Bradley Bruns
TVWBB Fan
Here is the long winded story of my first overnight cook. The occasion: my son's 3 year B'day party.
Friday night my 3-year-old-to-be-and I went to Costco to pick up a 2 pack of butts. They were out, and told me they would have some in the morning. Lesson learned: don’t wait till the night before to buy meat. Being Friday evening, all the butcher shops in the area were closed. So we tried Bigg’s next. They had one measly butt (4 lbs) and nearly $4 per pound.
Ouch. My last hope was Wal-Mart. Sitting there like a mirage in the desert were two nice looking 8 pounders at $1.65 per pound. Also bone-in, which many here prefer. The only catch was that they were enhanced. I’ve never cooked enhanced butt, but at this point I was out of alternatives.
At 11:30PM I filled up the WSM charcoal ring to the top with something called “Barbeque Wood Flavors 100% natural hardwood lump charcoal”. I’ve been using Royal Oak lump, but my hardware store now only carries this. I broke up the biggest pieces and also stuffed 4 pieces each of hickory and cherry. Finally I left a smallish dimple in the center to receive the 10 chimney lit coals.
Added hot coals + waterless pan + clay pot + butts (rubbed and mustard slathered). When cooking ribs I let the smoker burn for an hour or so before adding the meat, but the prospect of adding 16 lbs of cold meat to a stabilized smoker was not appealing. So I assembled everything at once. Stuck my remote probe through the top vent and watched it climb to 220. Choked the vents, then gradually opened till it settled at 260.
It is a pleasant, peaceful feeling to be on the back porch at midnight, seemingly the only (crazy) soul awake in the neighborhood, tending a fire, enjoying a cold beverage, anticipating the meal that is nearly 20 hours away.
The breeze was light but rain started to fall. My patio is unsheltered. My solution: place the WSM next to the patio table and open the umbrella. It overhangs just enough to keep the rain off. Experience has taught me to place a couple of gravel bags on the table and up against the umbrella post because wind + open umbrella can do bad things.
Anyway, at 1:00 and an hour of 260deg, I was satisfied and went to bed. Since my wife was already sound-asleep she could not comment on my WSM “cologne”.
Normally I am a heavy sleeper, but not that night. I went down to check temps at 3, 5, and 7AM (remote probe was out of range). At 5 the temp had fallen to 230, but the other times it was steady between 259 and 261. I’m not kidding.
At 9AM I stuck the remote probe into the butt on the top rack. 175. Other than a few minor tweaks, I did nothing. No flipping, turning, basting, nothing. The weather turned from calm to breezy, rain to sunny. The WSM never veered more than 10 degrees. The butts stalled at 183 for several hours. At 4:00 PM, after 16 hours of heat and smoke, these babies were done. Foiled and stuck in the cooler, minus a few bark samples for quality control of course.
I threw a few handfuls of cold lump and 2 cherry wood chunks to wake up the fire, and cooked a dozen boneless chicken breasts (for freezing) and two dozen ABTs.
At 6PM I presented the butts to the guests and pulled them. As hoped for, they just fell apart and the bone came out free and clean. Finally, after 4 tries and countless mistakes (lessons), this is the pulled pork I wanted. It was every bit as good as the wonderful sandwich I had at Jim Dandy’s (a great local BBQ joint) last December on the day my wife gave me my WSM. My guests turned into drooling carnivores and thanked me for my efforts. Nobody had a second sandwich (due to lots of sides) but everybody managed to sneak an extra serving of pork “on the side”.
Notes:
1. I did not notice any hammy effects from the “enhanced pork”. I still will choose un-enhanced if I can, but it’s nice to know that for me enhanced butts are not a deal-breaker.
2. An 8 lb butt (uncooked) is perfect for 10 of my adult family members, assuming sides and some leftovers for the host.
3. For the ABTS, I halved the peppers to make “boats” and scooped out the guts with my latex glove covered fingers. This worked well. I used a whole piece of bacon for each to wrap and seal the open end.
