David Funk
TVWBB Member
My third attempt at "The Renowned Mister Brown" was a TOTAL success!! Finally!! My first attempt was marred by lack of knowledge - I took the meat off at 175* internal. This board corrected me on that error (thank you). My second attempt failed because I was not able to get the meat past 170* or so after 14 hours. I had to finish it in the (GASP!) oven. I was crushed.
Saturday night was different. I decided to try an overnight cook using the Minion method. I was stunned with how well this worked. I used a full unlit fire chamber, sprinkled with about 25 or so lit briquettes and then some hickory hunks on top of that. The smoker came right up to 250* lid and stayed there. I was now prepared to cook and cook and cook until I reached the magic 195* point. I started at 5pm and I could let it cook for 24 hours if I had to! This time I refused to fail!! I went to bed at about midnight. I borrowed my mother-in-law's temperature probe transmitter/receiver unit, which I placed in the top butt. This was FABULOUS! As I tossed and turned all night, I could look at the receiver with one eye and see how the cook was going. It had a 'low temp alarm' feature which I enabled so I would know if the fire went out. Anyway, at about 6am, I peeked at the receiver and it said 190*! Hey, I'm almost there!!!! I jumped out of bed and checked out the smoker. Lid temperature was down to 220* (not bad!). I gently stirred the coals and opened the bottom vents all the way. Fifteen minutes later, lid temp was up to 300*!! Yikes! I closed all the vents, and it quickly fell to 260*. And then about 20 minutes later, the internal meat temperature got to 196*. I made it!!! When I tried to pick the meat up with my tongs, I knew there was something very different about these butts. They were literally falling apart as I tried to pick them up. This was looking promising! I wrapped them up in foil and let them rest for an hour. Then the moment of truth. I started pulling them. The meat just flaked off into wonderful chunks. Everything was moist and juicy and the meat had almost a sweet taste that just melted in your mouth. And there was a nice deep very pronounced smoke ring. WOW!!! Now *this* is what it is supposed to be like. My guests that night were floored. They had never had anything so good!
Yipppppeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!! /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif
Dave Funk
Saturday night was different. I decided to try an overnight cook using the Minion method. I was stunned with how well this worked. I used a full unlit fire chamber, sprinkled with about 25 or so lit briquettes and then some hickory hunks on top of that. The smoker came right up to 250* lid and stayed there. I was now prepared to cook and cook and cook until I reached the magic 195* point. I started at 5pm and I could let it cook for 24 hours if I had to! This time I refused to fail!! I went to bed at about midnight. I borrowed my mother-in-law's temperature probe transmitter/receiver unit, which I placed in the top butt. This was FABULOUS! As I tossed and turned all night, I could look at the receiver with one eye and see how the cook was going. It had a 'low temp alarm' feature which I enabled so I would know if the fire went out. Anyway, at about 6am, I peeked at the receiver and it said 190*! Hey, I'm almost there!!!! I jumped out of bed and checked out the smoker. Lid temperature was down to 220* (not bad!). I gently stirred the coals and opened the bottom vents all the way. Fifteen minutes later, lid temp was up to 300*!! Yikes! I closed all the vents, and it quickly fell to 260*. And then about 20 minutes later, the internal meat temperature got to 196*. I made it!!! When I tried to pick the meat up with my tongs, I knew there was something very different about these butts. They were literally falling apart as I tried to pick them up. This was looking promising! I wrapped them up in foil and let them rest for an hour. Then the moment of truth. I started pulling them. The meat just flaked off into wonderful chunks. Everything was moist and juicy and the meat had almost a sweet taste that just melted in your mouth. And there was a nice deep very pronounced smoke ring. WOW!!! Now *this* is what it is supposed to be like. My guests that night were floored. They had never had anything so good!
Yipppppeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!! /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif
Dave Funk