Ref; Kalua Pork Night!

[TomKnollRFV]

Alright ladies and gents, I'll be doing my Kalua pork attempt tonight.. I just pulled pork chops and ABTs off the smoker for a late supper. Still got a small chunk of brisket smoking away. I plan to put the Kalua pork butt on around Midnight.

As always sorry for horrible camera pictures! Don't mind the clutter on my floor and desk yadda yadda Lol

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

I’m in Tom! Been talking about this a while now with you. Can’t wait to see the results!

Good luck
Scott

 

[TomKnollRFV]

That brisket was on for over 4 hours and never broke 180. I think it was to small <and I can't tell ya what the brisket was.> It's total weight was 1.3 pounds. I checked it on and off, I think I did the right thing pulling it. Planning to hunk it up for hash. <Tasted great, but honestly I wanted to pull my smoker to cool it, do a quick clean and prep for the Kalua pork>


PS: Scott, I legit spent 20 mins in all of about 50 sq feet of space looking for the darn Alaea salt. I walked past it about 2 dozen times and felt stupid when the employee knew exactly where it was. LOL It's a little tiny bag! It looked like any other pinkish salt! Letting the banana leaves unthaw now. Picked up some butcher grade rope/yarn stuff for tying it up...then impulse bought a Fleet Farm .75 pound jerky gun kit.

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Here we go! Seasoned and wrapped..wasn't overly sure on how much salt to put on. So...well. We'll see!

I can fully believe that the banana leaves are what flavours this. Pretty fragrant!

 

[SmokinAl]

Gosh I have about 60-70 banana trees in my yard!
I guess I should give this a try!
Al

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

70 banana trees Al? You should open a produce stand!

 

[SmokinVOLfan]

This is a bad ass idea. Cant wait to see how it turns out! Did you inject it with anything?

 

[TomKnollRFV]

No injections; they don't use them in Hawaii. All I did was rinse and apply alaea salt. Wrapped in Banana leaves and onto the smoker at 225. I've read varying views on the temp to pull and I decided because every thing I know of this is the pork is super tender, fall apart, to run till 205 IT.

I just got up and checked it and all; sitting at 172, pellets burned out <9 hours of smoke for them is good in my mind> and I reloaded the tray to use up the blend of mesquite and apple pellets. So I'm guessing my late afternoon estimation will be about right.

There are some people who inject btw with soy sauce etc I saw when digging for recipes on this. I decided to just do it the traditional way. Still haven't decided on a side dish for this. I might just cook up some jasmine rice and my friend from the Islands said 'Just make gravy too' .

 

[Bearcarver]

Hmmm---Interesting!!
Be back later, Tom!!

Bear

 

[TomKnollRFV]

I'm waiting impatiently to see how it tastes!

2 PM. Started this at Midnight. 183f where the probe is. Bit surprised it hasn't chugged through the stall. If it's still reading like that at 4 PM I'll stick a second probe in via another area and angle. I'm shooting for 205f IT. I only got my smoker at 225, maybe I should jump it up to 240f? Could just be the Banana leaves are a heck of a heat barrier. I don't mind a late dinner but I'm hoping it finishes it before it's dark out Lol.

 

[Bearcarver]

This is 5 hours after your last post, but I would bump it up. It should be a higher Smoker Temp to get to 205°. A 20° differential isn't much. IMO

Bear

 

[TomKnollRFV]

This is 5 hours after your last post, but I would bump it up. It should be a higher Smoker Temp to get to 205°. A 20° differential isn't much. IMO

Bear

Just checked it and it was at 192f, so I increased to 240f. Hard to tell which part of the meat the probe is in because it's got those leaves on it. This sucker is taking a while but unless it's on the bone it self, I imagine it's pretty much reading accurately. Though I reloaded the pellets around 10 AM, unfortunately they decided to burn in two spots on their own, so I'm using the ole apple chips now. <Still about 12 hours of the mesquite/apple pellet blend, so not to big of a deal>.

