First Butt in the MES 30

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dwdunlap

Gone but not forgotten. RIP
Original poster
Jul 3, 2016
210
58
Richardson, Texas (Dallas)
First Butt in the MES 30 gen 2

Thanks to all of you on this forum and especially Chef Jimmy J.  I dared to put into use what I learned on here to subject an innocent pork shoulder to the heat. Turned out great!!

I am not a complete novice and have done several butts, a few briskets and many ribs over the years but this was a first for me on a real smoker. I always used a Weber round grill and that generally turned out some really good Que  But I’m a lot older now and I don’t stand up well to the 45 min tending the fire, adding wood chunks and the huge heat recovery times. And… the 100 degree days proved too much for this old fart.

In researching real smokers for a “set-and-forget” answer I settled on what looked like a really well made propane dual burner two door model from Dyna-Glow. But, after repeated trial runs, unsuccessful smokes and a lot of phone calls with the manufacturer I sadly packed it up and returned it. Through info on SMF and Amazen I found that the lack of continuous smoke production was mostly the problem of propane sucking the oxygen out of the smoker and extinguishing the wood source.

So many of you seem to get along with the MES30 gen 2 and the Amazen tube generator, I ordered them for me. While I read a lot of “mod”s that can make the combo more perfect I decided to just accept a little temperature fluctuation to get close to set-and –forget and still have the fun of smoking again. And IT WORKED GREAT!!

I used the mustard, adapted rubs found here and wrapped overnight. At 5 the next morning I unwrapped the meat, added more rub and let it warm up. Started the MES30 and filled and started the smoke tube filled with Pit Masters Choice pellets, opened the vent to ¾ and added the meat with both Maverick probes and the MES probe inserted. Closed the door, took both remotes to my recliner with a cup of coffee and watched for the temps come back to my aim point of 225 degrees. It became apparent that the MES and the Maverick were not going agree. I did bump MES temp to 230 and for part, to 235 to agree with the Maverick. JJ advised not getting up tight over temp swings and they really varied very little start to finish. I had to settle on a 10# butt and think that may have slowed the cooking being so big when I'd have preferred more like 6#.

I never opened the door to mop or anything.  At about 165 (158), I pulled the meat out and brought in to wrap. The smoke was still going strong but about to burn out. Double wrapped in foil and added JJ’s foiling sauce and sealed up with Mav probe and put in my oven at 240 degrees. I let cook to 205 as I’d never pulled pork before. We always took it to 185 for slicing. If I try PP again I'll only let it go to about 198 as I thought it was a bit too done. But JJ’s foil sauce made it tender and so flavorful. Adding the extra sauce after pulling and before the sandwich is made makes the meat juicy. I added the options of vinegar, mustard and ketchup and would again.

The family loved this! I know because we’re all still eating leftovers at a rate of about two a day now four days later. Comments, best ever and not overloaded with heavy smoke. I was surprised how much fat was melted out and easy to remove in the pull.

And… easiest smoke ever! This was everything I had sought in a smoker!

Thanks all!
 
DWD, I'm glad your PP was a hit, we need to see some pics !
icon_smile.gif
 
Sorry guys... no pictures. Got to remember, I have a real job - holding my recliner to the floor in front of the TV! Using the electric smoker allowed me to concentrate almost full time on avoiding recliner stability accidents. When the meat was done we were all to busy pulling and sampling the results to even think about pictures.

DWD 
 
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