My First Labor of Love

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First I want to thank Chris and all of the rest of the gang. I started visiting this board about 6 weeks ago, and I've learned alot.

For my first smoke I've got 2 butts weighing a total of about 14lbs. I'm following The Renowned Mr. Brown recipe and the Minion Method. I trimmed and rubbed the butts yesterday. This morning I took them back out the fridge at 3:56 am. It is 19 degrees with 0 wind. I lighted 40 Kingsford Briquettes in my chimney, and then rerubbed my butts. I'm measuring temps at the top grate with a polder probe. I'm using 4 fist size chunks of cherry, and 2 fists of hickory.
4:15 am My wife gets up to take picture of crazy husband. HeHe, who is really crazy here?
4:40 Dumped Coals, Assembled Cooker
4:46 Grate 84 degrees All vents open
5:06 Grate 201, Bottom vents move to 25% open
5:18 Grate 222 Is it too early to crack a beer?
5:30 Grate 240 I leave 1 vent at 25%, close the rest of the bottom vents.
6:00 Grate 248 I close 1 grate and move the other 2 to 10%
6:30 Grate 231 I open the 3rd vent to 10%. So all 3 at 10%
7:07 Grate 231 I replenish water. Temp spikes to 241 but I leave the vents alone
7:27 Grate 233. All bottom vents at 10%. The temps settled back down. I am amazed, but the house is still asleep, so I keep my excitement to myself. It is 22 degress, still 0 wind.
7:40 Grate 226 I move vents to 25,25,10
9:00 Grate 239 Air 29 Wind 0 I replenish water using hot, almost none needed, and I mopped.
9:20 Grate 253 I move vents to 10,10,10
10:54 Grate 224 Air 38 Wind has picked up to 12 mph. I open the grates to 25,25,25
11:10 Grate 222 I insert probe into meat and take my first reading of 147. I turn the meat, replenish water with hot and mop.
11:25 Grate 221 Temp still dropping so I open all vents to 100,100,100
11:48 Grate 251 Meat 158 I move vents to 10,25,10
12:23 Grate 240 Meat 163 Air 42 Vents 50,50,50
12:27 Grate 246 Meat 163 Vents 25,25,25
1:30 Grate 239 Meat 161 Air 42 Wind 16 Mostly Cloudy Vents 25,25,25 Replenish Water
1:57 Grate 235 Meat 161 Vents 50,25,25
2:17 Grate 235 Meat 161 Vents 50,50,50 I'm concerned the meat temp isn't moving so I'm going to bring the temp up about 10 degrees
2:33 Grate 239 Meat 161 Vents 100,100,100
3:00 Grate 239 Meat 161 Vents 100,100,100 I Turn the meat, mop, replenish the water and reinsert the probe into the meat. Crack my first beer.
3:44 Grate 235 Meat 156 I'm getting very concerned about the meat temps. Vents 100,100,100. I also stir the coals.
4:15 Grate 239 Meat 158 Vents 100,100,100 I add 40 briquettes and about 2 fists of Hickory wood. I 'm on my 2nd beer.
4:45 Grate 203 Meat 158 Vents 100,100,100
5:22 Grate 231 Meat 156 Vents 100,100,100
6:00 Grate 237 Meat 158 Vents 100,100,100 Mop. I eat a small piece
6:47 Grate 221 I can't increase my heat, and I don't know why Vents continue to be 100,100,100.
8:20 Grate 217 Vents 100,100,100 I add 1 Chimney of unlit coals
8:45 I add 40 lit coals Meat 154
9:00 Grate 135 and climbing
9:30 Grate 266 Meat 168 Air 43 Vents 100,100,100 Wind 10
10:12 Grate 255 Meat 185 Vents 100,100,100
10:47 Grate 251 Meat 190 I pull the top butt, and I move the bottom butt to the top. It's temp is 183
11:28 Grate 261 Meat 183
11:50 Grate 241 Meat 185 It has started to rain so I pull it.
 
Good Show dude.

If your lucky, maybe you can get a little nap in. Never too early to crack a beer. Trouble is it leads to another and another ... Little chance you'd enjoy your smoke.

Your wife might think your crazy, but she'll love the food you make!

Good luck and keep us posted!

P.S. Tell your wife she's not alone, my wife thinks I'm a real goon too.
 
Thanks Joe

At what point should I turn them? At 9:00 I'm going to replenish the water again and mop. At 11:00 I'm going to do the same thing, and I thought with being 6 hrs into the cook I would then turn them over. Is that about right?
 
Thats about when I turned mine the first time. I forgot to add water until the 6 hr point when I turned and rotated. Had a big temp spike because of it. Sounds like your doing great!

I'm doing BRITUs today. If they go as good as the butts did, I'll be in great shape.

Wait til this afternoon, when everything is almost done and you've cracked that beer. The smell of smoking meat, hickory or what every wood, beer, evening winding down. Its at that point that the early morning wake up call and all the research and anxiety take a pause and you enjoy the intoxicating effect of why we've ventured into the "Q" hobby. Its a bittersweet sensation, especially on the first smoke. Wait until the eyes light up of the crew you're feeding! Enjoy! Keep us posted on the progress.
 
Jeff - make sure you stay patient. Your butts might staty at 160 for a long time. Pretty windy down here in Naperville. Soundin' good.
 
Joe - How are those BRITUs coming along? Chicagoland sure has a nice smell to it today. /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif
 
Final thoughts:
The butts had a very dark appearance with good smoke penetration. They pulled apart very easy and were very moist. The butt that only reached 185 had a little bit of fat jelly that didn't render out. Another 1/2 to an hour would have been perfect. The taste is incredible.

Next time I'm going to add both lit and unlit coals and try for temps in the 240s. I am also going to allow 2.5 hrs/lb with 1 hour prep and 1 hour rest. I will also drink early and often. Thanks again for everyone's help.
 
Jeff,

Sound like you had quite the adventure there. Upon further reflection, I too had to add coals at about the 12 hour mark.

I ended up doing two slabs, one strickly BRITU and the other was a foiling techinque from a buddy of mine. Both were really good. The BRITU sauce, KC Masterpiece and honey didn't really do it for me. I don't care for KC Masterpiece and even doctored, didn't strike my fancy. The meat was tender and came off the bone with only a gently pull.

Wind almost got me though. I ended up having to set up a make shift block with my kids little Playschool slide/fort toy thing.

Hope your enjoying the Mr. Browns.
 
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