- May 17, 2014
- 2
- 10
About a month ago I had the urge to have a brisket. Only problem was I hadn't visited my father in quite some time and had never prepared one by myself. I did the first logical thing that came to mind, went to a big box store and bought a Brinkmann "Trail Master Limited Edition". I have eventually come to learn that for $270 it's not a terrible deal but there are some improvements to be made. I also learned that fire+food doesn't equal dinner in 30 minutes like it does on my ol' Weber and an open flame. So tonight is my third or fourth educated smoke, and by educated I mean eyes opened.
I'm doing a butt from the military grocery store, using a rub titled "A Carolina Rub" and techniques from amazingribs. I didn't find this site until after I had already got the party started tonight because I was too anxious to go to sleep and wake up at 4am. My wife thinks it's funny and told me "I've never seen someone so excited to cook". Unbeknownst to me until I read some posts on here I seem to have found the hulk butt, weighing in at nearly 11 lb bone in. I'm still working on temp control, right now I'm sitting at 310* because the lump I decided to try today had a few too many small shards and apparently some of them wiggled down to the bottom of my basket and lit my fire from top and bottom! So I ended up having to wait over an hour after dumping my chimney just to get a stable temp under 350*.
I'd like to start burning wood only. I have a buddy who ended up with a 4' x80' oak sectioned off in his back yard and is more than willing to let me take as much as I want. I'm thinking a bed full of it might last me a while. This smoke isn't for any special occasion, just another experiment on my behalf before I invite co-workers over for a feast. I am going to focus on getting my pulled-pork technique down and experiment with SoFlaQuers finishing sauce and Meowey's technique next time. Hopefully I'll be ready to serve others within a month.
As far as the smoker, I live on a self-inflicted tight budget and I didn't shop around much. This was an impulse buy because I thought I could instantly prepare a smoked brisket champion style. I'll be buying some high-temp silicone and sealing the cooking chamber lid (only spot where I have major leakage) and I have already installed ducting to route the stack intake close to grate level. I also plan on researching some accurate thermo's to install on the cooking chamber door at grate level. Today I purchased a digital Master Forge which is monitoring the internal temp of my butt through a gap in the cooking chamber lid. Hopefully everything should be done around 1PM tomorrow, ready to serve around 2PM after sitting for an hour wrapped in foil and towels (learned that tonight ;)) I'm betting 10lbs of pork should last the wife and I a while :P
I'm doing a butt from the military grocery store, using a rub titled "A Carolina Rub" and techniques from amazingribs. I didn't find this site until after I had already got the party started tonight because I was too anxious to go to sleep and wake up at 4am. My wife thinks it's funny and told me "I've never seen someone so excited to cook". Unbeknownst to me until I read some posts on here I seem to have found the hulk butt, weighing in at nearly 11 lb bone in. I'm still working on temp control, right now I'm sitting at 310* because the lump I decided to try today had a few too many small shards and apparently some of them wiggled down to the bottom of my basket and lit my fire from top and bottom! So I ended up having to wait over an hour after dumping my chimney just to get a stable temp under 350*.
I'd like to start burning wood only. I have a buddy who ended up with a 4' x80' oak sectioned off in his back yard and is more than willing to let me take as much as I want. I'm thinking a bed full of it might last me a while. This smoke isn't for any special occasion, just another experiment on my behalf before I invite co-workers over for a feast. I am going to focus on getting my pulled-pork technique down and experiment with SoFlaQuers finishing sauce and Meowey's technique next time. Hopefully I'll be ready to serve others within a month.
As far as the smoker, I live on a self-inflicted tight budget and I didn't shop around much. This was an impulse buy because I thought I could instantly prepare a smoked brisket champion style. I'll be buying some high-temp silicone and sealing the cooking chamber lid (only spot where I have major leakage) and I have already installed ducting to route the stack intake close to grate level. I also plan on researching some accurate thermo's to install on the cooking chamber door at grate level. Today I purchased a digital Master Forge which is monitoring the internal temp of my butt through a gap in the cooking chamber lid. Hopefully everything should be done around 1PM tomorrow, ready to serve around 2PM after sitting for an hour wrapped in foil and towels (learned that tonight ;)) I'm betting 10lbs of pork should last the wife and I a while :P