Independence Day Picnic! *warning - image heavy*

[bostonbbq]

It's not a holiday without smoking some meat, is it? I got myself up around 8:30 this morning to get a 5 1/2 pounder of picnic shoulder going for dinner tonight during the Boston fireworks. Unfortunately, I can't see them off my back deck where I'm smoking but at least I'll have some good eats ready when its supposed to be raining at 10 PM anyway. :)

I'll be updating the thread throughout the day, I'm using this as a day of R-n-R and getting some laundry done with a little fire maintenance in between.

Here is the rub preparation (no mustard this time....sweeter with lots of brown sugar and other greener herbs). I put my hand in there so you could compare for size.



Another close up shot, this was in the midst of adding the rub so I could show off the color of the meat a bit, it has a much thicker layer now. This was also after cutting off a huge chunk of skin on the bottom.



It's time for some fire!



Preparing hickory water bowl for today's smoke...



Got a good mix of lump hardwood charcoal and the regular brickets.



Fire is about 260 to begin, I throw the meat on around 9 AM this morning. I filled the water basin about 3/4 full.



Eeeemmm, I'm beginning to see some smoke! p.s. That isn't normally the temp gauge, my regular broke.



Plenty more to come. If people don't like the large pics on the main page I can add thumbnails for the next round.

 

[hhookk]

Looks awesome. I will be checking this thread all day. Where are you located? I'm in Saugus.

 

[bostonbbq]

The one and only Medfuhd.

 

[bostonbbq]

Just loaded up the cooler and brought it upstairs while I work on my 3rd chimney for the day, can't wait to show off the mid-point pics. There's an apple juice squirt bottle in there somewhere, heh.

 

[gypsyseagod]

it all looks fine to me..hmm it's after 12, pass me 1 a those beers please.

 

[hhookk]

We are practically neighbors !!!
Where do you buy your meat? I am about to go to Costco and see if they have any Boston Butts. Is there a good local butchery in the area? I usually go to The Danvers Butchery for thier awesome Steakhouse steak tips and marinated chicken wings. I suppose they could get me Boston butts if I need them but is there a place closer that you would recommend?

Thanks for helping out a noob to the forum.

 

[bostonbbq]

Howdy neighbor! I'm pretty much a noob as well, I've only been doing this for like a year and obviously took the winter off due to the New England weather.

There is really only ONE place I buy my meats, and that is McKinnon's. I've never been to the Danvers location but I'm sure it is comparable to the Everett one that I frequent (there is also a smaller version in Davis Sq. Somerville but for some reason it isn't listed). The meats are incredibly cheap and I've gotten cuts in the back from the butcher exactly as I wanted so I can't complain. A few weeks back I did a 8 lb. beef brisket from there for about $25, he even cut it down for me after the first one the guy brought out looked like half a cow, heh.

Best of luck to you and I'm glad to see this isn't a Southern dominated hobby.

 

[bostonbbq]

LOL, just found out my brother is a lurker on here and he gave me the idea of doing some fattys. I responded to another thread that I was gonna try them SOON but that soon = NOW.

I'm gonna do a little more research on stuffing recipes; hope the local supermarket is open and give er' a go on the smoker, hopefully pics to come.

 

[gypc]

The bigger the better!!!!!!!!! Oh yeah! Lookin good!!!

 

[hhookk]

Here comes the rain. Fireworks will probably get washed out. So I'll be over in a little while to help you eat all that food.

 

[ron50]

Looks real good

 

[meowey]

Looks good! Keep the Q-View coming!

Take care, have fun, and do good!

Regards,

Meowey

 

[bostonbbq]

Gggrrr about 8 hours in now, expecting 2-3 more and it is getting VERY threatening outside. I know its not going to mess up the smoker but it does put a damper on the day and other people hanging outside with me.

The fattys and peppers to stuff are being prepared right now so I can try and eat everything together. I'll have those pics up in the next few hours.

Here is me spraying with apple juice/bourbon mixture around 6 hours in....




And here is just a picture of the smoke I was getting out about an hour in earlier this afternoon....

 

[bostonbbq]

It's raining now but I'm getting close to done so I think it'll be fine. The pain is getting future chimneys going!

Here is the latest barrage of pics, you have been forewarned:

ABT's wrapped up and ready to go....



Bacon wrapped fatty - CHECK!



Last time I probed the meat a few hours ago...



The picnic was getting lonely, so he invited some friends over for dinner...

 

[bostonbbq]

Final pics of the night! There is a slight delay getting these uploaded to photobucket and then up on the site. I'm not sure why this batch wasn't as clear but they'll have to do since the pork is just about gone.

Here she is, right after the foil wrap.



Extreme closeup of the pulling process....




Eeeemmm final product in a sammy-ich!



Peppers turned out GREAT but very spicy.



The fatty, not so much. The cheese was REALLY runny but this was my first ever.

 

[gypc]

Those big pics really makes ya drool!!! Awesome!

If you have photoshop.......you can go to image size and do 650. Still a nice big image!!

 

[bostonbbq]

Hah, woke up this morning wondering when and how I was going to eat my fatty. I sliced off a piece, microwaved it and toasted an english muffin to put it in....SUPERB!!

 

[watery eyes]

I'd size the pics down to 600 x 400

The size you have now just distorts the sharpness and takes away from the detail which is probably great otherwise.


Great BBQ all the same...