new to smokers.. seasoned BBQ eater hah

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blueridge

Newbie
Original poster
Apr 8, 2016
18
14
Hi.. im Dave.. everyone calls me BlueRidge.. im born and raised in Eastern NC so I know what GOOD eastern NC style BBQ taste like.. Always been fascinated with smokers but never had the time to do it.. well fast forward to now I live in western part of NC mountains.. not many places to find GOOD eastern style BBQ so my wife has been making some in a crockpot for me from time to time.. but it wasnt the same.. missing the smoke flavor.. so my wife and I decided to buy an Masterbuilt Electric 30" smoker from Lowes.. i waited for a deal and finally found it was going to be 10% off.. i came on here to look for recipes when I saw a post about Masterbuilt had some 30" with glass front with a stand.. that came with cover and gloves on special if you order directly from them.. I called and ordered one.. $185 shipped.. thats is amazing.. this same unit looked like it was selling for $299+ online and at wallyworld.. it finally came in and I quickly starting putting it together.. well.. i found I was missing some parts and it had a few dings and dents.. I called Masterbuilt and they are sending me replacement parts that I am missing and they are going to send me a few accessories they sell for the inconvenience.. now THAT my friends is service.. so this past weekend was my first time smoking.. we bought a pork butt and we added some seasoning and put it in a zip lock bag with a generous amount of mustard to marinate overnight in the fridge.. I got the smoker all ready so I could start at 3am Sunday morning.. Got up and preheated the smoker to 225 degrees.. got some hickory chips in and smoking then put the butt in to start and watched for a few before taking an hour nap.. ding ding.. 4am.. time to check.. put more chips in.. checking it out.. back to bed.. 5am.. back up.. more chips.. repeat..


then around 9am i peaked inside to see how the butt was doing.. it had been well over 4hrs so i followed the 40-140-4 rule.. it looked like this.. so i inserted the probe and it was holding steady at 153 degrees.. and BOY did it smell good.. 


so I continued to check the smoke and watch the temp.. when it looked like it had a nice bark and started to stall at 160 degrees.. i stopped adding chips and let it rise to 165 degree before i pulled it and double wrapped in foil.. 


then i let the butt sit in there for another few hours til it hit 195 degrees.. so I pulled it and wrapped it in a towell and placed it into a cooler.. my wife, son and I were going to take it to a picnic spot along the river.. i figured it would take me 30-45 mins to get supplies ready and drive over to the picnic area so it would probably continue to cook inside the cooler.. so we got to the picnic area and I set the cooler down.. opened and unwrapped my meat :D haha and here is what we saw.. 


OH BOY it smells so good.. HOT boy it was HOT.. so i cut off a large portion so my wife could pull it.. 


mmmm...mmmmm it looked and smelled so good.. so easy it was falling apart as my wife was using plastic fork to pull.. 


my son and i couldn't resist and i was cutting small pieces of bark off and he was tasting it.. he is 7.. he was like "this is GOOD!!!"

so out come the buns.. cole slaw.. and i always dabble a lil ketchup on my bbq sandwiches so here is the final display before i chowed down.. 


So we sat and ate our pulled pork.. mind you we didnt add any sauce to this one.. we wanted to taste the hickory smoke.. and boy you could taste it.. it was so delicious and moist.. here was our view as we had our little picnic..


That right there is the South Toe River which streams down from the highest elevation on the East coast.. Mt. Mitchell.. 

I wish I had done this sooner.. It wasn't that hard to do.. it does take time.. all in all it was in the smoker from 3:30am to 1:30pm that day.. next time I will start it say 6pm.. get it smoked for a few hours before letting it slow cook overnight.. it sure stays pretty warm in the cooler wrapped in a towel.. and lets just say we had BBQ for dinner that night.. BBQ for dinner last night.. and im pretty sure we will have BBQ tonight.. :D 

I AM HOOKED ON SMOKING NOW!!!

Thanks again for everyone who posted about the Masterbuilt 30" on sale with Masterbuilt.. Thanks to them for delivering it in a timely manner and taking care of me when I called about the missing parts and small damage.. I will update once I receive those parts and install them.. 

Next we are going to try a Brisket and/or whole chicken.. :)
 
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Reactions: Bearcarver
Looks Great, Dave!!
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Pulling it with plastic forks says a lot about how tender it was!!
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Nice Job & love your View!!
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Bear
 
 
Looks Great, Dave!!
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Pulling it with plastic forks says a lot about how tender it was!!
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Nice Job & love your View!!
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Bear
yah i told her we should get some bear claws.. she said these will work fine.. and she was right.. it just fell off the bone.. :) 
 
Welcome from SC, Dave. It's really good to have you on this great site. ENC barbeque is absolutely some of the best. I use a vinegar and pepper finishing sauce for my butts and it's close to ENC, but not exactly. Your cook sounds really good and your finished product looks great.

Good luck and keep smokin', Joe Thumbs Up
 
Very nice Dave! Welcome to the forum. This place is a wealth of knowledge. As you said, it is easy to get hooked on smoking! You won't regret it.
 
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Glad to have you on board lot of great guys and gals here with tons of info. Take time to read Initial Greeting on Home page it contains a lot of helpful info.
 
thanks for the warm welcome everyone.. I received replacement parts for my MES from Masterbuilt.. they also threw in a rib rack and chicken stand.. Next week I am going to install these parts and then smoke a brisket.. any good recipes? :D 
 
Just wanted to say every 2 weeks I have smoked some bbq and it has always come out perfect.. love my MES :)
 
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