First Try At Snake Method

[R L Bagwell]

As I promised in my Smoke Day thread, here (hopefully) are the photos I took documenting my efforts - sorry for the delay:

Here's a beautiful photo, suitable for framing, of my still-packaged butt, prior to preparation:



Here's the freshly-rubbed butt ready for injection - I use a 50/50 mix of apple cider vinegar & apple juice - the screwdriver components depicted in the background were consumed orally, not intravenously, by the way:



Here's my kettle grill setup with 4-deep K-Competition briquettes and hickory chunks for smoke:



Here's my butt, rubbed, injected, and ready to go:



As I reported in my earlier thread, the fuel was spent after 8.5 hours, but the internal temperature was only 176º:



I wrapped it in a double layer of aluminum foil, and put it in a 300º oven - it took a little over an hour to break through the plateau, and I took it out at 200º, wrapped it in foil and a towel, and placed it in a cooler for about two hours:



Here's the final, shredded product:



All in all, I was happy with the results and despite having to attend to a few spikes and dips, it was a relatively simple process.

Regards,

Rooster

 

[Cliff Bartlett]

Hey Rooster! Nice job. That butt looks great. Nice bark.

 

[John Sp]

Rooster - good looking pig there. What temp did you run your grill at for the cook? How did you like the snake? I have only used the snake for low temp cooks for cheese or bacon. How did it perform at higher temps for a butt? Please advise.

Regards,

John

 

[John Solak]

Some good looking pork!!!

 

[Tony R]

Looks good to me.... I tried the snake method last week and I like it.

 

[Hamilton Barnes]

Looks great!! I still need to try the snake!!

 

[R L Bagwell]

Rooster - good looking pig there. What temp did you run your grill at for the cook? How did you like the snake? I have only used the snake for low temp cooks for cheese or bacon. How did it perform at higher temps for a butt? Please advise.

Regards,

John

John, at first it settled in @ about 250* (all vents wide open), but then it started "yo-yoing", rising to about 282*; I started adjusting the vents, and it went down to 225* (too low for my tastes, I wanted a quicker cook); I finally got it back to 250* -sumpin', and it maintained that until the fuel was spent.

I'm thinking my ill-fitting top may have had something to do with having to fiddle too much with the vents - I've since tried (successfully, I hope) to carefully bend the out-of-round portion to match the kettle - I plan to do another 7.5 Lb butt tomorrow, using regular K-briquettes this time, to see if I've managed to correct the top being out-of-round, and determine if the blue burns longer than the comp...

Regards,

Rooster

OOPS! Forgot to include that I used a loaf pan with hot water as a heat sink - will omit that tomorrow to see what difference it makes, if any, in maintaining the proper temps.

 

[Mike Coffman]

Great looking pork butt!

 

[Jim Lampe]

looks Good Roost!

I plan to do another 7.5 Lb butt tomorrow...I used a loaf pan with hot water as a heat sink - will omit that tomorrow to see what difference it makes...

too early for the results???

 

[ChuckO]

Did you put cola on it during the cook? I like the bark on that bad boy
Nice cook

 

[Greg B.]

Pork looking good! Wondering how you can get a snake running 10+ hours.Waiting for your results using KBB

 

[R L Bagwell]

Did you put cola on it during the cook? I like the bark on that bad boy
Nice cook

ChuckO:

Thanks to you and all for the kind remarks - nothing but my rub went on the outside of the butt - I use a VERY simple rub consisting of equal parts of Kosher salt, table grind black pepper, sweet paprika, and brown sugar. Always had favorable comments and good results with it...

Regards,

Rooster

 

[R L Bagwell]

Pork looking good! Wondering how you can get a snake running 10+ hours.Waiting for your results using KBB

Greg:

Last Saturday I used regular K briquettes - same configuration (2 on 2, topped with hickory chunks) and no heat sink; results practically the same. Ambient conditions were comparable to those associated with my first snake method smoke - this one lasted about nine hours (my 7.57 Lb butt's internal temp was again at 175º - had to put 'er in a 300º oven for one-and-a-half hours to reach 200º internal.) No injection this time.

Regards,

Rooster