G
Guest
Guest
Well, I finally did my first smoke on Monday. The results were pretty good despite a pretty "funny in retrospect" error on my part.
I got a 5 pound bone-in picnic - for some reason, not a single store near me had any butts. This picnic was fairly well trimmed to start though, so I didn't lose a lot of weight by trimming.
It went on the smoker at 9:00 AM and I figured it would be about 7 to 9 hours between 225 and 250 based on the weight. For the first couple of hours, since this was my first smoke and I was paranoid about temp control, I checked the temp every 15 minutes or so. To my delight, it stayed at 255, give or take 2 degrees, as measured through the lid with a Taylor candy thermometer (so I figured with the adjustments I'd read about here I was well within the right range). I dropped a little paranoia and started checking every half hour instead. It got as low as 240 and as high as 265, but it never had a serious spike or drop. I was loving life.
Around 3:30 PM (6.5 hours) I decided to check on the internal temp of the meat to see where I was so I could plan for the low or high end of the time range. I checked and it was only around 155. I didn't think much of it, since I was early anyway, and planned on the longer 9 hour time.
When I put the lid back on, I put it in a slightly different position than it had been before. The thermometer climbed, but only up to 225. Hmmm, I thought. Well, maybe opening the lid let a lot of heat escape and it will get back up once it's been closed a bit. I'll check again at 4:00 PM. 4:00 rolls around, still at 225. And then it hit me - the previous lid position was such that the thermometer probe must have been touching the surface of the meat. Uh oh. Maybe I was well under temp the whole time!
Anyway, it ended up not being a huge deal. I added some more fuel (probably started with too little in retrospect), brought the temp back up to where it should be and cooked it for longer than I would have. I never got the internal temp up to 190 like I wanted to, but I got it to doneness and while it didn't quite have the right consistency of real pulled pork, it did pull OK and it tasted great.
For the curious, I used Kingsford briquettes with the Minion method and 100% hickory (about 7 fist sized chunks) for the smoke wood because I like a strong smoke flavor. For a rub, I used some garlic powder, a maple-habanero black pepper I picked up in Vermont, and a seasoning called Gator Sprinkles by Gator Hammock (makers of my favorite hot sauce). It added a bit of kick to the pork and complimented my homemade BBQ sauce well (that's made with canned chipotles in sauce, dried New Mexico chiles, honey mustard, molasses, cider vinegar, Worcestershire and tomato puree).
So the big thing I will remember next time is to keep the probe away from the meat to make sure my temp readings are accurate. But I have to say, even with that screwup, the Bullet made this whole process pretty effortless. Even "screwed up" pork came out tasting great.
I got a 5 pound bone-in picnic - for some reason, not a single store near me had any butts. This picnic was fairly well trimmed to start though, so I didn't lose a lot of weight by trimming.
It went on the smoker at 9:00 AM and I figured it would be about 7 to 9 hours between 225 and 250 based on the weight. For the first couple of hours, since this was my first smoke and I was paranoid about temp control, I checked the temp every 15 minutes or so. To my delight, it stayed at 255, give or take 2 degrees, as measured through the lid with a Taylor candy thermometer (so I figured with the adjustments I'd read about here I was well within the right range). I dropped a little paranoia and started checking every half hour instead. It got as low as 240 and as high as 265, but it never had a serious spike or drop. I was loving life.
Around 3:30 PM (6.5 hours) I decided to check on the internal temp of the meat to see where I was so I could plan for the low or high end of the time range. I checked and it was only around 155. I didn't think much of it, since I was early anyway, and planned on the longer 9 hour time.
When I put the lid back on, I put it in a slightly different position than it had been before. The thermometer climbed, but only up to 225. Hmmm, I thought. Well, maybe opening the lid let a lot of heat escape and it will get back up once it's been closed a bit. I'll check again at 4:00 PM. 4:00 rolls around, still at 225. And then it hit me - the previous lid position was such that the thermometer probe must have been touching the surface of the meat. Uh oh. Maybe I was well under temp the whole time!
Anyway, it ended up not being a huge deal. I added some more fuel (probably started with too little in retrospect), brought the temp back up to where it should be and cooked it for longer than I would have. I never got the internal temp up to 190 like I wanted to, but I got it to doneness and while it didn't quite have the right consistency of real pulled pork, it did pull OK and it tasted great.
For the curious, I used Kingsford briquettes with the Minion method and 100% hickory (about 7 fist sized chunks) for the smoke wood because I like a strong smoke flavor. For a rub, I used some garlic powder, a maple-habanero black pepper I picked up in Vermont, and a seasoning called Gator Sprinkles by Gator Hammock (makers of my favorite hot sauce). It added a bit of kick to the pork and complimented my homemade BBQ sauce well (that's made with canned chipotles in sauce, dried New Mexico chiles, honey mustard, molasses, cider vinegar, Worcestershire and tomato puree).
So the big thing I will remember next time is to keep the probe away from the meat to make sure my temp readings are accurate. But I have to say, even with that screwup, the Bullet made this whole process pretty effortless. Even "screwed up" pork came out tasting great.
