The one that almost didn't happen and a USMC basic training send off.

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bpopovitz

Meat Mopper
Original poster
Jul 29, 2008
243
28
Central Indiana
So here was the plan

My nephew is getting ready to leave for basic at Paris Island and my brother was going to have a party at their house in KY (beautiful horse farm) and they wanted to have pulled pork and a couple of fatties. 

Sunday prior to party - Smoke 2 fatties, Chicken parmesan & Philly cheese steak, both 2-pounders on Sunday.  I did not take pics but figured what the heck I’ll take pics of my pulled pork since I’ve never posted that on here.  I have posted pics of my chicken parm on here before if interested they are in my profile still.  The only difference was I used Deejay Debi’s recipe for Italian sausage rather than store bought – delicious.  I could not find corn sugar anywhere to get it in time so I subbed regular sugar, seems like it worked to me.

DeejayDebi  - Italian Sausages - http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/thread/52344/please-help-me-with-an-italian-sausage-recipe

8 lbs of ground pork
4 tablespoons sea salt or kosher salt
3 tablespoons fennel seeds
2 tablespoons anise seeds
3 tbs garlic powder
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
3 tablespoons paprika
3 tablespoons red chili pepper ground
1-1/2 tablespoons corn sugar
1 cup powdered milk
1 cup cold water or red wine


Tuesday night prior to smoke on Thursday morning (hopefully to start @ 3:00 – Rub 5 shoulders, all between 8 & 10 lbs,  with KC style rib rub.  Although I left out the Brown sugar because I wanted to try using the same method with the brown sugar that I do with rib.  Basically I wanted to set the shoulders out 30 minutes beforehand and pack them with brown sugar.

1/3 cup light brown sugar

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup paprika

6 tablespoons kosher salt

2 tablespoons onion powder

1 tablespoon garlic salt

1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 teaspoon mustard powder

1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Wednesday night prior to smoke – My wife is at work and my mom is with our 3 kids as my father takes me to the emergency room with back pain, chest pain and shortness of breath.  I spend until 1:00 AM there having every test imaginable only to find nothing wrong.  At this point my getting up at 3:00 to smoke is out of the question, so I change plans. 

Thursday morning - Thursday is my work from home day and the ER docs told me to take a few days off of work and rest.  However, I have an already scheduled appt to have a cardiac MRI done at 9:00.  So dad comes to the rescue again.  He comes over helps me set everything up and gets the shoulders in the smoker in time for me to head to my appt.  I leave specific instructions on what to do as he is a bit apprehensive, never smoked anything before.  I tell him to check the temp on the door (yes my door thermo is within 5 degrees of my ET-73 and I didn’t have time to set it up before I left) and keep it between 225 & 240.  I also say to check the chip box every hour and throw a handful of apple and hickory in if needed.

I finally get home around 11:00 and everything is moving along well.  I rotate the shoulders, 5 shoulders on 5 shelves so I need to move them every once in awhile.  I place my probes to check temps, a little on the cool side (100) but I figure since I didn’t pierce the outer ½ inch until 3 hours in I would be okay.  I then sprayed with apple juice and then I remember what I was going to do with the brown sugar….  So I packed some brown sugar on top of each shoulder and to the sides the best I could.    At the 5 hour mark the shoulders hit 140.  I continued to spray and rotate every hour until they hit 160 then I foiled them. 

Given that the smoker was so full I decided to move them out of the smoker as they hit 160 and finish them in the oven (225).  I know, but before anyone cries foul it is now 7:00 PM and the oven is much easier to tend since it’s going to be getting dark soon.  Besides they are foiled.  By 10:00 all shoulders are off the smoker and foiled in the oven and the first ones are at 198 so I pull them and place them into the cooler.  As I head to bed at 11:30 I still have two in the oven but my trusty ET-73 is set to go off once they hit 200.  The 4[sup]th[/sup] one hits 200 at 1:30 and the last at 2:30.  I turn off the oven and place the last one in the cooler with the other 4 and go to bed.  Please note the times the first two went into the cooler - 10:00 PM

