I got to break in my new home made smoker today by doing butts for all my neighbors, my employees and the different people who helped me on my build. It ended up being 19 in all. Looking back I probably should have bought one more just to say I did an even 20. This was also a good practice run for my July 4th cookout but it won't be nearly as big.
I didn't get to put as much rub on as I'd like because after I did the first 4 I realized I wasn't going to have enough at that rate. Most of them just got a coating on the top and bottom but they still seemed to turn out good.
They went on the smoker at 8:00pm last night. I tended the fire until I went to bed at 11:30, woke up at 3:00 to add more wood and was up for the day at 6:00. I had one little screw up with my temps at about 10:00 where it jumped up to about 325. All in all I was pleased with the temp control and I'm sure I'll get better at it with a few more cooks under my belt. The butts closest to my firebox were reaching 200 deg. at about 9:00am and the ones furtherest away lasted until 12:30. I didn't foil them until I took them down. They rested in the coolers for several hours until I could get them delivered this afternoon.
Overall I had a great time cooking but I doubt I'll be doing this many again any time soon. I've already had several phone calls from people bragging on the meat so it must have been pretty good.
Here's the Q-view as promised.
The cooker I'm going to call "The Hulk" because its big and green.
Got plenty of hickory ready to feed the beast.
The meat laid out in pans before the rub.
Rubbed and ready.
Just about ready to come up.
Wrapped and resting in the coolers. I'd already handed several out to my closest neighbors before I got this pic.
I didn't get to put as much rub on as I'd like because after I did the first 4 I realized I wasn't going to have enough at that rate. Most of them just got a coating on the top and bottom but they still seemed to turn out good.
They went on the smoker at 8:00pm last night. I tended the fire until I went to bed at 11:30, woke up at 3:00 to add more wood and was up for the day at 6:00. I had one little screw up with my temps at about 10:00 where it jumped up to about 325. All in all I was pleased with the temp control and I'm sure I'll get better at it with a few more cooks under my belt. The butts closest to my firebox were reaching 200 deg. at about 9:00am and the ones furtherest away lasted until 12:30. I didn't foil them until I took them down. They rested in the coolers for several hours until I could get them delivered this afternoon.
Overall I had a great time cooking but I doubt I'll be doing this many again any time soon. I've already had several phone calls from people bragging on the meat so it must have been pretty good.
Here's the Q-view as promised.
The cooker I'm going to call "The Hulk" because its big and green.
Got plenty of hickory ready to feed the beast.
The meat laid out in pans before the rub.
Rubbed and ready.
Just about ready to come up.
Wrapped and resting in the coolers. I'd already handed several out to my closest neighbors before I got this pic.
