First let me say, this thread isn't about anything I did but is about what I have learned here at SMF. It's about all the talented people here sharing their ideas, methods, techniques and recipes so that we can take what we want and use it to improve our own talents!
This started after I read these 2 threads written by Eric (forluvofsmoke):
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/...n-gourmet-w-dry-smoke-chamber-q-view-finished
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/...rimmed-butt-w-wet-to-dry-smoke-chamber-q-view
I knew I wanted to try his method of a dry smoke chamber to try and achieve moister pulled pork with more bark. I am nowhere near the level he is at. The way he documents everything, his attention to detail and his scientific approach amaze me. Reading his threads really make me want to try his techniques and methods.
Also last week Chef JimmyJ was working with me to try and come up with some recipes that I would like after I posted a thread about some ribs and that I just can’t get the flavor profile I’m looking for. I was very excited with what he came up with and wanted to try it right away.
A local grocer had pork picnics on sale last week for $0.79/LB. I’ve never smoked a picnic before and wasn’t sure if it would work with what I wanted to do, so again I turned to SMF for help. After a quick search I found this thread and it answered all my questions and let me know a picnic would work just fine!
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/49602/need-help-with-a-pork-picnic-shoulder
I bought two 9LB’ers and trimmed all the rind and fat that I could get off of them, remember Eric’s thread, “lean trimmed butt”. After trimming they were kind of falling apart and I felt they wouldn’t cook evenly so I tied them up tight with some butchers string so they would stay together as a big mass. I rinsed and dried them then rubbed with JJ’s rub recipe he gave me. I wrapped them up tight in plastic wrap and put them to bed in the fridge for a day.
Friday night I took them out while I got the GOSM set up and ready. I loaded up my AMNPS with its first full load and got it burning then fired up the smoker to get it to temp. I took a 9X13 foil pan and placed it right on top of my sand pan then poured in I QT of hot water. At about 8:15 it got to about 230* so I put the AMNPS in my RFB (rear fire box) and closed it up and slipped the picnics in and shut the door. The temps fluctuated quite a bit the first hour or so as they always do when I have a lot in there but then they settled down and stayed right around 230*. I didn’t touch it for 3 ½ hours just checked that I was getting smoke and the TBS was just barely coming out the top vent but just walking onto my patio I could smell the sweet smell of those Pitmaster Choice pellets in the air!
It’s going on midnight and I want to go to bed so I dump the water out of the pan to give it a dry chamber for the rest of the smoke. I check the AMNPS and it was just starting to make its first turn and still giving good TBS out of the vent. The temp in the smoker was holding steady at 230* and the IT had made it to 142 so I felt confident to go to bed and just let it do its thing!
Ok so I slept a little later than I had planned and got up at 8:30 to find the smoker temp at 237* and the IT at 161. That made me feel real good, I always worry about temp fluctuations but I think it held steady and I finally got this thing working just right for me! I checked the AMNPS and it was all burned so I feel confident that I got at least 10 hours from it and the RFB worked like a charm. No need to open the door everything seems to be going good.
I was planning on smoking some chuckies and making smoked pot roast so I started getting that ready, I’ll post that in another thread and add the link when I get it done. At 10:00 I put the chuckies in and that was the first time I opened the door since about midnight the night before. I also reloaded the AMNPS about halfway and fired it up so the chuckies would get some smoke. The picnics were looking very nice at this time. They had a nice dry skin and were getting that great mahogany color. I should have taken a pic then but I didn’t want the door open longer than it had to be. They were still holding an IT of about 161* and continued for about 2 more hours before they started to slowly climb up.
At about 2:00 I put in a big pan of veggies and beef broth for my pot roast on the bottom rack so they could get some drippings from the chuckies. I don’t know if adding a liquid at this time really had any effect on the pork since it had already skinned over or not. I only left the pan in uncovered for an hour then I put the chuckies in the pan and covered it in foil and moved it to the middle rack and moved the pork to the bottom rack. This might have been a mistake but I’m still analyzing this.
Here they are before I moved the rack:
I pulled the pan out about 5:00 and the picnics were at about 190*, they were climbing very slowly. I probed them a few times and it was like hot butter and the bone wiggled around like it didn’t want to be there anymore so I knew they were close. Another hour and 195*, I was getting impatient now, I had promised my Dad and Sis I would deliver some pot roast and I wanted to pull them to rest while I was gone so out they came. I put them in some pans and just laid a paper towel over them. I didn’t have any racks to elevate them in the pans like Eric did but I don’t think that affected anything.
Right before i took them out:
And in the pans:
Got back home about 2 hours later and it was time to tear into them. First thing I had to have a taste and it was wonderful! The flavor from JJ’s rub was just what I have been looking for! As I pulled them apart they were they moistest, juiciest pork I had ever pulled, they just fell apart in my hands. They weren’t mushy at all, had a nice texture but were soft and juicy.
The bark on the top and sides was heavy and firm but I could still shred it pretty easily but on the bottom it was like leather, almost burnt. I had to discard most of it. This might have been from me moving them to the bottom rack right above the sand pan but I’m thinking it could have been from all the drippings burning there were a lot of drippings hanging from the rack or maybe the sugar in the rub. I did use Tubinado sugar and not that much. I’m not sure which of these was the cause of it. Please give me some input if you have ever experienced this.
Juicy juicy juicy
All in all I think this was the best pulled pork I have ever made and I feel like I took it to a new level and this was only possible from all the great people here at SMF! I think the dry smoke chamber really did what Eric posted about and let the pork skin over and lock all the juices inside. I have only done “no foil pork” once before and I left a water pan in the entire smoke. Everything else was close to the same and I did have some juicy pork but I don’t think it matched this in moistness and a great bark.
