to bed, the cooking chamber was up to 160 degrees (using an iQue 110 controller/fan and maverick wireless thermoters to monitor meat and cooker temps).
This is about 8:00AM on Sunday. I am using Kroger brand lump charcoal for fuel and peach wood chunks from Frutawoods for smoke. Everything was working nicely. Cooking temperature was maintained at 225 degrees. At 8:30AM I added the pork tenderloin and corned beef brisket to the smoker. From this point forward, I misted the meat with a 50/50 mix of apple juice and Captain Morgan's Spiced rum. At around 9:00, the meat loaf and garlic bologna butt went in the smoker. The first peice of meat came off at about 12:30.
The meat loaf came off after 3 hours at a temperature of 165 degrees.
The garlic bologna butt came off after 3-1/2 hours. Not that it matters, because it was precooked, but the internal temperature was 145 degrees. Fried smoked bologna sammiches are the bomb!
The brisket came off after 9 hours. It was then wrapped in foil, then wrapped in a towel, and put in a cooler for an hour to rest before slicing.
After an hour, the brisket was sliced. It looked and tasted great. It was not tough or hard to chew at all, but it could have been more tender. I should have left it in the cooker until 195 degrees to let the connective tissues break down a little more. This was my first brisket ever, so this was a learning point.
The pork tenderloin was removed from the smoker at 160 degrees after 6 hours on the smoker. It also was wrapped in foil, then a towel, and placed into a cooler to rest prior to slicing. The pork loin turned out perfect! This will make some great meals.
The next to come off was the corned beef brisket. Since the regular brisket wasn't quite as tender as I like when removed at 185 degrres, I pulled this out of the smoker at 195 degrees. It also was wrapped in foil, then a towel, and placed in a cooler to rest before slicing. This turned out awesome! What flavor! I guess this smoked corned beef is pretty close to pastrami, and it has amazing flavor. It looks like for my taste, 195 degrees is the magic tempearature for brisket.
One note: I was amazed that it took this relatively small 3-1/2 lb. piece of meat 9-1/2 hours to reach 195 degrees. The brining process to make corned beef must increase the density of the meat from regular beef brisket.
The pork butts were smoked to a temperature of 165 degrees and after they had come out of the temperature "plateau". At that point they were wrapped in foil and I poured about 1/4 cup of apple juice into the foil before closing. then the foil-wrapped butts went back into the smoker to finish. The last to come out of the smoker were the pork butts. They were all removed at temps between 195 and 200 degrees, They also were wrapped in a towel (they were already foiled) and placed in a cooler for at least an hour before pulling the meat. These butts took a long time - 14 hours for the first 8 pounder to reach temerature and 19-1/2 hours for the biggest 9-1/2 pounder to get there. But the final product of pulled pork was perfect. The peach wood gave great, sweet flavor and the tenderness was also perfect. We put about 35 lbs. of pulled pork in the freezer for future microwave meals.
This was a long day. By the time the final butt was pulled, I had cleaned up, and got a shower, it was 12:30 before I got to bed. The 5:30AM alarm clock was not welecome Monday morning and my butt dragged all day yesterday. But it was worth the effort. It is nice to be able to get so much smoked meat at a time for your efforts with these big smokers. It beats the heack out of only being able to do 2 pork butts in 16 hours with my old Brinkman water Smoker. It was a good smoke.
Lessons learned:
1) For me, 195 degrees is the right temperature to pull a beef brisket from the smoker to get the correct degree of tenderness.
2) While 9-1/2 lb. pork butts look impressive, the 8 lb ones smoke a lot faster. From now on I will buy 7-8 lb. pork butts and just get more of them. I have plenty of room in the smoker and this should cut hours off of my smoking time.
So there you have it. I hope that you enjoyed the pics.
This was the first "big" cook with my new self-built (with help from several friends) smoker. Everything was a success and we put a lot of meals in the freezer - vacuum sealed packing. Well, here are the details.
Here is the bulk of the meat prior to preparing it for the smoker. It included 5 Boston Butts ranging from 8 to 9-1/2 lbs. each, an 11-1/2 lb. beef brisket, a 6 lb. pork tenderloin, and a 3-1/2 lb. corned beef brisket. This was over 66 lbs. of meat before cooking.Also not shown in this photo are a 3 lb. meat loaf (pork and beef mix) and a garlic bologna butt.
