Saturday afternoon, my wife, ahem, informed me she wasn't cooking dinner and that I would be smoking pork loin and 10 pounds of chicken leg quarters that evening for dinner. The good news: my wife actually *wanted* me to run the smoker. The bad news: the meat she wanted me to smoke was FROZEN and still in the freezer. Yikes!
I began prepping the smoker and accessories I'd need, and she threw the meat in the microwave on defrost. As I feared, the edges of the pork loin began to cook in the microwave. I suppose it could've been the subsequent bacon wrap, but I suspect it was the inadvertent microwaving that was behind what followed.
When the meat was suitably thawed, rubbed and rested, I had the smoker running at 235 (down from the 275 I'd had it at before going inside to collect the meat. I placed each meat on the cooking grate, checked my water level and added another small log to the firebox. The loin, which I'd wrapped in bacon on top of a salt-pepper-garlic-and-paprika rub, smoked with post-oak at 275 for about 2.5-3 hours before coming off to rest. The leg quarters were done within 30 minutes thereafter. As they neared completion, each quarter got a coating on each side with my wife's preferred store-bought sauce, Sweet Baby Ray's.
Looking at my results, the chicken looked and tasted pretty good, but that pork loin was disappointing. Oh, all of it tasted alright, but neither the pork nor the chicken had the smokiness I'd hoped. Naturally, I'm hoping to redeem myself soon with a brisket that will put a smile on everyone's face.
On the positive side, the Pecos continues to be easy to hold at temperature, and I've not had any issues getting her to run clean -- a bit too clean, perhaps, as I'm seeing lots of heat waves, but very little in the way of smoke -- TBS or otherwise from the stack. (Yes, I know it's there, just not seeing as much as I have with my previous cookers.)
I began prepping the smoker and accessories I'd need, and she threw the meat in the microwave on defrost. As I feared, the edges of the pork loin began to cook in the microwave. I suppose it could've been the subsequent bacon wrap, but I suspect it was the inadvertent microwaving that was behind what followed.
When the meat was suitably thawed, rubbed and rested, I had the smoker running at 235 (down from the 275 I'd had it at before going inside to collect the meat. I placed each meat on the cooking grate, checked my water level and added another small log to the firebox. The loin, which I'd wrapped in bacon on top of a salt-pepper-garlic-and-paprika rub, smoked with post-oak at 275 for about 2.5-3 hours before coming off to rest. The leg quarters were done within 30 minutes thereafter. As they neared completion, each quarter got a coating on each side with my wife's preferred store-bought sauce, Sweet Baby Ray's.
Looking at my results, the chicken looked and tasted pretty good, but that pork loin was disappointing. Oh, all of it tasted alright, but neither the pork nor the chicken had the smokiness I'd hoped. Naturally, I'm hoping to redeem myself soon with a brisket that will put a smile on everyone's face.
On the positive side, the Pecos continues to be easy to hold at temperature, and I've not had any issues getting her to run clean -- a bit too clean, perhaps, as I'm seeing lots of heat waves, but very little in the way of smoke -- TBS or otherwise from the stack. (Yes, I know it's there, just not seeing as much as I have with my previous cookers.)