Hey ya'll -
This is my first post here, and I'm relatively new to the site. Found some pretty good threads and enjoy reading about everyone's smokes. Glad to be here.
I'm doing a round two with a Boston Butt today. I got an old un-branded bullet smoker and this will be my third time using it. The first time was a 5 or 6 lb butt that took somewhere in the ballpark of 14 hours or so. I had never used a bullet smoker before and it was a bit of an experiment. I had a lot of temperature fluctuations and ended up adding more wood and coals quite a bit to try to maintain a 225-250 temp. It would get up in the 350 range and stay a bit, then get back down to 200 and hang there for a while too. It was a bit of a roller coaster all day and I was out there messing with it for just about the whole smoke. I did learn quite a bit and think that I used too much wood for one. The meat ended up being really juicy, but the bark was very thick and a bit too intense to be enjoyable. I also wrapped it in foil once it hit 165, but took the foil off later when it hit 190 because I wanted more smoke flavor. It might've been a mistake.
Did a chicken for the second smoke and used less wood and kept a better eye on the coals. It maintained 250 just about the whole 4-5 hour smoke. Quite a difference from my first time. Gave me a lot more excitement to keep going with it. The smoker does have a water bowl which I kept full the whole time. Might experiment down the road with adding some broth and/or veggies to the water. (by the way the chicken was an old layer, so she turned out really tough, flavor was good though. Definitely not a meat bird. I wonder if a brine or some more aging after the kill would've helped with getting the meat more tender. Leaning toward old layer = tough meat. ha)
I'm going for another round today and decided to focus more on maintaining heat with mostly coals and a chunk of apple and cherry would from time to time. Going to whip up my own rub (not sure on the recipe just yet, I'll let you know what I land on). Going to make a Georgia Mustard sauce as well as a finishing sauce. I found a couple recipes here that I'm gonna try out thanks to jokensmoken for the Georgia sauce and chef jimmyj for a finishing sauce.
I'm still experimenting a bit with this smoker to get it to be more efficient. I'm hoping to find that sweet spot where I can just let it do its thing adding more charcoal and wood less frequently as I go. I've been soaking the wood in some water before adding it to the coals too. Planning on only adding one to three chunks at a time every hour or so. I also plan to wrap it again at 165 and leave it till I hit 200-205. Any advice ya'll have out there I'm all ears.
I'll post some photos once I get her all fired up and going.
These are photos of my first Butt. I just thought the bark was a bit too thick and too strong in flavor, kind of hurt the gut. Too much smoke?
And a photo of my smoker on the first round. Found it difficult to maintain temp when I had to remove the body to add coal/wood. Got it a bit more streamlined now.
This is my first post here, and I'm relatively new to the site. Found some pretty good threads and enjoy reading about everyone's smokes. Glad to be here.
I'm doing a round two with a Boston Butt today. I got an old un-branded bullet smoker and this will be my third time using it. The first time was a 5 or 6 lb butt that took somewhere in the ballpark of 14 hours or so. I had never used a bullet smoker before and it was a bit of an experiment. I had a lot of temperature fluctuations and ended up adding more wood and coals quite a bit to try to maintain a 225-250 temp. It would get up in the 350 range and stay a bit, then get back down to 200 and hang there for a while too. It was a bit of a roller coaster all day and I was out there messing with it for just about the whole smoke. I did learn quite a bit and think that I used too much wood for one. The meat ended up being really juicy, but the bark was very thick and a bit too intense to be enjoyable. I also wrapped it in foil once it hit 165, but took the foil off later when it hit 190 because I wanted more smoke flavor. It might've been a mistake.
Did a chicken for the second smoke and used less wood and kept a better eye on the coals. It maintained 250 just about the whole 4-5 hour smoke. Quite a difference from my first time. Gave me a lot more excitement to keep going with it. The smoker does have a water bowl which I kept full the whole time. Might experiment down the road with adding some broth and/or veggies to the water. (by the way the chicken was an old layer, so she turned out really tough, flavor was good though. Definitely not a meat bird. I wonder if a brine or some more aging after the kill would've helped with getting the meat more tender. Leaning toward old layer = tough meat. ha)
I'm going for another round today and decided to focus more on maintaining heat with mostly coals and a chunk of apple and cherry would from time to time. Going to whip up my own rub (not sure on the recipe just yet, I'll let you know what I land on). Going to make a Georgia Mustard sauce as well as a finishing sauce. I found a couple recipes here that I'm gonna try out thanks to jokensmoken for the Georgia sauce and chef jimmyj for a finishing sauce.
I'm still experimenting a bit with this smoker to get it to be more efficient. I'm hoping to find that sweet spot where I can just let it do its thing adding more charcoal and wood less frequently as I go. I've been soaking the wood in some water before adding it to the coals too. Planning on only adding one to three chunks at a time every hour or so. I also plan to wrap it again at 165 and leave it till I hit 200-205. Any advice ya'll have out there I'm all ears.
I'll post some photos once I get her all fired up and going.
These are photos of my first Butt. I just thought the bark was a bit too thick and too strong in flavor, kind of hurt the gut. Too much smoke?
And a photo of my smoker on the first round. Found it difficult to maintain temp when I had to remove the body to add coal/wood. Got it a bit more streamlined now.
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