# Meat is on



## allisonandrews (Jun 17, 2006)

Got the meat on the smoker at 10:00am this morning.  We are doing 2 briskets (~12lbs) and 2 pork butts (~6.75lbs).  I had to go with the shoulder as that was all they had.  We'll see how it comes out.  It rained a bit this morning.  First time we've seen puddles in over a month.  We pulled the smoker under the carport so if it rains any more today it shouldn't drop the heat too much.

I actually remembered to take a few pictures, so I'll post those as I go.  (Unless it takes too long with my slow dial-up at home.  If that is the case, I'll post them on Monday at work.)

The pork butts:







These photos should show up soon - the are still in the upload process right now.











Some more from earlier:


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## Uncle Al (Jun 17, 2006)

Hi.

Why do you have 'em in foil pans ????? Seems like they might end up swimmin' in a lot of grease especially the butts. Might end up with some soggy butt !!! 

If you tryin' to collect jiuce, you might do better doin' it by foiling closer to the end of the cook. Thatv way you'll get mostly juice and not fat.

Al


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## Wittdogs B (Jun 17, 2006)

Looking like a good start!


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## allisonandrews (Jun 17, 2006)

You can't really tell it in the picture, but the butts are sitting on a cooling rack that is resting on the edge of the pans.  They will be kept out of their juices, but I will be collecting them as we cook, letting the fat solidify and then using the drippings in the mop.  The drippings will go in the sauce as well.

As for the brisket, we have always cooked them in pans and always will - just a preference thing.


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## allisonandrews (Jun 17, 2006)

Wittdogs B said:
			
		

> Looking like a good start!



Thanks.  Nice to see another female on here.  You and your husband give lots of good information on here.


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## Guest (Jun 17, 2006)

Uncle Al said:
			
		

> Hi.
> 
> Why do you have 'em in foil pans ????? Seems like they might end up swimmin' in a lot of grease especially the butts. Might end up with some soggy butt !!!
> 
> ...


KickassBBQ does this all the time in his Lang.  I asked him about it thinking the same thing about soggy butt but he swears by it.  Haven't tried it myself... Lookin' forward to the results.   BTW, what time are you thinking the butts will be done?


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## allisonandrews (Jun 17, 2006)

I am figuring between 10 and 14 hours on both the briskets and the pork butts.  We'll eat some of it tomorrow for lunch, but this cook is mostly to freeze, so we aren't too concerned about end time.

I've got some beans going now.  I normally cook them about 6 hours.  We'll throw on some baked potatoes after a while and probably have those for supper.


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## wittdog (Jun 17, 2006)

allisonandrews said:
			
		

> I am figuring between 10 and 14 hours on both the briskets and the pork butts.  We'll eat some of it tomorrow for lunch, but this cook is mostly to freeze, so we aren't too concerned about end time.
> 
> I've got some beans going now.  I normally cook them about 6 hours.  We'll throw on some baked potatoes after a while and probably have those for supper.


Sounds like your going to be eating well. I like the pan idea it's not that much different from doing butts in the WSM....... With a water/sand/foil pan just that the pan is a little closer....We have to butts to do we are trying to decide to do it on the WSM or Bufford using the 5 hr method.....(My oldest boy says Buford becuase of the smoke and flavor) I'm waiting on the boards newest member to put in her $200,000,000.


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## Woodman1 (Jun 17, 2006)

This is your first encounter with large pork cuts correct Allison??If so, make certain you pull a big chunk of it off when it is done, while standing right there at the pit and just enjoy it! The stuff that sticks to the grates is da bomb!


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## allisonandrews (Jun 17, 2006)

Yes, this is my first pork butt experience.  We're almost to the two hour mark.  We flip the briskets at this point.  Right now they are fat side down - after the flip, we will keep them fat side up for the rest of the cook.  We'll cover the pans with foil at some point as well.  Probably around the 4-6 hour mark.

This is also my first attempt at food porn, so be nice!


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## Guest (Jun 17, 2006)

Woodman said:
			
		

> This is your first encounter with large pork cuts correct Allison??If so, make certain you pull a big chunk of it off when it is done, while standing right there at the pit and just enjoy it! *The stuff that sticks to the grates is da bomb!*


LOL!  We go nuts over that part!!  =P~


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## wittdog (Jun 17, 2006)

The Joker said:
			
		

> Woodman said:
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Joker I thought that your pork don't stick...... :razz:


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## Woodman1 (Jun 17, 2006)

OK , so which one are you at the wedding. Red dress or blue? (I take it Katy is your daughter?)


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## allisonandrews (Jun 17, 2006)

LOL...  Katy, my daughter!  I'm just 26.  Actually, she's my younger sister.  I'm the dark haired bridesmaid, though thankfully about 20 pounds lighter now.