4. My happy guests used up half of my beer supply to put out the “fires” from the aforementioned ABTs
5. Don't wait till the night before to get meat.
6. In 60ish deg weather, my WSM can go almost 20 hours at 250 on one full ring of lump (minion style).
7. Thank you. And you. And you too. God bless all of you who make this forum a friendly informative place.
Friday night my 3-year-old-to-be-and I went to Costco to pick up a 2 pack of butts. They were out, and told me they would have some in the morning. Lesson learned: don’t wait till the night before to buy meat. Being Friday evening, all the butcher shops in the area were closed. So we tried Bigg’s next. They had one measly butt (4 lbs) and nearly $4 per pound.
At 11:30PM I filled up the WSM charcoal ring to the top with something called “Barbeque Wood Flavors 100% natural hardwood lump charcoal”. I’ve been using Royal Oak lump, but my hardware store now only carries this. I broke up the biggest pieces and also stuffed 4 pieces each of hickory and cherry. Finally I left a smallish dimple in the center to receive the 10 chimney lit coals.
Added hot coals + waterless pan + clay pot + butts (rubbed and mustard slathered). When cooking ribs I let the smoker burn for an hour or so before adding the meat, but the prospect of adding 16 lbs of cold meat to a stabilized smoker was not appealing. So I assembled everything at once. Stuck my remote probe through the top vent and watched it climb to 220. Choked the vents, then gradually opened till it settled at 260.
It is a pleasant, peaceful feeling to be on the back porch at midnight, seemingly the only (crazy) soul awake in the neighborhood, tending a fire, enjoying a cold beverage, anticipating the meal that is nearly 20 hours away.
The breeze was light but rain started to fall. My patio is unsheltered. My solution: place the WSM next to the patio table and open the umbrella. It overhangs just enough to keep the rain off. Experience has taught me to place a couple of gravel bags on the table and up against the umbrella post because wind + open umbrella can do bad things.
Anyway, at 1:00 and an hour of 260deg, I was satisfied and went to bed. Since my wife was already sound-asleep she could not comment on my WSM “cologne”.
Normally I am a heavy sleeper, but not that night. I went down to check temps at 3, 5, and 7AM (remote probe was out of range). At 5 the temp had fallen to 230, but the other times it was steady between 259 and 261. I’m not kidding.
At 9AM I stuck the remote probe into the butt on the top rack. 175. Other than a few minor tweaks, I did nothing. No flipping, turning, basting, nothing. The weather turned from calm to breezy, rain to sunny. The WSM never veered more than 10 degrees. The butts stalled at 183 for several hours. At 4:00 PM, after 16 hours of heat and smoke, these babies were done. Foiled and stuck in the cooler, minus a few bark samples for quality control of course.
I threw a few handfuls of cold lump and 2 cherry wood chunks to wake up the fire, and cooked a dozen boneless chicken breasts (for freezing) and two dozen ABTs.
At 6PM I presented the butts to the guests and pulled them. As hoped for, they just fell apart and the bone came out free and clean. Finally, after 4 tries and countless mistakes (lessons), this is the pulled pork I wanted. It was every bit as good as the wonderful sandwich I had at Jim Dandy’s (a great local BBQ joint) last December on the day my wife gave me my WSM. My guests turned into drooling carnivores and thanked me for my efforts. Nobody had a second sandwich (due to lots of sides) but everybody managed to sneak an extra serving of pork “on the side”.
Notes:
1. I did not notice any hammy effects from the “enhanced pork”. I still will choose un-enhanced if I can, but it’s nice to know that for me enhanced butts are not a deal-breaker.
2. An 8 lb butt (uncooked) is perfect for 10 of my adult family members, assuming sides and some leftovers for the host.
3. For the ABTS, I halved the peppers to make “boats” and scooped out the guts with my latex glove covered fingers. This worked well. I used a whole piece of bacon for each to wrap and seal the open end.
4. My happy guests used up half of my beer supply to put out the “fires” from the aforementioned ABTs
5. Don't wait till the night before to get meat.
6. In 60ish deg weather, my WSM can go almost 20 hours at 250 on one full ring of lump (minion style).
7. Thank you. And you. And you too. God bless all of you who make this forum a friendly informative place.
