First smoke on the Hog Coffin with qview (picture heavy)

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va_connoisseur

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
Dec 13, 2007
338
13
DC Metro - Northern Virginia
Decided to take my new reverse flow smoker on it's maiden smoke this weekend. 10 racks of St. Louis Spares and 42 pounds of shoulders. I used my own rub to slather the ribs and butts. For the smoke I used pecan and hickory.

I started with three ~14 pound shoulders. In order to cut down on the cooking time, I cut them in half and slathered them in mustard and my own rub.

c208bbe9_Shouldersmustardrubbed.jpg


Fired up the smoker at 2am and got her up to temp by 2:45 and the shoulders went on.

8eed03d1_shouldersonsmoker.jpg


In lower 30 degree weather the Hog Coffin was putting out thin blue smoke and the beautiful smell of burning hickory.

63ff9e66_Bluesmokeat3am.jpg


By the time the sun rose on the morning, the shoulders were already at 145.

194a17f6_Shouldersonsmokefor6hours.jpg


At 7am it was time to put on 10 racks of St. Louis spares. They have been marinating overnight bathing in my rub. The shoulders had already hit 165 and they went into a wrap with a generous spray of apple juice.

6bb4d5d5_Shoulderswrappedandribson.jpg


The temps held stable between 245 and 265. The shoulders blew through the stall and up to 205-212 all with 10.5 hours of heat. I was surprised. Checked them all with 2 separate calibrate pin therms. Off they came (sorry no pics) and the ribs had another 1.5 hours. I decided not to wrap them but spray them at the 4, 5 and 6 (pull off) point.

2e56cb2f_Ribscloseup.jpg


Ribs and shoulders both went into coolers wrapped in HD aluminum foil and towels. The shoulders rested for 3.5 hours and the ribs 2. The shoulders were still 195+ when we went to pull them. Put all the meat in separate pans and it was time for grub.

4dcac35a_Carnivoresdescending.jpg


Seventy plus pounds of meat plus sides and dessert stood very little chance against 30+ hungry cigar smoking, whiskey drinking, good time having people.

All and all the Hog Coffin worked remarkable. I am still learning how to work a reverse flow stick burner but with time, I will be as comfortable with it as I am my WSM. It was built by a friend from Havre de Grace, Maryland. For info PM me.

All and all it was a good weekend, the people loved the food and I have quite a few ask me to cook for there summer cook-outs. I would have preferred to use more Apple or Pecan as the hickory was a little to intense for me on the ribs but I was roundly shouted down by the guest as they loved the flavor.

I guess we are our own worst critics.
 
Thanks Sam, Al and Sly. I'm so use to cooking on the WSM, where I foil spare after 3 hours and stop the color change, that I was looking for the ribs to be a little lighter in color. Also, using hickory for the first time gave me pause. I typically use apple and/or pecan chunks in the WSM. Need to search Craigslist for a good sources of pecan logs.
 
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