I prepped a 4 pound butt last night with mustard and Billbo's rub. I took it out this morning and let it come to room temp before I put it in the smoker.
That's the last thing that went according to plan all day. LOL!
Here's a pre-smoke shot:
The first thing I did wrong was not have the temp stabilized when I put the meat in. I also forgot to put the probe in for the remote thermometer. As I was struggling to get the temp up, I had to open the lid and put in the probe. I sort of poked around a little to make sure I wasn't next to a bone.
OK, so it took about an hour to get the temp right. It was an ongoing battle the whole day. My two previous smokes were a walk in the park compared to today. I barely got an internal meat temp of 140 in the first 4 hours. When it did get past 140, I opened the lid to add the fattie.
Mmmmm....fatties!
This was my first fattie, but it was a huge hit! My wife loved it! I used Jimmy Dean Hot, with roasted red peppers, trader joe's 3 blend shredded cheese, shredded mozzarella and thinly sliced baked potato.
Next time I'm going to roll it out a tiny bit thicker and maybe freeze it a little to firm it up before I roll it. Also I think I need to leave more of a border to prevent blowout.
I started to do a weave and the bacon fumes got to me. I got a little light-headed. Anyway, I don't think weird weave affected the taste much. LOL.
I knew I'd probably hit a plateau and I wasn't worried about it because I read Meowey's excellent sticky. I hit it at 179. Stayed there forever. Then I lost a few degrees. No problem, I read that might happen.
But right about then I happened to be losing my fire and didn't know it. The made the plateau even plateauier.
While I was enjoying the plateau, I decided to cut an onion in half and add it to the smoker. Didn't have any particular plans for the onion, but it seemed like a good thing to do. Smoked onion could come in handy in a number of dishes. I dusted the cut halves with a little seasoned salt and Billbo's rub.
Here's the finished fattie:
The smoke ring on this fattie was so pink I thought the sausage was uncooked.
When the butt took longer than expected, the fattie saved the day! I was super happy I decided to make one along side the butt. I knew the butt was going to be ready when it was ready, so I covered myself with the fattie.
The finished butt:
It was not falling off any bones, but I still got a bunch of nice moist pulled pork:
Now the biggest problem I had, besides the unsteady smoker temps, was that when I put the remote probe in, it must have been too close to a bone.
I didn't figure this out until the end of the day. I had left the butt in the smoker until it was 205. Well, I thought it was 205 anyway.
When I brought it inside to wrap it in towells and put it in the cooler, I removed the remote probe, and just for good measure, I checked the temp with another thermometer. It read 183. Uh-oh. I checked a couple more places. Same thing. 180s.
I concluded I must've had the probe next to a bone. This stupid butt is nowhere near done. I put the remote probe back in, making sure to avoid the bone and put it in the oven on 250 to finish cooking the butt.
I left it in the oven until the remote probe said 195 and then took it out and towelled & ice chested it. An hour later I pulled it out and started pulling at it.
My wife and I both had pretty big slices of fattie earlier, so we just had a smallish portion of the pulled pork topped with Billbo's excellent BBQ sauce and some melon on the side for dinner.
Looking forward to some excellent pulled pork sammies tomorrow night for dinner!
And also looking forward to my next butt! A lot went wrong, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I learned a lot, and everything was edible, so I have no complaints! LOL
Hope you enjoyed the Q view and my long-winded first butt saga!
That's the last thing that went according to plan all day. LOL!
Here's a pre-smoke shot:
The first thing I did wrong was not have the temp stabilized when I put the meat in. I also forgot to put the probe in for the remote thermometer. As I was struggling to get the temp up, I had to open the lid and put in the probe. I sort of poked around a little to make sure I wasn't next to a bone.
OK, so it took about an hour to get the temp right. It was an ongoing battle the whole day. My two previous smokes were a walk in the park compared to today. I barely got an internal meat temp of 140 in the first 4 hours. When it did get past 140, I opened the lid to add the fattie.
Mmmmm....fatties!
This was my first fattie, but it was a huge hit! My wife loved it! I used Jimmy Dean Hot, with roasted red peppers, trader joe's 3 blend shredded cheese, shredded mozzarella and thinly sliced baked potato.
Next time I'm going to roll it out a tiny bit thicker and maybe freeze it a little to firm it up before I roll it. Also I think I need to leave more of a border to prevent blowout.
I started to do a weave and the bacon fumes got to me. I got a little light-headed. Anyway, I don't think weird weave affected the taste much. LOL.
I knew I'd probably hit a plateau and I wasn't worried about it because I read Meowey's excellent sticky. I hit it at 179. Stayed there forever. Then I lost a few degrees. No problem, I read that might happen.
But right about then I happened to be losing my fire and didn't know it. The made the plateau even plateauier.
While I was enjoying the plateau, I decided to cut an onion in half and add it to the smoker. Didn't have any particular plans for the onion, but it seemed like a good thing to do. Smoked onion could come in handy in a number of dishes. I dusted the cut halves with a little seasoned salt and Billbo's rub.
Here's the finished fattie:
The smoke ring on this fattie was so pink I thought the sausage was uncooked.
When the butt took longer than expected, the fattie saved the day! I was super happy I decided to make one along side the butt. I knew the butt was going to be ready when it was ready, so I covered myself with the fattie.
The finished butt:
It was not falling off any bones, but I still got a bunch of nice moist pulled pork:
Now the biggest problem I had, besides the unsteady smoker temps, was that when I put the remote probe in, it must have been too close to a bone.
I didn't figure this out until the end of the day. I had left the butt in the smoker until it was 205. Well, I thought it was 205 anyway.
When I brought it inside to wrap it in towells and put it in the cooler, I removed the remote probe, and just for good measure, I checked the temp with another thermometer. It read 183. Uh-oh. I checked a couple more places. Same thing. 180s.
I concluded I must've had the probe next to a bone. This stupid butt is nowhere near done. I put the remote probe back in, making sure to avoid the bone and put it in the oven on 250 to finish cooking the butt.
I left it in the oven until the remote probe said 195 and then took it out and towelled & ice chested it. An hour later I pulled it out and started pulling at it.
My wife and I both had pretty big slices of fattie earlier, so we just had a smallish portion of the pulled pork topped with Billbo's excellent BBQ sauce and some melon on the side for dinner.
Looking forward to some excellent pulled pork sammies tomorrow night for dinner!
And also looking forward to my next butt! A lot went wrong, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I learned a lot, and everything was edible, so I have no complaints! LOL
Hope you enjoyed the Q view and my long-winded first butt saga!