thread for the weekend of 17-19 April 2009

[tasunkawitko]

hey, travco and mikey - glad you could drop in for the block party!

we put the ABTs on a few minutes ago and i checked the internal temp of the shoulder. it's sitting at 180 degrees. i ahd excellent results last week letting it get to 190, so will wait. i am hoping that it and the ABTs will be done about the same time.

everythng's looking good here, and apparently looking good all over - travco, those ribs and that chuckie look great!

after action report and Q-view to come later ~

 

[tasunkawitko]

alright, folks - getting rpetty tired (was up until 4 this morning and then got up at 7) so i'll make this pretty short (shocking! LOL). the pork sat at 180 for a LONG time (over an hour, checked in several places) - i finally and regretfully had to open my reserve bag of charcoal that i was hoping i wouldn't have to use. i dumped a chimney of unlit on the bank of coals in order to get the fire going.

in the 15 minutes or so that it took to start to catch pretty good the thing suddenly shot up to a little over 200 (checked in two plaes away from bone). i quickly foiled it and put it in the cooler wrapped in towels to rest while we made some macaroni and cheese and also waited for the ABTs to finish. total resting time was around half an hour, maybe just a little longer.

opened up the foil, and it looked great, except for being VERY dark (due to lots of brown sugar in the rub, will use raw next time). plenty of bark and no fat cap, so i got two forks and started pulling. fell apart very well but i immediately noticed that it was somewhat drier than previous pork shoulders. this wasn't too big a deal and with rivet's excellent sauce i noticed no loss of flavor. we ate it in pulled chunks with plenty of great bark attached to the ends of the chunks.

got Q view of the pork when finished and will post soon. the ABTs didn't last long enough for Q-view. all-in all, it was definitely a successful smoke but with a couple of new twists.

as for the drier pork, i am assuming that it was because of the lack of fat cap, but it could also be due to the long plateau at 180 degrees and then the sudden up-shoot to over 200. this could have rendered all the juices out. time will tell.

tomorrow we've got buffalo steaks on the menu for supper. will probably grill them, but we'll see ~ the jerky is still drying out in oven - all's good there and a lot of it is actually done, just waiting for a few bigger pieces to finish. i tried a couple of pieces and found a good flavor with decent cherry-smoke highlights. it wasn't the best jerky i've made, but considering the lack of true recipe, i am quite happily surprised with it. i definitely have ideas to use parts of it in a future recipe.

i'm out for tonight, will talk to you all later and will of course post the Q-view that i have.

<<<---out

 

[mikey]

You're right about the shoulder drying out during that long plateau, if you left it on. The last one I did hit the wall at 162 and never moved for an hour and a half. Ronp saved the day and told me to pull it, which I did and foiled, then put it in the gas fired metal box till it hit 200. Got lucky with that one. I did the major removal of the fat cap on it, and it was still just as juicy as ones I've left the cap on. To each his own, I guess.

 

[mikey]

Here's the final pics of the meager offering tonight. The tri tip came out great as always, but now they're getting to be a bit boring. Need to come up with something different, not sure what, but I need to change it up. Here's the chicken thighs & the smoked Mayan onion. Chicky was great, but man o man that onion was like candy. Super sweet & plenty of smokey flavor.




The tri-tip sliced and ready to hit the plate. I have no idea what that red streak is. I'm guessing a super rare part.


The plate in all its' glory. Tri tip with au jus & onions, mashed taters w/rosemary & garlic, oven roasted red potatos, and creamed spinach with the smoked Mayan onion. I forgot the pic of the au jus pan with the onions & garlic.

 

[cman95]

I am drooling here...smoking my Marlboros.....

 

[chisoxjim]

Saturday smoke was a success, Wild boar is pretty darn good, some "gamy" bites, but overall very porky in flavor. The spares were better than the St. Louis ribs. Spares took 4 hours, and the st. louis took about 2.5 hours

The alligator boudin was very good, lots of flavor - took about 2 hours

The armadillo eggs were probabyly my favorite, got a nice smoke ring on the inside, and the jalapeno stuffed olive, and the Italian sausage gave them a nice kick - about 2.5 hours.

I used the probe stuck in a potato tip, and kept the smoker under 250 the whole time, typically around 235.

pics are downloading now, I will post them in a few.

