- Jul 6, 2008
- 193
- 10
6.78 lb butt at $1.79 per lb. at Harris Teeter (if you can believe that!)
Nicely marbled, this is what it looks like top and bottom:(ed. note - see pic in next post)
Opened right out of a 37 degree refrigerator and rubbed first with light colored sesame oil (room temp) and then fresh maple syrup out of the same 'fridge. Rubbed with my handmade rub.
My fire was ready at 5:45 and I put them in the Weber. Immediately put the butt on and added some dry chips (hickory, a bit less mesquite and my "mystery chips" (that I found after the city did some serious pruning) on top of the coals. Put the top on and walked away.
Found my therm. and hung it in the vent. Came back 5 minutes later and it was reading 350. Checked the temp at 6:10. Rock steady at 350. Removed the top and put a foil packet of dry mixed chips on the coals. Walked away. Checked back at 6:45 and the temp was steady at 350. Still getting a nice stream of smoke through the vents. 7pm and temp is now 340. Depending on low long it takes to drop, I'll probably build another small fire around 180 (I'm going to try to keep the next stage at 300 or less). If it drops quickly, I'll build it sooner rather than later.
I reserved the blood, juice and rub and added an "ice cube" of my BBQ cooking reduction (talked about it in my beef rib thread from earlier today). Added a healthy amount of apple juice and it's all marinating in the fridge. I'll toss in a little bit more of my rub in a few. I plan to mop this later when the bark starts to set up (I'd spritz it but my spritzer got too close to my oven burner and it started to melt - kids, remember - a stovetop gets hot - keep all plastics away!). I'd go to the store for another but I've had a couple of drinks - remember kids - don't drink and drive!
Here are the goals this time around. I'm looking for a lighter colored bark than I usually shoot for. This is also the first chance I've had with a thermometer for a long smoke so I'm keeping pretty close track of my temps. I'm also trying to keep the lid on until I absolutely have to build another fire. Trying to get an idea what's really going on in there. Also, I'm trying to use the smallest fire I can manage. I'm really trying to fine tune the whole thing. This time I used about 3/4 of a chimney and I did 1/3 briquettes on the bottom, 1/3 lump in the middle and topped it off with 1/3 briquettes. I put them in the fire as soon as the top briquettes had some ash on the corners, but they were still fairly unburned. I figure that they would end up on the bottom when I dumped the coals. I was right.
Well, my pics are taking forever to load on my photo site so I'm going to post them in order in the next post. Today it's been like pulling teeth because I use my ATT phone as my desktop modem and for some reason, the 3G networks been down and I've had to use EDGE. It's worse than dialup!
Nicely marbled, this is what it looks like top and bottom:(ed. note - see pic in next post)
Opened right out of a 37 degree refrigerator and rubbed first with light colored sesame oil (room temp) and then fresh maple syrup out of the same 'fridge. Rubbed with my handmade rub.
My fire was ready at 5:45 and I put them in the Weber. Immediately put the butt on and added some dry chips (hickory, a bit less mesquite and my "mystery chips" (that I found after the city did some serious pruning) on top of the coals. Put the top on and walked away.
Found my therm. and hung it in the vent. Came back 5 minutes later and it was reading 350. Checked the temp at 6:10. Rock steady at 350. Removed the top and put a foil packet of dry mixed chips on the coals. Walked away. Checked back at 6:45 and the temp was steady at 350. Still getting a nice stream of smoke through the vents. 7pm and temp is now 340. Depending on low long it takes to drop, I'll probably build another small fire around 180 (I'm going to try to keep the next stage at 300 or less). If it drops quickly, I'll build it sooner rather than later.
I reserved the blood, juice and rub and added an "ice cube" of my BBQ cooking reduction (talked about it in my beef rib thread from earlier today). Added a healthy amount of apple juice and it's all marinating in the fridge. I'll toss in a little bit more of my rub in a few. I plan to mop this later when the bark starts to set up (I'd spritz it but my spritzer got too close to my oven burner and it started to melt - kids, remember - a stovetop gets hot - keep all plastics away!). I'd go to the store for another but I've had a couple of drinks - remember kids - don't drink and drive!
Here are the goals this time around. I'm looking for a lighter colored bark than I usually shoot for. This is also the first chance I've had with a thermometer for a long smoke so I'm keeping pretty close track of my temps. I'm also trying to keep the lid on until I absolutely have to build another fire. Trying to get an idea what's really going on in there. Also, I'm trying to use the smallest fire I can manage. I'm really trying to fine tune the whole thing. This time I used about 3/4 of a chimney and I did 1/3 briquettes on the bottom, 1/3 lump in the middle and topped it off with 1/3 briquettes. I put them in the fire as soon as the top briquettes had some ash on the corners, but they were still fairly unburned. I figure that they would end up on the bottom when I dumped the coals. I was right.
Well, my pics are taking forever to load on my photo site so I'm going to post them in order in the next post. Today it's been like pulling teeth because I use my ATT phone as my desktop modem and for some reason, the 3G networks been down and I've had to use EDGE. It's worse than dialup!