My daughter graduated from high school in Germany and flew back for a few weeks with my side of the family, so I threw her a graduation party and smoked the meat.
I smoked approximately 40lbs of pork shoulder and a 14lb brisket. I took lots of pictures throughout the smoke, since it was my first time using my new smoker, but when it came time to pull the meat off and serve it, I was WAY too busy to snap any pictures.
1st off, I had to rig something up in my firebox to get the fuel off of the bottom so it could have proper ventilation. Apparently this is a bad time of the year to try and find a fireplace grate, but Menard's managed to find one way up on a shelf for me. I cut a piece of expanded metal to sit on top of it to keep too much from falling through.
97F outside and, we have smoke! Read on here to put some wood on top of the firebox to "warm" it before sticking it into the firebox. Well, I had no idea that the heat alone would cause the wood on top to catch fire. Good thing I was close and paying attention. I decided that I only need to put the wood on top about 15 minutes before I need to use it.
Shortly after the above picture was taken, we had a nasty storm pop up. Wall cloud was very impressive. Once the wall cloud was overhead, we had 90+ mph winds and torrential rains for about 30 minutes, then light rain for a couple of hours. I wanted to get the meat on by 5pm, but with the storm, that didn't happen. Ended up getting the meat on the smoker at about 630pm. This is the meat right when I loaded it. 71F outside.
About 8pm now, so an hour and a half in...
Here we are at 930pm. These pics are from my phone, so not the best in low-light situations. Meat is looking and smelling good.
About 2am here. Mmmmnnnnn!
3am and my smoking buddy decided it's time for him to go get some sleep, so I'm on my own from here on out.
Here we are at 11.5 hours (6am). Had a good few hours maintaining temps. Was having to add 2 splits every 45 minutes or so. 62F outside.
Here we are at 8am. Sun is shining bright, so not a very good picture. Temp is now 81F! It's going to be HOT!
We went to make some cinnamon rolls for breakfast and found that the heating element in our oven was broken, so I decided to put them on the firebox.
Here they are 25 minutes later. Tops aren't getting done, so into the oven on broil for 2-3 minutes to brown the top of them.
That's where the camera roll stops... Sorry to disappoint, but it was so crazy. The IT of the shoulders wasn't coming up quite quick enough, so around 6am, I bumped the temps from 225-230, to 275-290. Did manage to get all four of the butts into the low 190's and the brisket to 193 by the time we pulled them off at 1030am. The brisket was a little over cooked, so we ended up pulling it, since it wouldn't slice, but everyone loved it. By 1030, the temp was hovering around 90F outside and humid as hell. We served lunch at the party at about 1pm. The brisket got devoured and the PP was hit pretty hard, though we had 2 shoulders left, which is exactly what I was hoping for (for leftovers). I purchased http://www.smoking-meat.com/jeffs-naked-rib-rub-recipe.html#SpecialOffer and used it for this smoke. I modified it slightly to my taste, but it was fantastic. I also made a triple batch of his BBQ Sauce. It went over VERY well. Several people wanted the recipe and I gave them his URL. It was well worth the money. I will make some slight modifications to the sauce for future runs, but it was very good. By 4pm when the party was over, it was 99F outside with a heat index of 114! Glad this day is over.
After the party was over, we cleaned up and headed for home. I got paged for work around 7pm and ended up working for the next 15 hours. By the time I got to sleep, I had been up for around 52 hours! I'm getting too old for this!!!
Thanks for looking!
-Marc
I smoked approximately 40lbs of pork shoulder and a 14lb brisket. I took lots of pictures throughout the smoke, since it was my first time using my new smoker, but when it came time to pull the meat off and serve it, I was WAY too busy to snap any pictures.
1st off, I had to rig something up in my firebox to get the fuel off of the bottom so it could have proper ventilation. Apparently this is a bad time of the year to try and find a fireplace grate, but Menard's managed to find one way up on a shelf for me. I cut a piece of expanded metal to sit on top of it to keep too much from falling through.
97F outside and, we have smoke! Read on here to put some wood on top of the firebox to "warm" it before sticking it into the firebox. Well, I had no idea that the heat alone would cause the wood on top to catch fire. Good thing I was close and paying attention. I decided that I only need to put the wood on top about 15 minutes before I need to use it.
Shortly after the above picture was taken, we had a nasty storm pop up. Wall cloud was very impressive. Once the wall cloud was overhead, we had 90+ mph winds and torrential rains for about 30 minutes, then light rain for a couple of hours. I wanted to get the meat on by 5pm, but with the storm, that didn't happen. Ended up getting the meat on the smoker at about 630pm. This is the meat right when I loaded it. 71F outside.
About 8pm now, so an hour and a half in...
Here we are at 930pm. These pics are from my phone, so not the best in low-light situations. Meat is looking and smelling good.
About 2am here. Mmmmnnnnn!
3am and my smoking buddy decided it's time for him to go get some sleep, so I'm on my own from here on out.
Here we are at 11.5 hours (6am). Had a good few hours maintaining temps. Was having to add 2 splits every 45 minutes or so. 62F outside.
Here we are at 8am. Sun is shining bright, so not a very good picture. Temp is now 81F! It's going to be HOT!
We went to make some cinnamon rolls for breakfast and found that the heating element in our oven was broken, so I decided to put them on the firebox.
Here they are 25 minutes later. Tops aren't getting done, so into the oven on broil for 2-3 minutes to brown the top of them.
That's where the camera roll stops... Sorry to disappoint, but it was so crazy. The IT of the shoulders wasn't coming up quite quick enough, so around 6am, I bumped the temps from 225-230, to 275-290. Did manage to get all four of the butts into the low 190's and the brisket to 193 by the time we pulled them off at 1030am. The brisket was a little over cooked, so we ended up pulling it, since it wouldn't slice, but everyone loved it. By 1030, the temp was hovering around 90F outside and humid as hell. We served lunch at the party at about 1pm. The brisket got devoured and the PP was hit pretty hard, though we had 2 shoulders left, which is exactly what I was hoping for (for leftovers). I purchased http://www.smoking-meat.com/jeffs-naked-rib-rub-recipe.html#SpecialOffer and used it for this smoke. I modified it slightly to my taste, but it was fantastic. I also made a triple batch of his BBQ Sauce. It went over VERY well. Several people wanted the recipe and I gave them his URL. It was well worth the money. I will make some slight modifications to the sauce for future runs, but it was very good. By 4pm when the party was over, it was 99F outside with a heat index of 114! Glad this day is over.
After the party was over, we cleaned up and headed for home. I got paged for work around 7pm and ended up working for the next 15 hours. By the time I got to sleep, I had been up for around 52 hours! I'm getting too old for this!!!
Thanks for looking!
-Marc
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