New MES and Boston Butt

[radman smoker]

I am going to put my new MES 130-B into use this weekend. Will do the curing / initial 3 hour heating tonight and the put on a Boston Butt tomorrow morning around 6. I will be using an Amaz-N-Maze as well.

I have smoked numerous boston butts on my old Brinkman electric smoker so I am not a total newbie. However, I do have a couple questions.

Do you remove most of the fat cap prior to smoking? My historical practice has been to apply mustard and then rub over the entire butt and then remove the fat cap after the cook has been completed.

I plan to place a pan on the shelf below the shelf the butt is on to catch the grease and drippings. If the pan takes up most of the shelf space should I fold the edges inward to allow the smoke more room to move around?

Any upfront suggestions or concerns? I plan to start the break in process around 6pm this evening.

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Few things:

Fat caps is personal taste, i do my trimming prior to the smoke. Alot easier to me, and it allows more rub to penetrate the meat it self.

And as you just got the MES, do not fill the water pan with water. Don't fill it at all, just line it with tin foil for easy clean up..or, use it to catch the grease and drippings.

As for concerns, just be aware the MES built in thermal probes can be quite off, always verify with an independent probe and good luck!

 

[buzzy]

I have no first hand experience at electric smokers. I run a gasser but a butt is a butt. I would leave the fat cap on. Personal preference to having it up or down or changing from bottom to top half way done. Try different ways to see which u like. As far as the pan goes if it sits right under the butt & takes up most of shelf alot of heat & smoke will go around outside edge without touching the butt. I had that happen to me trying to catch all the juice off a spatchcocked turkey. Either move pan down to bottom rack or get one thats just a little bigger than your butt. Preferred. Others should be along shortly to give thoughts also. Happy Smoking

 

[chopsaw]

My historical practice has been to apply mustard and then rub over the entire butt and then remove the fat cap after the cook has been completed.

No reason to change if you like them how you already do them .

I leave fat cap on , then chop it up and add to the pulled meat .

 

[radman smoker]

Hey guys, thanks for the replies.

Like the idea of putting the pan on the bottom rack and butt on the top.

I have never considered chopping up the fat and adding it to the pulled meat. That would most likely keep it from being dried out when reheating left overs or removing vacuum sealed product form the freezer next month!

Will definitely wrap the included water pan in foil and use my own meat thermometer.

 

[chopsaw]

I pack the fat cap with brown sugar . Makes a hard bark .

 

[buzzy]

Also there’s a couple real good PP finishing sauce recipes on here u should try. Do a search to find them

 

[SGMan]

I like to score the fat cap before I apply my overnight rub. No need to remove it - it adds to the flavor and tenderness/juiciness of your end product.

 

[radman smoker]

I wanted to give an update on my first use of the new MES.
Boston Butts rubbed and ready for overnight in the refrigerator

Smoker loaded with the A-Maze-N. Only the first row of the maze pellets burned. Will have to work on a correction.

Butts were about 8.5 pounds each and after 5 hours I inserted my wired meat thermometer probe into the lower butt and the reading was 165. At 9.5 hours the reading was 192 and I checked the top Butt and the reading was 202. So I pulled the top butt and left the lower one on until it reached 198.

The finished product. Ready to pull.

It practically fell apart

Second butt bone pulled out clean

I did use a finishing sauce that had been posted on the forum and just now I don't know who to give credit to. It was delicious.

A few observations from this first cook that I made note of:
1. Smoker temperature was a good bit higher at the top. I think this was due to the foil drip pans that I inserted on the shelves below the butts.
2. I need to trouble shoot why my maze only burned the first row of pellets.
3. My daughter and I need to go a little heavier on the rub. The bark was okay, but we have used more rub in the past and the bark was more prevalent. We really enjoy a good bark.

Thanks everyone for your help and advice. I'll be trying something new in a month or so.

Richard

 

[zwiller]

WRT tray going out. Give us some detail on airflow. I leave chip loader out about 2" for good flow. I also used to run it out altogether but the wind would affect it. I personally find that a rub has little to do with bark. Good bark requires a dry meat surface. I do an overnight uncovered rest in fridge AKA pellicle.

 

[gmc2003]

Your butts look really good from my screen. Good Job. One question - Any particular reason for using two foil pans?

Point for sure
Chris

 

[radman smoker]

I really appreciate all the comments and thank you folks for responding.

Air flow on the WRT should have been fine as I totally removed the loader. However I did have the top vent 95% closed. Maybe I should have left the top vent open a little more for air flow.

Two foil pans, one under each butt to keep the top one from dripping all over the bottom one. Is this not necessary?

zwiller, this time as in the past, once I have the butts rubbed, I have wrapped them in plastic wrap prior to placing in the refrigerator over night. Sounds like I need to leave them in there uncovered. (that will really leave a flavor scent in the refrigerator.)

 

[chopsaw]

I leave the top vent full open always . Could be why the tray went out , plus alot of moisture in an MES . That might have affected the bark .

 

[johnmeyer]

+1 TomKnollRFV and + 1 chopsaw.

I want to echo what chopsaw said: always leave the vent open 100%. I don't know anything about your old Brinkman, but with an MES the air flow is a fraction of what you have in bigger, traditional smokers. The good news is that you don't need to burn as much wood or chips to get smoke flavor, but the bad news is that you can get pretty stale-tasting food if you don't encourage the smoke to turn over.

Also, when using the AMNPS tray, keeping the vent open is no longer optional because you need air for combustion. You don't need this air when using the chip loader because the chips barely ignite. Some people even add extra air by drilling bigger vent holes in their chip loader. I don't like making permanent modifications so, when I was still using the AMNPS inside my MES (i.e., before I built a "mailbox mod"), I created a replacement for the chip loader, as shown below.

Cold%20Smoke%20AMNSP%20Mod_zpsuqdkpcwj.jpg

• johnmeyer
• Feb 3, 2016

If you want to read some science about the low air flow in electric smokers, and the consequences of this, click on this link:

Electricity as a barbecue fuel

 

[zwiller]

+1 To the others and great info John! Always leave top vent open and the MES needs help with airflow.

I have a beer fridge and honestly if you are into smoking, another fridge is a big help. I also saved many days parking stuff in there for the family for holidays and parties. I don't think it really stinks it up but if the family is picky maybe they might fuss. That said, another way is to grab a small clip on fan and hit it 30m or so before throwing in smoker. Doing a pellicle (never head of it until I joined here) was a huge game changer for me. I fan proteins I grill. Crazy good sear and no sticking. And the bark when smoking... Think meteorite.