Boneless CSRs bourbon experiment

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

kevink

Fire Starter
Original poster
Oct 26, 2010
58
10
Waxahachie, TX
I smoked a brisket awhile back for a family at my church and as a thank-you they gave me a package of CSRs.  Having never smoked them before, and reading lots of good success stories on the forums here, I thought I would try a little experiment combining two of the best things things around - pork, and good kentucky bourbon.

I started by taking my CSRs and putting them in a brine.

d9e8cf5a_IMG_0034.jpg


The brine consisted of probably a half cup each of salt and sugar, plus apple cider vinegar and a good dose of bourbon, then water til it covered the csr.

it sat in the fridge for about three hours in the brine.

Next, i applied a good coating of dry rub, using a little extra brown sugar to hopefully highlight the sweet bourbon flavor i am looking for.

465c39e4_IMG_0036.jpg


I left a few lumps of brown sugar unbroken, mostly due to not wanting to mess with it.

93cc276f_IMG_0035.jpg


One great thing about being single - you can just leave your bbq station out on the counter and no one will come around whining about it!  By the way, if you can ever get to Pendery's in Fort Worth Texas, it is just about the best spice and dry ingredient shop I have ever seen.  I think they must have over 40 different types of chili powder alone.

Now, onto the good part - the cookin!  I set the CSRs up on two racks to go into my SmokinTex, and underneath put a little pan of water and (you guessed it) a dash of bourbon.  I must highly recommend taking a look at SmokinTex if you are even thinking about an electric.  It's built like an armored car and the temperature gauge is spot on.

a426eb54_IMG_0037.jpg


I used some cherry and apple wood, and a bit of pecan for some depth.  You will also see a charcoal briquet in there - I use a charcoal briquet from the grill in my woodbox to get a better smoke ring.  When you have an electric smoker like me, a charcoal briquet along with your tinder will give you that nice ring you usually don't get from the electric.

d2d0ad3e_IMG_0033.jpg


Well, it's in the smoker now, and the best i can do at this point is sit, wait, smell that beautiful smoke smell, and wonder if my neighbors (I live in an apartment with a little patio) either love me or hate me for the sweet wisps of apple, pecan and cherry rolling gently around the building.

More to come as the smoke progresses.  Any advice is more than welcome!
 
icon_cool.gif


Well I don't know about the brining of the pork butt. Anyway it looks like you are well on your way to really pissing off the neighbors or making alot of new friends really quickly too.
 
Last edited:
The ribs turned out pretty good.  I smoked them to 200 degrees, a little over what i was going for, but an unforeseen trip to the bar with a couple of buddies is to blame for going over.  about two hours into the smoke, i foiled the ribs and put some bourbon inside the foil, continuing to play with this little theme i had going.  they stayed in the foil until i came home and they had very nearly hit 200 degrees at which point i took them out.  They tasted great, and were fork tender.  The bourbon taste was present but not overpowering, and it actually went a long way in complementing the taste of the meat, bringing the sweet notes of pork to the front and mixing well with the cayenne in the rub.  All in all a fun experiment, next time i probably won't brine the ribs though, i think a bit of the meat's moisture content was lost in the process.  Still, you can see there was a good amount of moisture content in the meat from the fat melting all over the place. 

376509f2_IMG_0041.jpg


Another option is to prepare your pork the way you know and love, and then get yourself a nice double over ice and mix pork and bourbon the old fashioned way!!

Thanks for reading,

Kevin
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Hot Threads

Clicky