Pork Butt on the WSM, Part 2 -- Photos

[Eapples]

[jimmy_dong]

Good show. Looking back, was it easier than you thought?

Looks a little light on the rub? Pork can take a lot.

You did hit a stall, just not a very hard one to push through. That is where most get into trouble. They see the temps go down or stop and crank all the vents open to get temps up. Its hard to recover from that.

The best thing I have done is kind of train myself to slap the meat on and walk away. I rarely take temps. Once the kettle is to temp, I let it chug along and perform a little coal management if needed. With a snake I rarely lift the lid.

[THUNDERDOME]

Looks great! I too would suggest more rub.

[1buckie]

Alright !!!

Good show !!!!

That pan on the right, last pic, is what yer aiming for in a cookup like this ...........

One PP taco's worth left......

Did you notice how easily it fell apart after the resting?

[Eapples]

"That pan on the right, last pic, is what yer aiming for in a cookup like this ........... "


"Did you notice how easily it fell apart after the resting?"

The pan on the right was the butt with my version of the marinade.

The butts were falling apart as I removed them from the smoker.  I worried for a moment that they would fall apart completely before I could get them wrapped.  Thankfully, that didn't happen.

The guests were impressed with the way the butts looked when I unwrapped them.  They were also impressed with my technique -- I put the pan over the butt, flipped them with the foil, then simply removed the foil and started pulling.  More than ease of pull, I was impressed with how hot/warm they were after being off the smoker for almost an hour.

[Eapples]

Good show. Looking back, was it easier than you thought?

Looks a little light on the rub? Pork can take a lot.

You did hit a stall, just not a very hard one to push through. That is where most get into trouble. They see the temps go down or stop and crank all the vents open to get temps up. Its hard to recover from that.

The best thing I have done is kind of train myself to slap the meat on and walk away. I rarely take temps. Once the kettle is to temp, I let it chug along and perform a little coal management if needed. With a snake I rarely lift the lid.

Jimmy:  It was weird.  I was pissed that I wasn't encountering the problems that I had before, so I could show that I had the answer.  Instead, I ran into problems that threw me for a loop.  I didn't tinker with the dampers unless I saw a dramatic spike in temp, and that happened once or twice throughout the entire cook.  Otherwise, I rode the roller coaster.

I was checking temps for two reasons:  1.  I was using two different digital food thermometers, and I used a pocket digital for comparison.  The Taylor unit, actually a digital cooking thermometer for the kitchen, was way off when compared to the RediChek or the Taylor pocket digital.  Also, since one piece of meat was slightly smaller than the other, I wanted to see whether or not that small difference had any effect on when the pieces of meat reached the "done" temperature.  As far as I am concerned, it didn't.

I guess that it turned out to be easier than my first outing.  I'm a bit nerdy about this stuff, and my stress levels are more due to my nerdiness than due to any environmental issues (temp, wind, and so on).  I was comparing the temp as shown in the dome thermometer to the RediChek, and to the Taylor pocket digital, and the Taylor digital unit, to see what the difference are/were, the idea being that at some point I may not need the RediChek, and just use the pocket digital to check temp at the 1/4 mark,1/2 mark, and so on.

Finally, regarding the rub, my only concern was that the marinade contained salt, and the rub contained salt, and I didn't want the salt to overpower any of the other ingredients.  Also, when I was applying the rub, a lot of it was going all over the counter, and some onto the floor,  and I was trying to avoid a row with SWMBO about the mess I was making.  As it turned out, I worried for nothing.

[1buckie]

"I was pissed that I wasn't encountering the problems that I had before"


Bummer, dude.......



"Finally, regarding the rub, my only concern was that the marinade contained salt, and the rub contained salt, and I didn't want the salt to overpower any of the other ingredients."

I really do think that "marinade" is more of a brine type thing, in which case a way to go about this is to rinse & give the thing a short soak before you add the rub......it won't affect the flavoring, as the marinade has been drawn into the meat, just takes care of the excess on  & near the surface..........

"I put the pan over the butt, flipped them with the foil, then simply removed the foil and started pulling."

.....yep.....Butt Roll........


Brining 101 from the master.....Smokin' Okie's....Cookshack cookers website ~~>

http://www.cookshack.com/store/Smokin-Okies-101-Series/Brining-101#_Toc528293323

In the case of soaking like that salt is less a flavorant, more a chemical function vehicle...........