Well I decided the other day I wanted to do some BB ribs for a Sunday dinner. Had a long day today sitting in a transmission seminar for work. Then it hit me....how about making some butts tonight for PP for a couple lunch's for the week. Figured it would be nice for the crew at work and what we did not eat I could freeze.
So I get home after a few adult pops in the bar after a long day and decide lets see if the local store has any specials. I go on line and they have pork shoulders and butts on sale for $1.99 a lb. Tell the wife and she says lets do it! I'm like cool let me check to see if I have enough to put a rub together. I realize I need a few things and one of the markets here has the spices for dirt cheap.
So we head there to pick up what I need and then we were going to head over to the other store to get my butts. While we were at the first store I say "lets see what they have while we are here." We walk over to the meat department and see that they butts for a $1.39 a lb. They all are smaller but to the point to where I could get 4 and smoke them up. All of which weight around 4-4.5 lbs. Little small for what I would normally do but I figure why not while we are here.
So I pick up 4 of them and we head home with my bargain spices and butts. I pull them from the packages and find that the bottom of these cuts still have the skin on them with a layer of fat. I'm what the &*^$! OK well no turning back now.
I trim them up and now I'm thinking that these are now much much smaller than I would normally do. Oh well game on. I get my rub tossed together and then go fire up a chimney with 15 coals. I'm using K with some hickory stuffed in the coals using a minion start with a coffee can in the middle of the unlit coals. I take about a half dozen small pieces of wood(just larger than a golf ball) and mix them in with the K. This way they will lite as the coals lite is what I'm figuring. I take one big chunk (fist size) and put it in the bottom of the can. Drop the lit coals on top it in the coffee can and then remove the bottomless can. I then take two more fist size chunks and lay them on top. Quickly I assemble the smoker and 10 minutes later this thing is smoking like nuts. Hoping I didn't over do it with the wood.
Go inside and get the butts rubbed up. Then when the temps are close to 250* on they go. Two of which seemed smaller after trimming so I put those on the lower grate and put the larger ones on top. The temps seemed to drop to about 225* when I put them on with the clay pot in the foiled water pan. After about an hour the smoke seemed to mellow out so I think I'm good with the temp at 250*. I'm now almost 3 hrs into this and I'm thinking that I will definitely be removing these earlier than I planned. Going to stick my remote thermometer in there in a bit and crash until it goes off.
It's kind of cool up here in the upper 40's tonight with light showers scheduled. Wind is about 10-15mph. What was I thinking when I started this? LOL Oh well I have to see how this goes down. Temps at the lid are about 265* with all lower vents closed since I started. Might crack them just a bit before closing my eyes and see what happens. What the worse that can happen? I wreck $25 worth of baby butts! Going to go rub my ribs and wrap them in some saran wrap for when the butts come off. Here are some pic's of the cook so far.
Wish me luck. Vince
EDIT!
So I get home after a few adult pops in the bar after a long day and decide lets see if the local store has any specials. I go on line and they have pork shoulders and butts on sale for $1.99 a lb. Tell the wife and she says lets do it! I'm like cool let me check to see if I have enough to put a rub together. I realize I need a few things and one of the markets here has the spices for dirt cheap.
So we head there to pick up what I need and then we were going to head over to the other store to get my butts. While we were at the first store I say "lets see what they have while we are here." We walk over to the meat department and see that they butts for a $1.39 a lb. They all are smaller but to the point to where I could get 4 and smoke them up. All of which weight around 4-4.5 lbs. Little small for what I would normally do but I figure why not while we are here.
So I pick up 4 of them and we head home with my bargain spices and butts. I pull them from the packages and find that the bottom of these cuts still have the skin on them with a layer of fat. I'm what the &*^$! OK well no turning back now.
I trim them up and now I'm thinking that these are now much much smaller than I would normally do. Oh well game on. I get my rub tossed together and then go fire up a chimney with 15 coals. I'm using K with some hickory stuffed in the coals using a minion start with a coffee can in the middle of the unlit coals. I take about a half dozen small pieces of wood(just larger than a golf ball) and mix them in with the K. This way they will lite as the coals lite is what I'm figuring. I take one big chunk (fist size) and put it in the bottom of the can. Drop the lit coals on top it in the coffee can and then remove the bottomless can. I then take two more fist size chunks and lay them on top. Quickly I assemble the smoker and 10 minutes later this thing is smoking like nuts. Hoping I didn't over do it with the wood.
Go inside and get the butts rubbed up. Then when the temps are close to 250* on they go. Two of which seemed smaller after trimming so I put those on the lower grate and put the larger ones on top. The temps seemed to drop to about 225* when I put them on with the clay pot in the foiled water pan. After about an hour the smoke seemed to mellow out so I think I'm good with the temp at 250*. I'm now almost 3 hrs into this and I'm thinking that I will definitely be removing these earlier than I planned. Going to stick my remote thermometer in there in a bit and crash until it goes off.
It's kind of cool up here in the upper 40's tonight with light showers scheduled. Wind is about 10-15mph. What was I thinking when I started this? LOL Oh well I have to see how this goes down. Temps at the lid are about 265* with all lower vents closed since I started. Might crack them just a bit before closing my eyes and see what happens. What the worse that can happen? I wreck $25 worth of baby butts! Going to go rub my ribs and wrap them in some saran wrap for when the butts come off. Here are some pic's of the cook so far.
Wish me luck. Vince
EDIT!
Originally posted by Mike Stevenson:
Luck. Look up paragraph.Thank you MR Stevenson and MR cheapcharlie! AKA "Teacher Stevenson and Teacher Cheapcharlie"....see post below.
