Dan C. FL
TVWBB Pro
I took Friday off of work to meet the pest control guy at the house. After he came and visited, I knew I wanted to grill something. The wife was craving steaks, but she wasn't more specific than that. So, I went to our Publix (which has some of the most beautiful steaks in the butcher case) in search of dinner. I didn't see anything horribly inspiring in the regular case, so I went over to the fancy butcher case and found this beautiful Prime NY Strip.
I was kinda craving potato, so I grabbed a big potato to wrap in foil and cooked it on the coals. The potato came out perfect...crispy skin and light fluffy insides.
That steak didn't come out too badly either.
Saturday was dinner at a friend's house. I decided to forego taking pics but he made kabobs and Persian Rice. It was good.
I've been craving some pulled pork for a while, and with the nieces gone, I needed to learn how to scale down. I picked up a small bone in Boston Butt from Publix (it's the only place I've seen them cut one this small).
Rubbed it up and threw it on the smoker.
In trying to guesstimate, I figured the usual 1.5-2 hours per pound would apply. So, I figured 6-8 hours cook time. About 4 hours into it, it became readily apparent that this was not going to be done anywhere near dinner time. Temps were holding steady in the smoker at about 260* just like they should. But, the meat was just not progressing as fast as I thought. Luckily, the wife was at the grocery store for something else. So, she picked up a bunch of chicken breasts. We kabobed some and some I just grilled whole with garlic powder and lemon pepper. They became dinner.
The Butt did a small stall at about 150*-ish. But, then the problem came. I started losing temperature. No worries, this is the 14" WSM, it's not going to go much more than 9 hours or so on KBB without adding more. So, I went and added KBB. In the process, the cooker temp dropped down from 260 to 190. I fought with it for about an hour and finally got it back up to temp. But, in the meantime, the meat LOST 4* IT. Apparently, I somehow induced a second stall. Is that even possible?
The meat sat there at about 170* for-freaking-ever. In the end, I pulled it off of the smoker at 2:15 a.m. (that's 10 hours and 15 minutes after that little thing went on; for reference, 9 lbs. butts that I usually get are done in 13 hours). I usually wait for my butts to get to 195* before I pull them. But, I just wasn't going to wait for it to come up another 5 degrees. So, I cheated. I double foiled it, put it in the cooler for an hour and let it kinda finish itself off. After I was finished cleaning up, it had been in there for an hour. I decided that rather than pull it and risk it drying out, I'd just throw it in the fridge whole and go to bed. So, I have no finished pics and I have no idea how this thing came out. I'll reheat it tonight and shred some and see. Oh, and I didn't even tell you the funny thermometer story, but I've babbled enough for now.
Hope y'all had a great weekend!
I was kinda craving potato, so I grabbed a big potato to wrap in foil and cooked it on the coals. The potato came out perfect...crispy skin and light fluffy insides.
That steak didn't come out too badly either.
Saturday was dinner at a friend's house. I decided to forego taking pics but he made kabobs and Persian Rice. It was good.
I've been craving some pulled pork for a while, and with the nieces gone, I needed to learn how to scale down. I picked up a small bone in Boston Butt from Publix (it's the only place I've seen them cut one this small).
Rubbed it up and threw it on the smoker.
In trying to guesstimate, I figured the usual 1.5-2 hours per pound would apply. So, I figured 6-8 hours cook time. About 4 hours into it, it became readily apparent that this was not going to be done anywhere near dinner time. Temps were holding steady in the smoker at about 260* just like they should. But, the meat was just not progressing as fast as I thought. Luckily, the wife was at the grocery store for something else. So, she picked up a bunch of chicken breasts. We kabobed some and some I just grilled whole with garlic powder and lemon pepper. They became dinner.
The Butt did a small stall at about 150*-ish. But, then the problem came. I started losing temperature. No worries, this is the 14" WSM, it's not going to go much more than 9 hours or so on KBB without adding more. So, I went and added KBB. In the process, the cooker temp dropped down from 260 to 190. I fought with it for about an hour and finally got it back up to temp. But, in the meantime, the meat LOST 4* IT. Apparently, I somehow induced a second stall. Is that even possible?
The meat sat there at about 170* for-freaking-ever. In the end, I pulled it off of the smoker at 2:15 a.m. (that's 10 hours and 15 minutes after that little thing went on; for reference, 9 lbs. butts that I usually get are done in 13 hours). I usually wait for my butts to get to 195* before I pull them. But, I just wasn't going to wait for it to come up another 5 degrees. So, I cheated. I double foiled it, put it in the cooler for an hour and let it kinda finish itself off. After I was finished cleaning up, it had been in there for an hour. I decided that rather than pull it and risk it drying out, I'd just throw it in the fridge whole and go to bed. So, I have no finished pics and I have no idea how this thing came out. I'll reheat it tonight and shred some and see. Oh, and I didn't even tell you the funny thermometer story, but I've babbled enough for now.
Hope y'all had a great weekend!
