MES30 and me both getting a workout today

[petehalsted]

Going to put me and the MES30 to the test today.

Doing

1. Chucky for Poorman's Burnt Ends
2. Brisket Flat
3. Pastrami from a Corned Beef Brisket
4. Attempting Pork Belly with Cracklings
5. And Dr Pepper Injected Butt for pulled pork.

That's 18 1/2 pounds of goodness.

Some of the prep, like soaking the corned Beef was done yesterday afteroon, I changed the water once last night. And then 7AM this morning I did the rest of the prep work and go everything in the smoker. I will post separate articles with results for each item when I get there.

First couple of challenges already, I have a smoke and a DOT (so 3 ports) I planned to just swap leads around once in a while to keep an eye on everything. But then realized I only have 3 meat probes to start with, duh..... So going to be interesting keeping up with everything a bit old school.

I don't know if the Cracklings are going to work, I don't think mine looked like the videos I saw, but withholding judgement and sticking with it. Worst case scenario, I cut the skin off and have some great pork belly.

When I opened the corned beef, it actually had a small piece of point on it. I cut it off so that I could have nice even Pastrami slices with good crust, or at least that is the plan! So I put brisket rub on the piece of point and we will see how burnt ends from a corned beef point comes out.

On the brisket I am trying an experiment, if it works out you will hear all about it in the post for it, if it is an epic fail, you might not hear about it :-). If it is out of the world good, you might have to pay to hear about it LOL.

Here's some quick pics. I better get back at it, going to feel like a one legged man in an ass kicking competition before the days is over.

Funny thing is I don't even know what's for dinner tonight, but I got a feeling it will be smoked what ever it is LOL

 

[30" Jim]

What part of the country are you in?
Cold and snowy in St Louis.
You have a long day ahead of you!

 

[SmokinAl]

Nice job!
That smoker is loaded up!!
Al

 

[petehalsted]

We travel fulltime in RV. Currently in Jupiter, FL. Originally from the St. Louis area.

The smoke is actually going crazy fast and I can't figure out why. I double and triple checked my smoker temp and it is running 225 as it should. Everything went in at 9AM. Pastrami was hitting 150 by 10:30, I took it to 165 trying to get the bark set a bit more. It is now in foil pan and steaming.

Regular brisket running same way, in 160's already. I had planned to wrap it in paper but it doesn't have enough color so guess I am going to ride it out naked.

Biggest epic fail, if you look at the pic of the smoker loaded. I put the butt over the top of the AMNPS, so I put the huck of meat that was going to be dripping the most juice over the top of the pellets. DUh...... I have a flatten foil pan that protects the AMNPS but not from that much liquid. I already had to relight it in the center to recover from the mistake.

Butt seems to be running more reasonable, it is at 120 right now. Chucky is at 160. (11:20)

 

[texascoast]

Petehalsted - Looking good, Nothing like a challenge early in the morning!
Have fun with it!

I'm just doing a brisket on my MES30 after doing a rebuild of the wiring connections to the heating element and replacing the KSD301 temp protection device and its wiring connectors.
It's amazing how using the smoker about twice a month can cause the wiring connections and KSD301 to start tripping the GCFI within a year.

 

[jp61]

I would've squeezed a couple of fatties in there too....lol

Nice smoke! Enjoy!

 

[yankee2bbq]

Looks good so far.

 

[gmc2003]

That't the way a smoker should look - nice and full. I'll be watching and waiting for the results.

Chris

 

[petehalsted]

OK,

Here's the link for the brisket results.

Will get the rest of the up today. In sleep deprived meat comma and moving slow LOL

 

[GaryHibbert]

Looking good Pete. Where did you get those neat little racks??
Gary

 

[petehalsted]

Where did you get those neat little racks??
Gary

A local flea market has a "kitchen gadget" store. They had them, plus enough other things for me to spend hours in their store. LOL

 

[Bearcarver]

Looks Great, Pete!!:)

Heck of a Load of Goodness!!!
Like.

Bear

 

[petehalsted]

Here is the link for the Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork.

 

[petehalsted]

Here is the link for the Pork Belly with Cracklings, which was a semi fail.

 

[petehalsted]

Here is the link for the Pastrami. Just got to post results of the Chucky burnt ends. Taking me longer to post results than it did to smoke everything, must be because of all the fat still floating through my arteries from the pork belly LOL

 

[GATOR240]

Looking really good. Funny, I just ask bearcarver if my MES30 would handle 3 pork butts alright. Now I'm doubly sure it can.

 

[petehalsted]

Funny, I just ask bearcarver if my MES30 would handle 3 pork butts alright. Now I'm doubly sure it can.

It was too tall to fit between the racks without having a rack removed. So you would only be able to use 2 racksracks two butts on each. My mods keep the temps even on all 4 shelves, I know some MES owners have issues with temps on the bottom shelf., So depending on your model and setup that could be a bit of an issue.

 

[petehalsted]

Alrighty, link to the final post, Chucky Burnt Ends.

 

[GATOR240]

It was too tall to fit between the racks without having a rack removed. So you would only be able to use 2 racksracks two butts on each. My mods keep the temps even on all 4 shelves, I know some MES owners have issues with temps on the bottom shelf., So depending on your model and setup that could be a bit of an issue.

Thanks for the info Pete. I will keep that in mind for when the time comes.

 

[normonster]

...
Funny thing is I don't even know what's for dinner tonight, but I got a feeling it will be smoked what ever it is LOL

View attachment 353454

OK that sentence has got to be on someone's gravestone out there some where.

And man, that pic there is a thing of beauty! A stuffed smoker. Giggity giggity.