MES 30 is my first smoker and I used it for the first time yesterday

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steve973

Newbie
Original poster
Jan 12, 2015
18
10
I had the opportunity to smoke my first 6.6 pound boston butt in the MES 30 yesterday.  I woke up at 5:30am and started the unit when it was a balmy 16 degrees F outside.  The smoker came up to temperature well enough and held steady.  I hadn't cured it up to this point, but I let it sit at max temperature for a little while.  I had rubbed the boston butt with a dry rub the day before, so it had about 20 hours with the rub in the fridge.  I put it into the smoker, put water in the pan, set the temperature down to 225, and loaded it up with hickory.  I smoked with hickory for 4 or 5 hours, and then switched to pecan, reloading every 2 hours because it just kept trailing smoke out of the upper vent without stopping.  The butt only got up to about 170F after 10 hours, so I pulled it out.  I noticed that the roast was very moist, and the fat cap was still quite intact.  The meat, despite not being at the desired temperature, pulled well enough and there was more fat than I expected.  The meat was tender and quite moist and tasty, but it did not have the amount of smoke flavor I was hoping for.  I was skeptical that seasoning the smoker shouldn't matter for flavor, since the smoke should be providing that, but maybe I am wrong.  I know that I have quite a bit of learning to do, but there will be a lot of tasty fun in practicing!
 
Patience it is done when it is done. To get rid of the fat and to get a better smoke flavor takes time. If your only going to 170° that is not even high enough for sliced let alone pulled.

I see this is your first post. When you get a chance will you drop by roll call so everyone can give you a proper SMF welcome.

Congratulations on the new smoker.

Happy smoken.

David

PS 
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Yep you had a good 4 hours left to go on that baby. Next time take it to an internal of 200-205. Also the type of smoke is important in getting a good smoke flavor. Thin Blue good smelling smoke is what you want. I always allow 2 hours per pound when planning to smoke a Butt. This is a good basic recipe that if you follow to the letter will not let you down.http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/57139/basic-pulled-pork-smoke. After you get the basics down you can experiment with tweaking things to your tastes. Welcome to the forum.
 
Thanks for the replies, everyone.  At least the end product was very good, if not quite what I expected.  The bright side is that I can try again and again, and there is a ton of expertise here, so I appreciate everyone's help.  @Bearcarver: I am a PA native, coming from Harleysville in Montgomery county.  I've been to Macungie several times.  Unfortunately, my work took me to the Baltimore area back in 2003, and I've basically become permanent here.  But I definitely miss PA!
 
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Steve check the MES Group sec. for some tips. did you use an external probe to monitor the CC temp and the meat temp. MES have proven to be way off so if you don't have separate probes IMHO you should get them.
 
Isn't this the MES group?  I used an external monitor that had two probes -- one for the grill temp and one for the meat temp -- and you are correct about the inaccuracy.  But since I had issues getting the temperature up to around 200, the actual higher temperature was probably beneficial.
 
 
Thanks for the replies, everyone.  At least the end product was very good, if not quite what I expected.  The bright side is that I can try again and again, and there is a ton of expertise here, so I appreciate everyone's help.  @Bearcarver: I am a PA native, coming from Harleysville in Montgomery county.  I've been to Macungie several times.  Unfortunately, my work took me to the Baltimore area back in 2003, and I've basically become permanent here.  But I definitely miss PA!
Welcome Steve!!

I'm originally from Quakertown, and I know Harleysville pretty good, along with Souderton, Lansdale, Telford, Tylersport, and all the other towns around the Harleysville Bank.

I was only away from PA for 3 years in my life & I hated all 3 of them!!

Bear
 
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