I want to Thank everyone here for all you have taught me and on this smoke especially JJ for your recipes and Eric for your techniques and methods!
This started after I read these 2 threads written by Eric (forluvofsmoke):
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/...n-gourmet-w-dry-smoke-chamber-q-view-finished
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/...rimmed-butt-w-wet-to-dry-smoke-chamber-q-view
I knew I wanted to try his method of a dry smoke chamber to try and achieve moister pulled pork with more bark. I am nowhere near the level he is at. The way he documents everything, his attention to detail and his scientific approach amaze me. Reading his threads really make me want to try his techniques and methods.
Also last week Chef JimmyJ was working with me to try and come up with some recipes that I would like after I posted a thread about some ribs and that I just can’t get the flavor profile I’m looking for. I was very excited with what he came up with and wanted to try it right away.
A local grocer had pork picnics on sale last week for $0.79/LB. I’ve never smoked a picnic before and wasn’t sure if it would work with what I wanted to do, so again I turned to SMF for help. After a quick search I found this thread and it answered all my questions and let me know a picnic would work just fine!
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/49602/need-help-with-a-pork-picnic-shoulder
I bought two 9LB’ers and trimmed all the rind and fat that I could get off of them, remember Eric’s thread, “lean trimmed butt”. After trimming they were kind of falling apart and I felt they wouldn’t cook evenly so I tied them up tight with some butchers string so they would stay together as a big mass. I rinsed and dried them then rubbed with JJ’s rub recipe he gave me. I wrapped them up tight in plastic wrap and put them to bed in the fridge for a day.
Friday night I took them out while I got the GOSM set up and ready. I loaded up my AMNPS with its first full load and got it burning then fired up the smoker to get it to temp. I took a 9X13 foil pan and placed it right on top of my sand pan then poured in I QT of hot water. At about 8:15 it got to about 230* so I put the AMNPS in my RFB (rear fire box) and closed it up and slipped the picnics in and shut the door. The temps fluctuated quite a bit the first hour or so as they always do when I have a lot in there but then they settled down and stayed right around 230*. I didn’t touch it for 3 ½ hours just checked that I was getting smoke and the TBS was just barely coming out the top vent but just walking onto my patio I could smell the sweet smell of those Pitmaster Choice pellets in the air!
It’s going on midnight and I want to go to bed so I dump the water out of the pan to give it a dry chamber for the rest of the smoke. I check the AMNPS and it was just starting to make its first turn and still giving good TBS out of the vent. The temp in the smoker was holding steady at 230* and the IT had made it to 142 so I felt confident to go to bed and just let it do its thing!
Ok so I slept a little later than I had planned and got up at 8:30 to find the smoker temp at 237* and the IT at 161. That made me feel real good, I always worry about temp fluctuations but I think it held steady and I finally got this thing working just right for me! I checked the AMNPS and it was all burned so I feel confident that I got at least 10 hours from it and the RFB worked like a charm. No need to open the door everything seems to be going good.
I was planning on smoking some chuckies and making smoked pot roast so I started getting that ready, I’ll post that in another thread and add the link when I get it done. At 10:00 I put the chuckies in and that was the first time I opened the door since about midnight the night before. I also reloaded the AMNPS about halfway and fired it up so the chuckies would get some smoke. The picnics were looking very nice at this time. They had a nice dry skin and were getting that great mahogany color. I should have taken a pic then but I didn’t want the door open longer than it had to be. They were still holding an IT of about 161* and continued for about 2 more hours before they started to slowly climb up.
At about 2:00 I put in a big pan of veggies and beef broth for my pot roast on the bottom rack so they could get some drippings from the chuckies. I don’t know if adding a liquid at this time really had any effect on the pork since it had already skinned over or not. I only left the pan in uncovered for an hour then I put the chuckies in the pan and covered it in foil and moved it to the middle rack and moved the pork to the bottom rack. This might have been a mistake but I’m still analyzing this.
Here they are before I moved the rack:
I pulled the pan out about 5:00 and the picnics were at about 190*, they were climbing very slowly. I probed them a few times and it was like hot butter and the bone wiggled around like it didn’t want to be there anymore so I knew they were close. Another hour and 195*, I was getting impatient now, I had promised my Dad and Sis I would deliver some pot roast and I wanted to pull them to rest while I was gone so out they came. I put them in some pans and just laid a paper towel over them. I didn’t have any racks to elevate them in the pans like Eric did but I don’t think that affected anything.
Right before i took them out:
And in the pans:
Got back home about 2 hours later and it was time to tear into them. First thing I had to have a taste and it was wonderful! The flavor from JJ’s rub was just what I have been looking for! As I pulled them apart they were they moistest, juiciest pork I had ever pulled, they just fell apart in my hands. They weren’t mushy at all, had a nice texture but were soft and juicy.
The bark on the top and sides was heavy and firm but I could still shred it pretty easily but on the bottom it was like leather, almost burnt. I had to discard most of it. This might have been from me moving them to the bottom rack right above the sand pan but I’m thinking it could have been from all the drippings burning there were a lot of drippings hanging from the rack or maybe the sugar in the rub. I did use Tubinado sugar and not that much. I’m not sure which of these was the cause of it. Please give me some input if you have ever experienced this.
Juicy juicy juicy
All in all I think this was the best pulled pork I have ever made and I feel like I took it to a new level and this was only possible from all the great people here at SMF! I think the dry smoke chamber really did what Eric posted about and let the pork skin over and lock all the juices inside. I have only done “no foil pork” once before and I left a water pan in the entire smoke. Everything else was close to the same and I did have some juicy pork but I don’t think it matched this in moistness and a great bark.
I want to Thank everyone here for all you have taught me and on this smoke especially JJ for your recipes and Eric for your techniques and methods!