That's right, these babies rode the smoke train for 24 hours! Let's get some Q-View and I'll tell you the story...
Started out with two butts, about 7.5# a piece. Per the usual, I was planning to smoke, pull, and sauce with my own vinegar-pepper sauce I've been using for years. I grew up in the Pee Dee region in SC, so vinegar-pepper barbecue is the only cue I know. Usually when I am saucing with my v-p sauce, I leave the butts completely plain. Lot of flavor in my sauce. But I decided to rub one of them with some of Jeff's rub, tweaked a little bit to my own liking. Here they are when I just put them on. The rubbed butt is up top, plain one is in the middle, and I threw in some chicken thighs rubbed too just for good measure. I was planning on doing a brisky flat, but I waited until the last minute and NOBODY in my town had any brisket.
I got the temp right around 225 or 230. Smoking with apple chips and a hickory chunk or two in the smoke box. And I have the AMNS loaded with hickory. I wanted some oak, but the only dust I had left was hickory, and I'm getting ready to get the new tube smoker soon. Also, I'm smoking on an el cheapo master forge double door smoker. I've had this smoker for a year or so now and really starting to dial it in now. This smoke will be a big test for the unit. I usually go with a texas crutch to speed things up. But with the luxury of time on my hands, I'm gonna try and ride this one out through the plateau, I don't care how long it takes!
Here's a close-up of the rubbed butt:
I went to bed a bit apprehensive in hopes that the smoker would be holding temperature fine when I woke up in the morning. Thankfully and a bit surprising, when I woke up hours later, the temperature had not budged a single degree and was still holding at 224. Here's what they looked like around the 12 hour mark:
At this point they were stuck in the plateau. Internal temps holding around 170-ish. So I decided to keep letting it ride as long as it took. Finally, after 24 hours, I had hit 200! I could not believe it took so long. I've never seen butts take that long. However, as I said earlier, I usually use a texas crutch, so the plateau isn't nearly as long. Here's a picture of the plain butt done:
And here's a few of the rubbed butt:
Also, here's a shot of it all pulled before I started saucing it up for the family to enjoy: (look at that pink smoky goodness!)
Overall, I was very pleased with the smoke. I was even more pleased with the performance of the smoker. This is absolutely the longest smoke I have ever done on this cooker. I ran it right at 225 for 24 hours on one tank of propane and still had some gas left! I did the standard mod of putting a rope gasket around the door seals to help with heat. The gasket and the dampers about half open the whole time and it held heat like an oven.
As I said before, I usually leave my butts plain since I am saucing them with my sauce and don't want to conflict flavor profiles. I was planning to not sauce the dry rubbed butt this time. But when it was finally done I decided to sauce it with everything else. The bark on the rubbed butt was a little bit (I emphasize little) too dry for me. I think next time I rub one I will spray it will it's smoking periodically. I've never done it before but I think some liquid with a little sugar content would do wonders for my bark. I know that's not some new revelation, I've just never sprayed or mopped before. However, overall this was one of my best smokes to date. This cue turned out better than the one and only competition I ever did that awarded me 2nd place in the amateur division. Hope everyone enjoys the QV!
And just for fun, here's a picture of my fried turkey. I fry our turkey every year for Thanksgiving. Injected with Allegro Hot & Spicy and rubbed with a salty rub of chili powder, salt, pepper, and a few others. It's very salty and not good for people with high blood pressure, but dang that's some good skin! Oh, and I did this turkey in my Big Easy infrared fryer I got last year. Thank goodness I don't have to buy gallons of oil anymore!
Started out with two butts, about 7.5# a piece. Per the usual, I was planning to smoke, pull, and sauce with my own vinegar-pepper sauce I've been using for years. I grew up in the Pee Dee region in SC, so vinegar-pepper barbecue is the only cue I know. Usually when I am saucing with my v-p sauce, I leave the butts completely plain. Lot of flavor in my sauce. But I decided to rub one of them with some of Jeff's rub, tweaked a little bit to my own liking. Here they are when I just put them on. The rubbed butt is up top, plain one is in the middle, and I threw in some chicken thighs rubbed too just for good measure. I was planning on doing a brisky flat, but I waited until the last minute and NOBODY in my town had any brisket.
I got the temp right around 225 or 230. Smoking with apple chips and a hickory chunk or two in the smoke box. And I have the AMNS loaded with hickory. I wanted some oak, but the only dust I had left was hickory, and I'm getting ready to get the new tube smoker soon. Also, I'm smoking on an el cheapo master forge double door smoker. I've had this smoker for a year or so now and really starting to dial it in now. This smoke will be a big test for the unit. I usually go with a texas crutch to speed things up. But with the luxury of time on my hands, I'm gonna try and ride this one out through the plateau, I don't care how long it takes!
Here's a close-up of the rubbed butt:
I went to bed a bit apprehensive in hopes that the smoker would be holding temperature fine when I woke up in the morning. Thankfully and a bit surprising, when I woke up hours later, the temperature had not budged a single degree and was still holding at 224. Here's what they looked like around the 12 hour mark:
At this point they were stuck in the plateau. Internal temps holding around 170-ish. So I decided to keep letting it ride as long as it took. Finally, after 24 hours, I had hit 200! I could not believe it took so long. I've never seen butts take that long. However, as I said earlier, I usually use a texas crutch, so the plateau isn't nearly as long. Here's a picture of the plain butt done:
And here's a few of the rubbed butt:
Also, here's a shot of it all pulled before I started saucing it up for the family to enjoy: (look at that pink smoky goodness!)
Overall, I was very pleased with the smoke. I was even more pleased with the performance of the smoker. This is absolutely the longest smoke I have ever done on this cooker. I ran it right at 225 for 24 hours on one tank of propane and still had some gas left! I did the standard mod of putting a rope gasket around the door seals to help with heat. The gasket and the dampers about half open the whole time and it held heat like an oven.
As I said before, I usually leave my butts plain since I am saucing them with my sauce and don't want to conflict flavor profiles. I was planning to not sauce the dry rubbed butt this time. But when it was finally done I decided to sauce it with everything else. The bark on the rubbed butt was a little bit (I emphasize little) too dry for me. I think next time I rub one I will spray it will it's smoking periodically. I've never done it before but I think some liquid with a little sugar content would do wonders for my bark. I know that's not some new revelation, I've just never sprayed or mopped before. However, overall this was one of my best smokes to date. This cue turned out better than the one and only competition I ever did that awarded me 2nd place in the amateur division. Hope everyone enjoys the QV!
And just for fun, here's a picture of my fried turkey. I fry our turkey every year for Thanksgiving. Injected with Allegro Hot & Spicy and rubbed with a salty rub of chili powder, salt, pepper, and a few others. It's very salty and not good for people with high blood pressure, but dang that's some good skin! Oh, and I did this turkey in my Big Easy infrared fryer I got last year. Thank goodness I don't have to buy gallons of oil anymore!