All of the meat (except for meat loaf and bologna) was prepped in exactly the same way the evening before the smoke. I used a modified verson of Jeff's rib rub recipe and yellow mustard to help the rub stick to the meat. It was covered with plastic wrap and put into the fridge until the smoker was loaded - about 7 hours or so. I got up a 2:30AM, added all of the thermometer probes,, loaded the smoker, and fired it up. everything was put on the smoker at this time except for the smaller pieces - the corned beef brisket, pork loin, meat loaf, and bologna would go on later. The smoker was closed and the smoke was rolling by 3:15AM. The internal meat temperature was about 55 degrees at that time. I kept an eye on it until 4:00AM to be sure that everything was working OK and then went back to bed until about 7:30 AM. When I went to bed, the cooking chamber was up to 160 degrees (using an iQue 110 controller/fan and maverick wireless thermoters to monitor meat and cooker temps).
This is about 8:00AM on Sunday. I am using Kroger brand lump charcoal for fuel and peach wood chunks from Frutawoods for smoke. Everything was working nicely. Cooking temperature was maintained at 225 degrees. At 8:30AM I added the pork tenderloin and corned beef brisket to the smoker. From this point forward, I misted the meat with a 50/50 mix of apple juice and Captain Morgan's Spiced rum. At around 9:00, the meat loaf and garlic bologna butt went in the smoker. The first peice of meat came off at about 12:30.
The meat loaf came off after 3 hours at a temperature of 165 degrees.
The garlic bologna butt came off after 3-1/2 hours. Not that it matters, because it was precooked, but the internal temperature was 145 degrees. Fried smoked bologna sammiches are the bomb!
The brisket came off after 9 hours. It was then wrapped in foil, then wrapped in a towel, and put in a cooler for an hour to rest before slicing.
After an hour, the brisket was sliced. It looked and tasted great. It was not tough or hard to chew at all, but it could have been more tender. I should have left it in the cooker until 195 degrees to let the connective tissues break down a little more. This was my first brisket ever, so this was a learning point.
The pork tenderloin was removed from the smoker at 160 degrees after 6 hours on the smoker. It also was wrapped in foil, then a towel, and placed into a cooler to rest prior to slicing. The pork loin turned out perfect! This will make some great meals.
The next to come off was the corned beef brisket. Since the regular brisket wasn't quite as tender as I like when removed at 185 degrres, I pulled this out of the smoker at 195 degrees. It also was wrapped in foil, then a towel, and placed in a cooler to rest before slicing. This turned out awesome! What flavor! I guess this smoked corned beef is pretty close to pastrami, and it has amazing flavor. It looks like for my taste, 195 degrees is the magic tempearature for brisket.
One note: I was amazed that it took this relatively small 3-1/2 lb. piece of meat 9-1/2 hours to reach 195 degrees. The brining process to make corned beef must increase the density of the meat from regular beef brisket.
The pork butts were smoked to a temperature of 165 degrees and after they had come out of the temperature "plateau". At that point they were wrapped in foil and I poured about 1/4 cup of apple juice into the foil before closing. then the foil-wrapped butts went back into the smoker to finish. The last to come out of the smoker were the pork butts. They were all removed at temps between 195 and 200 degrees, They also were wrapped in a towel (they were already foiled) and placed in a cooler for at least an hour before pulling the meat. These butts took a long time - 14 hours for the first 8 pounder to reach temerature and 19-1/2 hours for the biggest 9-1/2 pounder to get there. But the final product of pulled pork was perfect. The peach wood gave great, sweet flavor and the tenderness was also perfect. We put about 35 lbs. of pulled pork in the freezer for future microwave meals.
This was a long day. By the time the final butt was pulled, I had cleaned up, and got a shower, it was 12:30 before I got to bed. The 5:30AM alarm clock was not welecome Monday morning and my butt dragged all day yesterday. But it was worth the effort. It is nice to be able to get so much smoked meat at a time for your efforts with these big smokers. It beats the heack out of only being able to do 2 pork butts in 16 hours with my old Brinkman water Smoker. It was a good smoke.
Lessons learned:
1) For me, 195 degrees is the right temperature to pull a beef brisket from the smoker to get the correct degree of tenderness.
2) While 9-1/2 lb. pork butts look impressive, the 8 lb ones smoke a lot faster. From now on I will buy 7-8 lb. pork butts and just get more of them. I have plenty of room in the smoker and this should cut hours off of my smoking time.
So there you have it. I hope that you enjoyed the pics.