Still wondering if I shouldn't stick a second probe in and stick the built in probe in and see what all 3 read at.

 

[Bearcarver]

I never use my built in meat probe. I wouldn't trust it one bit.
It's been in it's sheath since Day #1.

Bear

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Oh I got two others that hook up to a remote control sensor unit which broadcasts to a master unit. Which I never actually set up so I just look at the remote control unit. Right now I just got one of those in. Surprisingly I think my MES built in probe is infact..like with in 2 degrees. But I'm thinking of sticking all 3 in at different areas and seeing what the average temp is now. I'm getting hungry.. Lol!

Update: Checked it again, stuff is from 188 to 192. Put the temp up to 250f. Not going any higher, I feel bad just raising it that much but this was meant for supper tonight. So far I'm not sure my plan will work so well before every one is hangry!

 

[TomKnollRFV]

So this is interesting; I thought I was just having odd readings because I had no idea where the probes were in the meat. Pulled, unwrapped..they were fairly accurate. I put it back on unwrapped <The outside Banana leaves were pretty much on the verge of burning, the inner wrap less so>.

I didn't taste it yet, waiting for the magic 205 to come around but if you do plan to do this, at least based off this pork butt allow -much- more time if you intend to cook her straight through to 205 in the leaves. Those things apparently can just keep a pretty low temp for hours! On the other hand if you want a good insulator to add a unique flavour..apparently Banana leaves are where it's at. I'm sort of rushing this one now because dinner time is approaching, but I feel going on 18 hours done in the leaves with mesquite and apple is pretty good. I don't -think- The leaves would ignite, but some were pretty much black and turn to dust when I removed them.

This does lead me to wonder with the Imu how hot it is. The method for the Imu is basically to maintain a super hot fire as it heats up stones for 2-3 hours on average. This+coals+sealing it in probably results in a much higher temp then I'm using. Ahh well!

 

[Bearcarver]

Just checked it and it was at 192f, so I increased to 240f. Hard to tell which part of the meat the probe is in because it's got those leaves on it. This sucker is taking a while but unless it's on the bone it self, I imagine it's pretty much reading accurately. Though I reloaded the pellets around 10 AM, unfortunately they decided to burn in two spots on their own, so I'm using the ole apple chips now. <Still about 12 hours of the mesquite/apple pellet blend, so not to big of a deal>.

Still wondering if I shouldn't stick a second probe in and stick the built in probe in and see what all 3 read at.

Wouldn't hurt, just for S & Gs.

Bear

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Wouldn't hurt, just for S & Gs.

Bear

Of course as I am utterly exasperated by all of this my Hawaiin friend informs me 'Oh yah, Imus are like hundreds of degrees, 200 or more then your smoker.' .. Well I realized that now LOL.

I'm thinking it might not be a bad idea to pre cook the pork butt some then wrap in banana leaves if I do this again, or just plan to run the sucker for 24+ hours if I did this again. Which I might for friends.

 

[TomKnollRFV]

And here it is. It's got a different flavour, but this sucker took so long to cook I'm not sure what was up with it. Floral notes..and this is finished uncovered, and there is very little bark. Thats how it's meant to be. I'm not sure I'd do this again, seemed like alot of work for ultimately, what didn't seem to special...could be I just don't know what I'm doing. I believe we need an islander to chime in!

Still tastes good though!

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

I’m use to smoking pork butts 20+ hours tom so that’s no issue to me. Kind of a shame it was subpar since you’ve been planning it for weeks. I’d still like to try it a hunk of it! Looks good! Props for trying something new!

Scott

 

[TomKnollRFV]

You might get better luck if you ran it straight through in Banana leaves Scott! I mean it's darn good smoked pork, I'm just not sure if it's indicative of Kalua pork or not as a whole. <I swear though, those Banana leaves are a helluva insulator!>

I imagine if you used a stick burner, it might go better.