- Dec 15, 2007
- 12
- 10
Hey out there. I've been reading and learning from the site for a while and am just getting around to signing in. I'm pretty new to smoking but I'm already hooked. Last year I smoked a brisket at a friend's farm on an old horizontal offset without knowing anything. It turned out ok but what I really enjoyed was the process. I liked tending the fire and hanging out with friends/family while enjoying a beverage or two with the smell of smoke in the air. So I researched for a while and ended up buying a Horizon 20" Classic smoker (and I went ahead and added a convection plate).
I got it right before Christmas and decided to jump in head first. We were having the family over for Christmas Day Lunch and I was determined to serve something smoked on the new pit. So with much help from the info on this site and no small amount of naive stubborness...I decided to do an all night smoke of a briscuit, 2 pork butts, and 2 fattys (which I had never even heard of). I put the briscuit and butts on at 11:30. The outside temp dropped to mid 30's and I pretty much chased pit temps all night long. It even rained a little around 3:30am which was nice. I ended up using a combination of lump charcoal, oak logs, and mesquite chunks. It was harder than I had planned to keep a constant temp and I worried a lot that I was going to mess up a lot of good meat. I put the fattys on about 7am and had everything off the pit, wrapped and in the cooler by 10:30. We ate at about 12:45 and everything turned out great. I couldn't believe how tender and tasty everything was. Fattys are rediculously good (and easy to do), the briscuit was tender and the pork just fell apart. I made some of the finishing sauce everyone talks about and it was great too.
So to make a long story longer...I was exhausted but it was well worth it. Food was good, compliments to the chef were nice, and I learned a ton....most importantly was to not worry so much (and maybe to plan on eating smoked meat for dinner instead of lunch...can't handle the all nighter like I used to!). If I can "mess up" or do things wrong and it tastes that good...this is going to be a lot of fun. This site is really informative and makes things a lot easier to learn and understand. Thanks for being here. I look forward to getting to know some of you and continuing to learn.
I got it right before Christmas and decided to jump in head first. We were having the family over for Christmas Day Lunch and I was determined to serve something smoked on the new pit. So with much help from the info on this site and no small amount of naive stubborness...I decided to do an all night smoke of a briscuit, 2 pork butts, and 2 fattys (which I had never even heard of). I put the briscuit and butts on at 11:30. The outside temp dropped to mid 30's and I pretty much chased pit temps all night long. It even rained a little around 3:30am which was nice. I ended up using a combination of lump charcoal, oak logs, and mesquite chunks. It was harder than I had planned to keep a constant temp and I worried a lot that I was going to mess up a lot of good meat. I put the fattys on about 7am and had everything off the pit, wrapped and in the cooler by 10:30. We ate at about 12:45 and everything turned out great. I couldn't believe how tender and tasty everything was. Fattys are rediculously good (and easy to do), the briscuit was tender and the pork just fell apart. I made some of the finishing sauce everyone talks about and it was great too.
So to make a long story longer...I was exhausted but it was well worth it. Food was good, compliments to the chef were nice, and I learned a ton....most importantly was to not worry so much (and maybe to plan on eating smoked meat for dinner instead of lunch...can't handle the all nighter like I used to!). If I can "mess up" or do things wrong and it tastes that good...this is going to be a lot of fun. This site is really informative and makes things a lot easier to learn and understand. Thanks for being here. I look forward to getting to know some of you and continuing to learn.