I rushed to use my new smoker today. It turned out to a bit windy.
I followed the directions here for the Pork Butt. I just used a couple of 3.5 lb pork shoulder roasts from my regular grocery store.
I used the minion method, loading 50 briquets in the ring and starting 25 in the chimney. I waited just until the charcoal in the bottom of the chimney was glowing and tossed down some smoke wood into the charcoal ring and put the charcoal in the chimney starter on top. Once I had the whole thing together, it took about an hour to get the smoker up to 250 deg by the thermometer on the lid.
In another 2 hours, the temp was beginning to fall and eventually leveled out at about 210. I added another 15 lit briquets and some more hot water at about the 3 hour mark. At 6 hours, with the wind picking up, it was obvious that it would burn through all of that charcoal and then some. So, I added another 20 briquets.
At 10 hours, I was measuring 170 deg internal temps with a kitchen meat thermometer. And, the temp at the lid was 200.
out of frustration, I finished the meat in the oven at 300* and then let it rest for 1/2 hour. We finally ate at 8:30pm; the house smelled like smoke wood. But, everyone said it was delicious.
I think next time I'll have the smoker behind some kind of wind break. And, I'll stoke that charcoal ring as full as I can and just let it go. But, I'd love to hear suggestions on what I could do better.
I followed the directions here for the Pork Butt. I just used a couple of 3.5 lb pork shoulder roasts from my regular grocery store.
I used the minion method, loading 50 briquets in the ring and starting 25 in the chimney. I waited just until the charcoal in the bottom of the chimney was glowing and tossed down some smoke wood into the charcoal ring and put the charcoal in the chimney starter on top. Once I had the whole thing together, it took about an hour to get the smoker up to 250 deg by the thermometer on the lid.
In another 2 hours, the temp was beginning to fall and eventually leveled out at about 210. I added another 15 lit briquets and some more hot water at about the 3 hour mark. At 6 hours, with the wind picking up, it was obvious that it would burn through all of that charcoal and then some. So, I added another 20 briquets.
At 10 hours, I was measuring 170 deg internal temps with a kitchen meat thermometer. And, the temp at the lid was 200.
out of frustration, I finished the meat in the oven at 300* and then let it rest for 1/2 hour. We finally ate at 8:30pm; the house smelled like smoke wood. But, everyone said it was delicious.
I think next time I'll have the smoker behind some kind of wind break. And, I'll stoke that charcoal ring as full as I can and just let it go. But, I'd love to hear suggestions on what I could do better.
