- Jan 3, 2011
- 6
- 10
Hello all! First off, let me start by saying this website is amazing and I appreciate the insane amount of knowledge and assistance that is offered here. I'm addicted to smoking now and I've only done it once!
Last week I got a MES 30 for my birthday. I dediced the first thing I was going to attempt was a Pork Butt, becuase I love good pulled pork.
Saturday night I bought a 7.5# butt from Wal-Mart. When I got home, my two daughters and I rubbed some yellow mustard all over it and then applied a rub from a book by Ray Lampe. One thing I did that I'm not sure I'll do in the future is I tried to "rub" the rub into the meat/mustard. A friend of mine told me next time to just "coat" the butt in the rub and don't massage it in. When I rubbed it on it seemed to get pretty gooey, which looking back was probably obvious since the mustard was coating it. After the rub was on, I wrapped it up and let it sit until 7am Sunday morning.
I got up and set my grill to 200 degrees. The outside temp was hovering right at 0, but the MES warmed up in a hurry. I put the butt in at 7:30 with pecan wood in the tray and an apple juice/water mix in the water pan. I checked the chips and added more about every hour. About 11am, I got my apple juice/rum mixture and started coating the outside every hour until about 2pm. At that point, it hit 165 so I took it out and wrapped it in foil. Another mistake I made was rushing it...I had people coming over for dinner at 7pm, so I wanted it out about 5:30 to wrap and put in the cooler.
At 5:30 I pulled it out and it read about 192 on my thermometer. I wanted to pull it, but if it was tough to pull I was just going to cut it up and serve it anyway. I let it sit in the cooler until 6:30 and unwrapped it. I wasn't sure what to expect, and I thought I messed up because the exterior of the butt appeared kind of mushy. But when I cut into it the meat was soft and pulled apart easily, and the bone came out with almost no effort. I took about 25 minutes with the help of my wife pulling it apart, and when I was done I had a 9x13 cake pan completely full of pulled pork. While I was pulling it, I used the SoFlaQuer (sp?) juice to bathe it in. I served it to my in-laws, and everybody loved it!
Sorry, I didn't take photos and from my limited time on the site I know that without Q-view, it didn't happen....but I wanted to just again thank everyone on this site and tell any of the "lurkers" like me that weren't sure what to expect, to just jump in and get your feet wet. This is coming from somone that three weeks ago was cooking steak on the grill and cutting into every piece to see if it was done; I've certainly come a long way! Next up...smoked salmon!
Last week I got a MES 30 for my birthday. I dediced the first thing I was going to attempt was a Pork Butt, becuase I love good pulled pork.
Saturday night I bought a 7.5# butt from Wal-Mart. When I got home, my two daughters and I rubbed some yellow mustard all over it and then applied a rub from a book by Ray Lampe. One thing I did that I'm not sure I'll do in the future is I tried to "rub" the rub into the meat/mustard. A friend of mine told me next time to just "coat" the butt in the rub and don't massage it in. When I rubbed it on it seemed to get pretty gooey, which looking back was probably obvious since the mustard was coating it. After the rub was on, I wrapped it up and let it sit until 7am Sunday morning.
I got up and set my grill to 200 degrees. The outside temp was hovering right at 0, but the MES warmed up in a hurry. I put the butt in at 7:30 with pecan wood in the tray and an apple juice/water mix in the water pan. I checked the chips and added more about every hour. About 11am, I got my apple juice/rum mixture and started coating the outside every hour until about 2pm. At that point, it hit 165 so I took it out and wrapped it in foil. Another mistake I made was rushing it...I had people coming over for dinner at 7pm, so I wanted it out about 5:30 to wrap and put in the cooler.
At 5:30 I pulled it out and it read about 192 on my thermometer. I wanted to pull it, but if it was tough to pull I was just going to cut it up and serve it anyway. I let it sit in the cooler until 6:30 and unwrapped it. I wasn't sure what to expect, and I thought I messed up because the exterior of the butt appeared kind of mushy. But when I cut into it the meat was soft and pulled apart easily, and the bone came out with almost no effort. I took about 25 minutes with the help of my wife pulling it apart, and when I was done I had a 9x13 cake pan completely full of pulled pork. While I was pulling it, I used the SoFlaQuer (sp?) juice to bathe it in. I served it to my in-laws, and everybody loved it!
Sorry, I didn't take photos and from my limited time on the site I know that without Q-view, it didn't happen....but I wanted to just again thank everyone on this site and tell any of the "lurkers" like me that weren't sure what to expect, to just jump in and get your feet wet. This is coming from somone that three weeks ago was cooking steak on the grill and cutting into every piece to see if it was done; I've certainly come a long way! Next up...smoked salmon!
