Once again I'd like to thank this forum for all the good guidance I've read since I joined last fall. I finally got to get my smoker (nothing fancy, just a Master Forge charcoal smoker) out after our winter here in KC dragged on through pretty much all of April.
We had the whole family (mom, stepdad, sister, brother-in-law, three kids) over for Mother's Day this past weekend. Nothing says Mother's Day like some pulled pork, right?
Since we were going to add some chicken wings to the menu, I decided to smoke the 8-pound pork butt on Saturday. I applied a mixture of Rufus Teague meat rub and Rendezvous seasoning to it Friday night, wrapped it up and put it in the fridge for the big day.
It was nice to be able to take my time with this smoke. This was only the second time I'd had a chance to use my smoker and the first time felt a bit rushed. I started the coals about 8:30 and had the meat on the smoker at about 9. I used some apple and cherry wood chunks for the smoke.
And here's how it looked three hours later:
By the time I took it off the smoker at about 7 that night, it was already falling apart. That was before I gave it the towels/cooler treatment. When I unwrapped it to shred it, the bone came out clean as a whistle. It's the little things in life, right?
And here's how it looked after the bear claws were through with it:
I used some of the finishing sauce from SoFlaQuer's recipe--it was tremendous. I was worried it would be too spicy, especially since both my mom and wife do not care for anything spicy (not me--bring on the hot sauce!). But it just added really nice flavor.
On Sunday, I used two crockpots and some apple juice to reheat the pulled pork. No worries, it came out great!
I wish I'd thought to take pictures of the chicken wings--they turned out amazing too. I guess I got the smoker hot enough to crisp up the skins--I thought I might need to grill them for a few minutes, but a taste test (tough job, someone had to do it) confirmed that they were good already.
We had the whole family (mom, stepdad, sister, brother-in-law, three kids) over for Mother's Day this past weekend. Nothing says Mother's Day like some pulled pork, right?
Since we were going to add some chicken wings to the menu, I decided to smoke the 8-pound pork butt on Saturday. I applied a mixture of Rufus Teague meat rub and Rendezvous seasoning to it Friday night, wrapped it up and put it in the fridge for the big day.
It was nice to be able to take my time with this smoke. This was only the second time I'd had a chance to use my smoker and the first time felt a bit rushed. I started the coals about 8:30 and had the meat on the smoker at about 9. I used some apple and cherry wood chunks for the smoke.
And here's how it looked three hours later:
By the time I took it off the smoker at about 7 that night, it was already falling apart. That was before I gave it the towels/cooler treatment. When I unwrapped it to shred it, the bone came out clean as a whistle. It's the little things in life, right?
And here's how it looked after the bear claws were through with it:
I used some of the finishing sauce from SoFlaQuer's recipe--it was tremendous. I was worried it would be too spicy, especially since both my mom and wife do not care for anything spicy (not me--bring on the hot sauce!). But it just added really nice flavor.
On Sunday, I used two crockpots and some apple juice to reheat the pulled pork. No worries, it came out great!
I wish I'd thought to take pictures of the chicken wings--they turned out amazing too. I guess I got the smoker hot enough to crisp up the skins--I thought I might need to grill them for a few minutes, but a taste test (tough job, someone had to do it) confirmed that they were good already.
