First Picnic Cook


 
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Derek D

TVWBB Member
Picked up a 8.5LB picnic at my local supermarket this morning. I plan on going home from work and trimming the picnic and applying the Souther Succor Rub (found in the Renowned Mr. Brown recipe). I also plan on injecting with the Championship injection found on the front page.

Then I'm going out for fish and chips and some beers tonight, and will fire up the WSM when I get home. I plan on having the picnic on the WSM around midnight. Temps here will be about 35 overnight, no rain or heavy winds.

I'm figuring around a 14-16 hour cook time, give or take. Will remove at 190, foil and hold in a cooler. Then pull and serve a few hours afterwards.

Hopefully I will snap some pics and post them, and if anyone has any suggestions for the cook don't hesitate to post.
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I like to score the skin in a crosshatch pattern and work in a mustard slather prior to applying the rub...

Brad
 
Originally posted by Brad Olson:
I like to score the skin in a crosshatch pattern and work in a mustard slather prior to applying the rub...

Brad
Click to expand...

I was actually going to slather with mustard, but never considered scoring the skin. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
I tried the mustard a couple times and didn't really see any differance than just rubbing , don't get me wrong it was kind of fun sloping mustard around like that .
Steve
 
Put the picnic on around 12:15...lid temp is at 260 and should drop another 10-15...will probably check on it once throughout the night and see how things are going in the morning.
 
Temp has been steady at 240 since I first got up and checked about 30-45 minutes ago. Its 6:45 now.
 
I've noticed a couple things:

1. I'm not getting any smoke coming out the top vent or any where else. Did I not use enough wood? I used a fist sized chunk of hickory and two handfuls of apple chips. Should I have used more for an overnight cook?

2. A lot of my fuel is already used up, or so it seems. I fired using MM, full chamber unlit topped with 20-30 lit. I probably put the lit coals in too early, still had a really good flame going. Would that cause the unlit coals to fire up and burn faster?
 
Don't worry about the smoke, Derek. When the fire is burning cleanly there is very little smoke. If you are seeing a lot of smoke that means that the fire is burning inefficiently and may give the food an off taste.

As far as the fuel, you may have used too many lit coals to start and that may have caused it to burn faster. I generally use 15 - 20 lit coals on top of a full ring. Just watch the temps and if they start to drop give the coals a gentle stir to get rid of ash build-up. That may be enough to bring temps back up. Of not you can get some fresh fuel ready (some unlit and possibly some lit) and quickly lift off the middle section and lid and add the fuel and then put it back together.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out!
 
If you do refuel like Ron says make sure to remove the middle section and the lid as one unit (use mits of course) If you do this relatively quickly the dome temp will see minimal difference.

I have actually refueled by using the side door with unlit lump but that lights itself faster. And you would do this when you are adding fuel over a period of time not tossing a quantity of a chimney for example.

Taking the hole middle section off is quicker overall.

If you are using water in the pan be careful, those factory supports don't hold it in place all that well. A little splash here or there is not a big issue but you don't want to dump the pan
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well I went back to bed for a few hours, when I got up the lid temp was 170. Yikes! I immediately fired up some more Kingsford and when it was ready added it, removing the middle section and top as one unit. I also removed some of the old ash, and took the oppurtunity to baste using the Southern Sop. Reassembled (splashed the water pan on my deck a bit) and took a quick probe temp of the meat, which registered at 145.
 
Derek , sounds like your cook is going nicely , what time did you put them on last night ?

I did my 4 butts at 7 and they are at 165 right now .
 
Well, finally finished the cook at around 5:00 or so. So around a 17 hour cook. Would have been done earlier but the temp drop when I was running low on fuel caused the cook to have to run long. The good news is that the Mr. Brown turned out great, wasn't dried out at all and the bark has a great flavor to it. I made a sandwich with the No. 5 sauce from this site, and it was excellent. I'm not sure that the injection helped any, although it didn't hurt either. Here are some pics:

Rubbed


Nasty Cut from cleaning my knife after trimming


Around 7AM


I mopped with the Succor Mop at this point, when I ran out of fuel


Finally done


Pulling


Pork...the other white meat


Bagged and taking to the freezer to use later


Thanks to all the suggestions in this thread, I appreciate it. I ran into a few problems, but that is the great thing about the WSM. You learn something new everytime you cook...and you get great food, even when things don't go as you planned.

Now, if anyone has any suggestions or great recipes for all my leftover pork that I froze up, please post.
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Thanks again,

Derek
 
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