A smoking Northerner - first attempt at "local butt"

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bostonbbq

Smoke Blower
Original poster
May 5, 2007
93
10
North Shore - Boston, MA
Wow, I'm not sure too many of us exist.....and I'm just a newbie so I don't count yet as someone who has years of practice and mad skills.
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I was reviewing this site for a few weeks before I decided to sign up and ask my own questions...

Anyway, my name is Jeff....live a few miles outside of Boston. I grew up in the country of Pennsylvania so I have a love of all things BBQ'ed and smoked outside in a pit. I grew up attending many pig roasts and outdoor BBQ's with my very large, extended family.

I have very limited space in the 'burbs of Boston but I make due. I've got the very basic Brinkmann's model below.

01_new_brinkman_smoker.jpg


This past weekend was my first true test and thanks to the helpful advice from all of you here, it was a smashing success! I had two Boston butts totally 18 lbs. pre-cooked. My co-worker had a graduation party and she recruited me as the "master griller". ANYONE can throw some burgers/dogs on a grill, but I wanted to do something special so I decided on the hog.

I first brined them in brown sugar and salt mixture for a few hours on Friday after work. I swabbed off the excess water and proceeded to rub them (cinnamon heavy, with many other typical spices). I started the bad boys about 10 PM on Friday night. I stayed up until about 4 AM tending to my fire of charcoal and hickory wood from Lowe's. At that point I was exhausted and figured it would be best to start keeping a constant temp because I wasn't 100% sure what was going on in the smoker, the temp of the meat had only climbed to like 125 F. I ended up finishing them in the 240 F oven the rest of the day after I hit the plateau in the smoker itself, squirting apple juice every hour or so in the oven after they had been wrapped in foil. The pieces FINALLY got done around 2 PM Saturday afternoon and I let them rest for 45 min after (party started at 5:00). I took them out of the oven at 190 F and 195 F respectively. I still have no idea why one was hotter than the other, they looked to be about the same size. Even though I didn't reach the 200 F mark, they both pulled ok....the cooler one being a little tougher than the other. I put finishing sauce (from this site) on the pan of meat once I had them all pulled and proceeded to make my own sauce. I was most impressed by the smoke ring I ended up with after just 6 hours in the smoker!

Anyway, I've already been asked what my "secret" is and for recipes! I was even impressed with myself, considering this is the first time I had ever tackled a piece of meat this big on my own. Duh people, the secret is the time spent making a masterpiece....not really in the ingredients themselves.
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I think I'll be asked back again as "master griller" for more events in the future. Now that it is FINALLY warm enough here in Boston to tackle my new endeavour, I can't wait to begin my next piece!! I've even got a good friend of mine into this just by showing him what I did over the weekend....he went out and bought his own smoker yesterday! HAHA.

Again, thank you to all for showing this novice the ropes....you've made me a fan and I can't wait to try fish, ribs, you name it next. I hope to include pictures of my own for future posts. Where did I put that digital camera anyway....

-Jeff (age 29) aka BostonBBQ
 
welcome to SMF jeff and congratulations on a very successful first smoke. now that your hooked you have to feed our addictions with some food porn.

By the way what part of pa.?
 
Welcome Jeff -

You'll learn all kinds of neat little tricks here from master Qers!

PS - Don't let a little cold stop you from smoking, just find something to block the wind a bit!
 
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