You heard the title correctly, the pulled pork we had last tonight was almost entirely smoked by my girlfriends (who has zero experience smoking). You can imagine my angst!
It all happened when I went to the store on Monday and saw a good deal on boston butt, i grabbed a small 4.5 pounder not even thinking that I really had no way to smoke the thing during the week (I work 9-6 during the week). Took it home, rubbed it up and got it in the fridge. Sitting on the couch later I realized, wait...this thing takes almost all day to cook and I cant wait till the weekend or the meat will go bad in the fridge (really bad planning on my part). The only solution was to have my girlfriend man the smoker all day (she works from home and I didn't dare freeze the meat), if she could hold temps consistent and keep adding fuel and wood than this might just work! I awoke at 7:15 and got the smoker up and running, stuck the meat in around 8am and went on with my day. The first 3 hours were a real learning curve, temps started dropping to 200 and she was kind of afraid of the coal chimney. With lots of support and direction I convinced her to fire up a load of coals and get the temps back. Texts, pictures and calls were coming in all day, I was so annoying asking the temps every half hour haha, I need one of the fancy wireless thermometers with the temp app. I got the chance to run home around 3pm to check on things, by then she was calling herself a "pro" ha! I have a cheap silver smoker that leaks smoke pretty bad so we had to end up using a whole bag of royal oak for that one small piece of meat (silly huh?). 7pm and we were around 175° area, i was shooting for 203° but by 11pm it was only 196° and we were hungry. Pulled it out, after 13 hours of smoking it had one hell of a black bark. No time to wait to shred it, the smell was intoxicating and I got work in the morning so LETS EAT! I have to say, it came out pretty damn good, I was very proud of my girlfriends first smoke she was a real trooper watching that thing all day and keeping temps consistent! I think i probably use to much wood this time, it had a really strong wood taste which i like but could tone it back a bit next time (I used 50/50 hickory and apple). I learned my lesson big time though, shoulder takes FOREVER to cook and you really need a full weekend day, especially with how much baby sitting my smoker needs. The last hour i had to sit and blow into the dampers to keep it at 225-250°, it just didn't want to hold temps anymore and the internal was raising sooo slowly. Oh well, all worth it in the end! Wonder what I can task her with smoking next, muuahahahah!!!!
It all happened when I went to the store on Monday and saw a good deal on boston butt, i grabbed a small 4.5 pounder not even thinking that I really had no way to smoke the thing during the week (I work 9-6 during the week). Took it home, rubbed it up and got it in the fridge. Sitting on the couch later I realized, wait...this thing takes almost all day to cook and I cant wait till the weekend or the meat will go bad in the fridge (really bad planning on my part). The only solution was to have my girlfriend man the smoker all day (she works from home and I didn't dare freeze the meat), if she could hold temps consistent and keep adding fuel and wood than this might just work! I awoke at 7:15 and got the smoker up and running, stuck the meat in around 8am and went on with my day. The first 3 hours were a real learning curve, temps started dropping to 200 and she was kind of afraid of the coal chimney. With lots of support and direction I convinced her to fire up a load of coals and get the temps back. Texts, pictures and calls were coming in all day, I was so annoying asking the temps every half hour haha, I need one of the fancy wireless thermometers with the temp app. I got the chance to run home around 3pm to check on things, by then she was calling herself a "pro" ha! I have a cheap silver smoker that leaks smoke pretty bad so we had to end up using a whole bag of royal oak for that one small piece of meat (silly huh?). 7pm and we were around 175° area, i was shooting for 203° but by 11pm it was only 196° and we were hungry. Pulled it out, after 13 hours of smoking it had one hell of a black bark. No time to wait to shred it, the smell was intoxicating and I got work in the morning so LETS EAT! I have to say, it came out pretty damn good, I was very proud of my girlfriends first smoke she was a real trooper watching that thing all day and keeping temps consistent! I think i probably use to much wood this time, it had a really strong wood taste which i like but could tone it back a bit next time (I used 50/50 hickory and apple). I learned my lesson big time though, shoulder takes FOREVER to cook and you really need a full weekend day, especially with how much baby sitting my smoker needs. The last hour i had to sit and blow into the dampers to keep it at 225-250°, it just didn't want to hold temps anymore and the internal was raising sooo slowly. Oh well, all worth it in the end! Wonder what I can task her with smoking next, muuahahahah!!!!