 

[chisoxjim]

pics finally downloaded.

wild boar marinated in pineapple juice overnight:

smoked wild boar spares:

armadillo egg ingredients:

finished armadillo egg:

q-view:

slainte

 

[fired up]

Weekend? What is a weekend?

 

[tasunkawitko]

mikey - appreciate the advice here. that long plateau must have been what did it. i definitely liked the idea of getting the fat cap off, because i was able to keep the rub i put on the meat rather than throw away the rub i put on the fat cap.

next time i get a long plateau at such a high tempeature, i'll take it off much sooner ~

 

[travcoman45]

I foil my butts at 165* an leave em alone till they hit the 195* mark an then put em in a personal cooler ta rest fer no less then 1 hour, 1 1/2 hours bein better. Lets em reabsorbe that juice.

Allways save the juice from the foil, put it in a mason jar an inta the icebox fer a bit, lets the fat seperate outa the mix, just scraped it off an ya got liquid gold ta add back inta yer pulled meat!

The plateau is where the meat is absorbin huge amounts a heat ta break down the connective tissue. All ya can do is be patient.

All in all sounds like ya had a great feed!

 

[tasunkawitko]

it was a good one, travco!

quick update - the jerky is doone and tastes great. a few pieces got completely dry, which i like, and a few are still a bit moist, which a lot of other people like - somethng for everyone, right? i put them in a clean jar that has a lid with holes punched in it. i made this for some friends and i hope they like it - i definitely think i am on to something with the coca-cola brine and the cherry smoke - will experiment with it more.

thanks to all who ahve made suggestioons for the pork, i'm still earning, but am proud to say that of the three i have done, all ahve come out good - just a learning curve here and there - but then again, that's what it's all about!

just got home from church and am now headed for the rifle rance - will check in on the smoke across america when i get back and should also have time to post Q-view as well.

keep the posts coming, folks!

 

[cajunsmoke13]

Here's mine for the weekend. Wasn't going to do anything this weekend, but all this q-view made my hungry.

Brisket Chimichangas.http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=75900

 

[rons]

wow so much happened on here, our computer crashed,just got it reloaded, ran out of propane 1/2 way through doing pork roasts yesterday... fun fun!~

 

[rons]

Since the weekend is past, I think this thread is done? But just a quick update since I was in a hurry on my last post. Marinating the pork roasts in the pinapple, terryaki and garlic was friggin killer good. It came out as good as prime rib to my taste buds. Man was it good. Since I ran out of all fuels 1/2 way though, we had to get the last 30 degrees and bark in the oven but they still were smokey and amazingly awesome. Ate one yesterday, two left in the fridge!!

 

[tasunkawitko]

i've got q-view to post (hopefully today!) ~

anyone with q-view from this weekend's BBQ across america, go ahead and post it!

 

[wutang]

I like the weekend thread idea.

I made a triple stuffed fattie
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=75882



And a cherry smoked roast beef
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=75914

 

[tasunkawitko]

excellent fattie, wutang, and that cherry-smoked roast beef looks perfect!

 

[falmund]

Well, kids, looks like I'm going to have decent weather for smoking on Saturday. Cooler than now, but still in the 60's. I'm going for my second attempt at pork shoulder, going to inject marinade shortly before starting the Brinkmann and then doing the mustard/crust rub. I've been using a less spicy variant of Magic Dust with fantastic reviews from the family. Local butcher had a few 6-7 lb picnic butts for 1.29/lb. I've been having trouble finding butts less than 10 lbs. I really like to use hickory chunks, they seem to work much better than chips, and it sure doesn't take much. Also going to get up early on Sunday to get a fattie cooked up for breakfast before church. Thinking about doing some kind of side in the smoker Saturday, any ideas?

 

[tasunkawitko]

falmund - i'll start a new "official" thread for this weekend ~

as far as suggestions for a side in the smoker, someone (sorry, i can't remember who, maybe got14u? did a nice looking smoked mac-n-cheese on their smoker. another good idea might be ABTs (oh, yeah, they ARE good).

on a another note, i think my wife accidentally deleted my q-view tht i promised, so i might not have it! will know for sure tonight.

 

[tasunkawitko]

falmund - here's the link - enjoy!

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...013#post301013