Had a family get together at my grandma's house Sunday so volunteered to smoke a couple pork butts for some pulled pork for everyone to eat on Sunday, and a lil extra for the freezer for the future. Since I had the smoker on and going I threw on some Iowa chops for supper Saturday night. I was out of my normal rub so I used some Famous Dave's rub I had in the cupboard on the butt's. I also injected them with apple juice mixed with the rub. The chops I just used a little bit of Tony's, Lawry's, and black pepper.
Fired up the Cook Shack (well plugged it in and turned it on) about 4:00 Saturday. I used the Cook Shack because I was going to be going overnight with the Butt's and didn't want to babysit the charcoal, or the propane. Put the butt's on around 4:30 and the chops closer to 5pm. Chops where taken off and done a lil after 8 and the butts weren't done till about 8:00 am the next morning. I pulled the smaller butt off about 6, but the larger one took a couple hours longer.
I must have had it a lil too smokey (I'm guessing too much wood in the firebox) for the chops. Because they tasted VERY smokey. Kind of cresotey. I will have to be more careful I think about how much wood I use and when I put the meat on in the future. They where ok, but not the best. Never had that before with either of my other smokers, I think it may be because the cook shack seals up so tight... The butt's however turned out pretty well! Juicy, tender, and bark had a decent flavor even with the Famous Daves (kind of poor) rub.
After resting I pulled the butt's and bagged some for the freezer, the rest went into a crock pot for dinner with the family. I have tried a few apple vinegar based finishing sauces before and didn't care for them much. I could always taste the vinegar. So I decided to try something on my own, I just mixed about 50/50 apple juice and bbq sauce (Countryside BBQ sauce) along with a lil bit of famous daves rub. Basically just made the sauce really runny. Then I microwaved it for a bit, whisked it all together and poured over the meat. I was surprised how good that was! Added just a bit more flavor to the meat without being caked in BBQ sauce. You couldn't really even see it was on there, but you could taste the difference! I will do that again!
Q-View below (notice no smoke ring from the electric, however smoke flavor was there):
Fired up the Cook Shack (well plugged it in and turned it on) about 4:00 Saturday. I used the Cook Shack because I was going to be going overnight with the Butt's and didn't want to babysit the charcoal, or the propane. Put the butt's on around 4:30 and the chops closer to 5pm. Chops where taken off and done a lil after 8 and the butts weren't done till about 8:00 am the next morning. I pulled the smaller butt off about 6, but the larger one took a couple hours longer.
I must have had it a lil too smokey (I'm guessing too much wood in the firebox) for the chops. Because they tasted VERY smokey. Kind of cresotey. I will have to be more careful I think about how much wood I use and when I put the meat on in the future. They where ok, but not the best. Never had that before with either of my other smokers, I think it may be because the cook shack seals up so tight... The butt's however turned out pretty well! Juicy, tender, and bark had a decent flavor even with the Famous Daves (kind of poor) rub.
After resting I pulled the butt's and bagged some for the freezer, the rest went into a crock pot for dinner with the family. I have tried a few apple vinegar based finishing sauces before and didn't care for them much. I could always taste the vinegar. So I decided to try something on my own, I just mixed about 50/50 apple juice and bbq sauce (Countryside BBQ sauce) along with a lil bit of famous daves rub. Basically just made the sauce really runny. Then I microwaved it for a bit, whisked it all together and poured over the meat. I was surprised how good that was! Added just a bit more flavor to the meat without being caked in BBQ sauce. You couldn't really even see it was on there, but you could taste the difference! I will do that again!
Q-View below (notice no smoke ring from the electric, however smoke flavor was there):