Friday morning – around 9:45 AM.  Start to pull the pork.  Of course the ones I pulled at 2:30 AM are on top and they are still rather warm at about 180.  By the time I get to the ones that I placed into the cooler the night before they have been in the cooler in towels for 12 hours.  Needless to say I was worried.  My worries were unfounded as I check the temp before I started to pull and they were still above 150.  I thought this is unbelievable 12 hours in a cooler and it’s still above 150…

The rest of the story goes.  We made it to Kentucky on Saturday, heated up the pork and the fatties.  Everyone dug in and there was barely enough PP left for one sandwich the next day.  Unfortunately no pics were taken so I know “it didn’t really happen”, but I’m glad I was able to give my nephew one heck of a send off.

BTW the cardiac MRI results came back – no changes since my last one over two years ago…

Had to add one pic.  My two Nephews, my brother and sis-n-law.  He graduates @ Parris Island today.  We could not make the graduation as my kids all started back to school this week and couldnt get away from that.

ccbdf123_Marines.jpg
 
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Wildflower, you know I was actually in your neck of the woods.  We were in Versailles, my brother works for Darley farms.
 
I'm in Lebanon, NW of Indy.  I love that area of KY, my brother has been there since the early 90's.  Small world...
 
This is all GREAT!

Great send-off to the nephew.

Great that your tests came back no worse than two years ago.

Great food, even with having to call in a temporary pinch hitter.

Great thread too. No pictures but your Great write-up makes up for it.

I get my annual CTscan & Echocardiogram in November, so I know where you're coming from.

Bear
 
Great story! That is so awesome that your dad jumped in to help and ESPECIALLY that all is well with your heart. What a nice thing to do for your nephew. Once again, great story!
 
This is all GREAT!

Great send-off to the nephew.

Great that your tests came back no worse than two years ago.

Great food, even with having to call in a temporary pinch hitter.

Great thread too. No pictures but your Great write-up makes up for it.

I get my annual CTscan & Echocardiogram in November, so I know where you're coming from.

Bear
I agree. The story makes up for the lack of Qview. Kinda hard to get on you after an ordeal like that. Good luck to your nephew.
 
cool.gif


Yes again that is a great story and I'm glad that your dad step up and into the smoker role. I hope that you are going to your nephews graduation. If you are going then I would get there for Thursday morning really early like be at the Parade grounds about 6:00 or 7:00 am when the Crucible comes in it will leave a impression in you that you will never forget. There wasn't a dry eye in the place. I'm alittle teary just thinking back when we went to our son's graduation. That's when they get their first EGR. Then their a Mar-rut. The one main thing that we did that you really shouldn't do is: we found our son and his group of Ma-ruts (almost marines) and were sitting in the car watching them practice for the grad parade. Now the DI's saw us and he wanted to know which one of his sissies had their Mommy and Daddy watching them. It was really funny thou. Now we got to meet 5 of the Biggest Baddest Black DI's that Paris Island had. They were very nice and they all just wanted to thank us for all the cookies and the COCONUT was the hit of the barracks. I think that even kept the coconut too. One thing else as I ramble on here the best thing that a young marine likes to hear is his name at Mail Call. Don's mother sent him a letter everyday..........
 
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Thanks to everyone for reading and letting me share with you. 

Bear, best of luck to you in November.  It's been 11 years since my last "rebuild" so it gets more nerve racking everytime I have to go for a visit.

Squirrel, Yeah the dad jumping in an helping out was great.  I think he may catch the bug he said it sure would be nice to sit back and have a few cold ones while doing this next time.  I guess I'll have to take him up on that.

Cheezee, thanks, I'm sure my nephew is going to "enjoy it" if you can describe being beat on by a DI as enjoyable. 

mballi, I sure hope we can make the graduation.  I have it on the calendar.  Depending on how our kids are (ages 6,4,2) it may be a rough trip, but I definitely think it will be a moment not to miss.  He's hoping to join the recon force once he is done with basic and AIT, i hope I got that right I heard lots of acronyms over the weekend.

Next time I will definitely have some qview it all turned out so delicious.  You know I may just have to hire the kids next time to snap some pics....

Again thanks for reading and allowing me to share. 
 
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