Weekend smoking

[dasgrinch]

Tomorrow I've got a pair of pork butts going on the smoker. For a little variety and experimentation, one is trimmed, one is untrimmed.

Untrimmed is getting brined, salt, molasses, bourbon, water. Rub is one I stole from Alton Brown. This is the recipe I used last time I made pulled pork, came out very well.

Trimmed one is getting brined as well, salt, molasses, bourbon, water, with some cracked peppercorns and red pepper flakes. The rub on this has some brown sugar, cayenne, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, and probably something I'm forgetting.

I'll mop them both once or twice with a vinegar based sauce, I prefer the meat to be a little drier on the outside (which is also why I tried trimming one)

Gonna be trying my new and improved smoking apparatus, and I'll be sure to throw some pictures up here as it progresses.

 

[mballi3011]

Sounds like you have a fine day of smoking to do tomorrow so get a good nights sleep and come out a smokin. Oh yea Don't forget the Qview.

 

[yodelhawk]

Have fun at the smoker! Lookin forward to the q-view!

 

[beer-b-q]

Have fun and don't forget the Qview...

 

[dasgrinch]

Here we've got some pictures of the butts rubbed up, on the smoker (they're a little cramped at the moment, hoping they'll shrink a little as they cook), a picture of the smoker and it's nifty new 'not filled with water and fogged up' thermometer, and a shot of the legs I added to the charcoal bowl.

 

[dasgrinch]

Almost 5 hours later, here's what we've got.



Freshly mopped, which is why it's shiny. Has held temp a lot better than the last time, thanks partly to the ash grate and partly to using the minion method to set up my charcoal burning as well. I'm still going through charcoal a little faster than I'd like, but you take what you can get.

 

[planeguy]

NICE - I got 3 butts in the smoker now - rubbed with chipolte cinnamon butt rub and mopped with Snapple Peach Iced Tea and Capt Morgan

 

[dasgrinch]

Do you have chipotle powder, or do you find dried chipotles and grind them yourself? I couldn't find either, just the canned stuff. So I tried a different mix =P

 

[beer-b-q]

You can find it here at Butcher and Packer.
http://www.butcher-packer.com/index....ort=20a&page=2

 

[fire it up]

DasGrinch, whenever I head up to Delaware I stop by a farmers market there and pick up some bags of dried chipotles, hard to find a lot of places. I toss them in the spice grinder and make my own chipotle rub using them.
The next time I head up to DE I'm going to grab as many bags as I can (they run out quick) and will offer some up in the Exchange Program so keep your eyes open for that if you're interested.

 

[dasgrinch]

Well, I got about 6 hours out of a half-bag of charcoal, that was as much as the bowl would hold. That left me with maybe 20 half-sized briquettes smoldering in the ashes. I refilled the firebowl, threw the chunks of hot embers on the top after sifting out as much ash as I could, and now I'm set to cook for another couple of hours. I've had one refill of the water bowl as well. It's running a little warm now according to my thermometer, but it's closer to where the smoke is.

 

[dasgrinch]

Well, I forgot to take a picture of the pork after it was pulled/before it was sauced up. So you guys will have to settle with the qview of butt #2 still in it's foil. I also have a picture of the first one I cut just to make it a little easier to manage. The smoke ring isn't really noticeable on this part, but in other parts it was much more pronounced.

Edit - Also, I dropped my phone into the sauce-laden pork, so I don't have a photo of that. My phone is okay, just smells a little smoky and vinegary.