Well, my daughter told me at noon yesterday that her boyfriend was coming for a visit. Because he was such a fan of my last butt I wanted to have some ready for him. As it turns out I had already begun thawing 2 butts.
Yesterday at noon I did the trickling water thaw method for an hour and a half. I really wanted to have butt ready for today. Consequently I didn't have a chance to rub the night before. So I started with a 6 pounder that was basically thawed. Rubbed it with mustard and Bad Byron's and started my smoke at 3:00. I knew I was in for a late night.
Some things happened during the smoke that I wouldn't consider helpful to the process. But first, my first temp reading for the meat was 35 degrees. Like I said, basically thawed. It took some time to get to my first spritz (yes RichT I said spritz) 2 and 1/2 hrs to be exact. At 7:00 we had a major thunderstorm move through. I had to move the smoker over by the garage under the overhang. Survived. I did lose a little heat but no big deal. I was at 220 for a while. Later I moved the smoker back where it belonged. Later I ran out of propane, so I lost about 10 minutes and some temp before I noticed the temp drop. Got her switched to the tank I had ready.
I did not have the kind of plateau that I have had in the past. It did take 3 hrs to go from the low 140's to 166, but I've had worse. I think somebody was watching out for me. Maybe He thought I'd dealt with enough already.
Pulled the butt at 166 foiled and put in a 250 degree oven. It took an hour and a half to get to 205. It was 2:00 at that point. I wrapped it in two towels and put it in a cooler to rest. I got up at 8:30 and checked, my meat temp was 130. Not bad.
The meat was very tender. The flavor was my best yet. Nice and smoky.
We'll see what others think.
Sorry for the rambling. I just think that I had a number of things that made this smoke a challenge. I managed to get through it without asking a ton of questions. Actually I found previously read posts when I had questions. I feel like I've developed the ability to roll with some situations that come up. This is totally because of this forum. What a resource! Any praise coming my way for what I produce is to be shared with all you vets that have helped me over the last couple months. Thanks. Sorry for no Q view. I knew much of my time would be during dark hours.
dmack
Yesterday at noon I did the trickling water thaw method for an hour and a half. I really wanted to have butt ready for today. Consequently I didn't have a chance to rub the night before. So I started with a 6 pounder that was basically thawed. Rubbed it with mustard and Bad Byron's and started my smoke at 3:00. I knew I was in for a late night.
Some things happened during the smoke that I wouldn't consider helpful to the process. But first, my first temp reading for the meat was 35 degrees. Like I said, basically thawed. It took some time to get to my first spritz (yes RichT I said spritz) 2 and 1/2 hrs to be exact. At 7:00 we had a major thunderstorm move through. I had to move the smoker over by the garage under the overhang. Survived. I did lose a little heat but no big deal. I was at 220 for a while. Later I moved the smoker back where it belonged. Later I ran out of propane, so I lost about 10 minutes and some temp before I noticed the temp drop. Got her switched to the tank I had ready.
I did not have the kind of plateau that I have had in the past. It did take 3 hrs to go from the low 140's to 166, but I've had worse. I think somebody was watching out for me. Maybe He thought I'd dealt with enough already.
Pulled the butt at 166 foiled and put in a 250 degree oven. It took an hour and a half to get to 205. It was 2:00 at that point. I wrapped it in two towels and put it in a cooler to rest. I got up at 8:30 and checked, my meat temp was 130. Not bad.
The meat was very tender. The flavor was my best yet. Nice and smoky.
We'll see what others think.
Sorry for the rambling. I just think that I had a number of things that made this smoke a challenge. I managed to get through it without asking a ton of questions. Actually I found previously read posts when I had questions. I feel like I've developed the ability to roll with some situations that come up. This is totally because of this forum. What a resource! Any praise coming my way for what I produce is to be shared with all you vets that have helped me over the last couple months. Thanks. Sorry for no Q view. I knew much of my time would be during dark hours.
dmack
