Wasn't going to do this until tomorrow, but as usual, plans get changed by females. Please be advised that I am still a total newb at this so I'm just reporting my progress. Feel free to flog me where necessary.
So I guess I'll do a play by play...because I have nothing better to do and plenty of cold beer.
Started at 3:50.
Got the grill fired up and preheating and got the meat out of the fridge to start working on it. Got my rub mixed up and ready to go. (possible tip: I dumped all my rub ingredients into a small tupperware type container, added the lid, and shook the crap out of it to mix. As opposed to stirring, etc.)
Got my layout and ready to go. (gratuitous Dawg shot included on purpose)
And please excuse the Bud Light. I drank all the good stuff last night. :(
Most everything I will do here will be based on what I've learned on these forums. I will link where possible.
I've opened the meat and patted dry. It's a 5.56 lb bone in boston butt. First step is to liberally coat with plain yellow mustard, which I've done here. For those that may not know yet, the mustard does not impart any flavor to the meat. It's merely a medium to help adhere the rub to the meat while it cooks. But it does assist in creating a nice bark and the mustard flavor is cooked out over time, or so I'm told.
Now for the rub. A basic rub that I stole from HuskerSmokeMan on this site. Your basic paprika, brown sugar, salt, pepper, garlic, onion, chili powder mix. I added a dash of celery seed because I saw it in another mix and I like the smell of it. Side note: I'm still skeptical about the paprika. I did go out and buy the good stuff and the flavor is certainly more intense and identifiable, which made it easier to determine it was what I didn't like about some other rubs I've had before. Regardless, I bought it, so I'm going to use it this time to see how it ends up on the back end. If I still don't like it, it will be removed from future rubs.
Anyway, rub is applied liberally all over the meat.
Ok, grill is going so I get my wood on to get smoking. Before you poo poo my grill, it's all I've got at the moment and I've had pretty good success with it. The burners are left to right, so I'm able to keep the meat away from the heat source pretty well, but I do rotate it to keep the cooking even as it still has some direct effect on the way the meat cooks on each side. No biggie. I will get a smoker one of these days I suppose. But I'm new to this so I'm working with what I have for now.
I am using hickory chunks and apple chips today. I did not soak them because I read on here that it's basically a waste of time. I put two good size chunks of hickory in one pouch and a good handfull of apple in the other. I close them up fairly tight so as to limit the airflow and thus the available oxygen so they don't just burst into flame. Believe it or not, this method works pretty good if you pay attention.
And yes, it's raining here. Thanks Fay. Wood is put on at 4:15. Gonna let it get hot before the meat goes on.
Here is the meat on the grill. You can see the apple wood on the bottom is just starting to smoke a bit.
Ok, we are now set up and ready to go. Because it's raining, I used a small tupper ware type container to put the thermometer in to keep it dry. Pretty slick if I do say so. And I can read it from inside the house through the kitchen window
Now for the long slow burn... This is 4:30. 40 mins after coming out of the fridge. Grill is running at about 240 so we aren't doing too bad on temp.
up next...making the spray
So I guess I'll do a play by play...because I have nothing better to do and plenty of cold beer.
Started at 3:50.
Got the grill fired up and preheating and got the meat out of the fridge to start working on it. Got my rub mixed up and ready to go. (possible tip: I dumped all my rub ingredients into a small tupperware type container, added the lid, and shook the crap out of it to mix. As opposed to stirring, etc.)
Got my layout and ready to go. (gratuitous Dawg shot included on purpose)
And please excuse the Bud Light. I drank all the good stuff last night. :(
Most everything I will do here will be based on what I've learned on these forums. I will link where possible.
I've opened the meat and patted dry. It's a 5.56 lb bone in boston butt. First step is to liberally coat with plain yellow mustard, which I've done here. For those that may not know yet, the mustard does not impart any flavor to the meat. It's merely a medium to help adhere the rub to the meat while it cooks. But it does assist in creating a nice bark and the mustard flavor is cooked out over time, or so I'm told.
Now for the rub. A basic rub that I stole from HuskerSmokeMan on this site. Your basic paprika, brown sugar, salt, pepper, garlic, onion, chili powder mix. I added a dash of celery seed because I saw it in another mix and I like the smell of it. Side note: I'm still skeptical about the paprika. I did go out and buy the good stuff and the flavor is certainly more intense and identifiable, which made it easier to determine it was what I didn't like about some other rubs I've had before. Regardless, I bought it, so I'm going to use it this time to see how it ends up on the back end. If I still don't like it, it will be removed from future rubs.
Anyway, rub is applied liberally all over the meat.
Ok, grill is going so I get my wood on to get smoking. Before you poo poo my grill, it's all I've got at the moment and I've had pretty good success with it. The burners are left to right, so I'm able to keep the meat away from the heat source pretty well, but I do rotate it to keep the cooking even as it still has some direct effect on the way the meat cooks on each side. No biggie. I will get a smoker one of these days I suppose. But I'm new to this so I'm working with what I have for now.
I am using hickory chunks and apple chips today. I did not soak them because I read on here that it's basically a waste of time. I put two good size chunks of hickory in one pouch and a good handfull of apple in the other. I close them up fairly tight so as to limit the airflow and thus the available oxygen so they don't just burst into flame. Believe it or not, this method works pretty good if you pay attention.
And yes, it's raining here. Thanks Fay. Wood is put on at 4:15. Gonna let it get hot before the meat goes on.
Here is the meat on the grill. You can see the apple wood on the bottom is just starting to smoke a bit.
Ok, we are now set up and ready to go. Because it's raining, I used a small tupper ware type container to put the thermometer in to keep it dry. Pretty slick if I do say so. And I can read it from inside the house through the kitchen window
Now for the long slow burn... This is 4:30. 40 mins after coming out of the fridge. Grill is running at about 240 so we aren't doing too bad on temp.
up next...making the spray