- Jul 2, 2015
- 49
- 13
attempted my first smoke today. Smoked a 8.5 lb bone in pork butt. Last night I trimmed it and salted it. Unfortunately, it was about 9pm by the time I got it salted and put in the fridge. Set the alarm for 3 am and got it out and put rub on it. Stuck it in the used cookshack sm 025 that I just picked up. Used a hunk of cherry and a hunk of hickory set at 225 F. It was 3:30 by now. After I started to put rub on I realized I just sprinkled rub on without any oil, mustard or anything else. Beginners forgetfulness and it was 3 am. lol
Went to work and when I got home about 1:30 pm it was reading about 170 something. It had been 10 hours and knew I had to run to the hospital today to visit gf so I cranked up temp to 250 for a while(probably about an hour) and it was still barely moving so I went up to 270. somewhere around 3 pm it was reading 195, then 197, then I went back into the house and came out to temp HI reading. I believe probe on the unit only reads to 200 F. I wanted to go to 203 as suggested on this site but close enough for me being my first time. pulled it out, double foiled and wrapped in towel and into a Styrofoam cooler since I knew I was leaving right away for a while. Went to hospital and when I got back 4 hours later it still had plenty of heat in it. Awesome!
So it took 12 hours but I started cranking up heat at 10 hour mark. Had good bark but not much flavor. Will have to work on the rub and see what I can do. One thing is I don't think I got enough salt on it (besides not having a very long brine time). I didn't have time to try making a sauce to try. I will be experimenting.
I am happy with the results for a first smoke and the constraints on doing it. Wanted to do it today because it is supposed to rain every day rest of the week. Now I know I can do it and turn out a good result. It can only get better with more practice. Smoke on.
don't know why these loaded sideways and don't know how to fix it...Sorry
Went to work and when I got home about 1:30 pm it was reading about 170 something. It had been 10 hours and knew I had to run to the hospital today to visit gf so I cranked up temp to 250 for a while(probably about an hour) and it was still barely moving so I went up to 270. somewhere around 3 pm it was reading 195, then 197, then I went back into the house and came out to temp HI reading. I believe probe on the unit only reads to 200 F. I wanted to go to 203 as suggested on this site but close enough for me being my first time. pulled it out, double foiled and wrapped in towel and into a Styrofoam cooler since I knew I was leaving right away for a while. Went to hospital and when I got back 4 hours later it still had plenty of heat in it. Awesome!
So it took 12 hours but I started cranking up heat at 10 hour mark. Had good bark but not much flavor. Will have to work on the rub and see what I can do. One thing is I don't think I got enough salt on it (besides not having a very long brine time). I didn't have time to try making a sauce to try. I will be experimenting.
I am happy with the results for a first smoke and the constraints on doing it. Wanted to do it today because it is supposed to rain every day rest of the week. Now I know I can do it and turn out a good result. It can only get better with more practice. Smoke on.
don't know why these loaded sideways and don't know how to fix it...Sorry