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## allisonandrews (Jun 17, 2006)

Well, the meats were looking good at the 2 hour point.  Our smoker is holding steady around 218 degrees which is just about where we want it.  We flipped the briskets - they were already starting to get more tender and get some nice color to them.  The pork butts were coloring up nicely.  I poured on a bit of apple juice that had some Worst sauce and apple cider vinegar in it.  I'll probably do that one or two more times with fresh juice and then start basting it with the juices in the bottom of the pan (combo of mop that dripped down and it's own juices).

More pictures coming as they slowly upload.  If you are seeing the photobucket icon, it just means the pic isn't fully uploaded yet.


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## Guest (Jun 17, 2006)

wittdog said:
			
		

> The Joker said:
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 [-(


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## Greg Rempe (Jun 17, 2006)

Looking good Allison!!  Keep up the good work! =D>


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## allisonandrews (Jun 17, 2006)

6 hour update:

Briskets at 160, Butts around 145

We covered the briskets with foil, I'll cover the butts in about an hour - so far, they are not making much juice.

I did the first seasoning of the beans.  I feel asleep so they got a bit more tender than I wanted, but I'm not worried.  After the seasoning soaks in, I'll taste them and decide what I need more of (I never measure anything).

My hangover is finally going away, so I am definately feeling better.  Hubby says it was the jager, I say the beer.  There is nothing bad about Jager!

David is now working on some ABTs - just creamcheese and bacon - maybe a bit of sharp chedder.  They might be our supper tonight.  That and beans.

The photos should be just about uploaded now, so here is the meat after 6 hours:


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## Guest (Jun 17, 2006)

Lookin' goooood!   It's the Jager!  :grin:


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## allisonandrews (Jun 17, 2006)

ABTs went on at 5pm.  Pork was covered at this time also (7 hours in).


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## Captain Morgan (Jun 17, 2006)

you go girl.


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## allisonandrews (Jun 17, 2006)

ABTs after one hour:


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## wittdog (Jun 17, 2006)

Oh yeah looking good. =P~  =P~


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## allisonandrews (Jun 17, 2006)

Hour 9 update:

Pork - 160 degrees, basting with juices in bottom of pan now - includes apple juice, worst sauce, apple cider vinegar, st. louis style rub, beer, and natural juices from the pork.

Brisket - 193 degrees, pans getting full of juice.  Will probably take them off around 8pm which will be a 10 hour cook.

ABTs after 2 hours.  Took them off the smoker.  Had a nice smokey flavor, but the peppers were not soft enough.  They are now in the oven inside to cook a bit more.


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## wittdog (Jun 17, 2006)

allisonandrews said:
			
		

> Hour 9 update:
> 
> Pork - 160 degrees, basting with juices in bottom of pan now - includes apple juice, worst sauce, apple cider vinegar, st. louis style rub, beer, and natural juices from the pork.
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> ...


Looks great =P~  My ABT's usually take about 2.5 hrs


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## Cliff H. (Jun 17, 2006)

That food looks very good and now I am going to have to go make a sandwich.


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## Guest (Jun 17, 2006)

wittdog said:
			
		

> allisonandrews said:
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Oh my ~ That's lookin' better by the minute!!  =P~


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## allisonandrews (Jun 17, 2006)

Brisket is done and is wonderful!  I think the pork butts are going to take quite a while.  It is now thundering and lightening, so maybe we will get some more much needed rain.  I'll probably be unplugging the computer if it looks bad, so I'll get the pork pictures on tomorrow.


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## Guest (Jun 17, 2006)

Well, dem brisket pics are lookin' purdy damn good from here! =P~  Good job!!


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## Cliff H. (Jun 17, 2006)

That looks absolutley wonderful.  Did you rest the meat fat up or down in its own juice?


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## cleglue (Jun 17, 2006)

The brisket looks very moist.  Looks like ya'll are learning your cooker well.  Looking forward to see how the pork comes out.


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## Puff1 (Jun 18, 2006)

Everything looks great =D>


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## chris1237 (Jun 18, 2006)

Food looks great!! =D>


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## Finney (Jun 18, 2006)

MAn, the brisket and ABTs looked great.

Way to go. =D>


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## Wittdogs B (Jun 18, 2006)

Your brisket looked great-- I guess I know what we will be cooking this week/weekend....


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## Woodman1 (Jun 19, 2006)

Where'd she go?


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## allisonandrews (Jun 19, 2006)

I'm back.  We were too busy yesterday for me to log on.

To answer an earlier question, briskets were rested fat side up.  The briskets really were wonderful.

Now, onto the pork...

I hated it.  Everything about it just grossed me out.  However, my husband really liked it.  So, he has quite a bit of pulled pork to eat on for a while.

I just didn't like the taste.  It was very tender, especially near the bone, but it had sort of a smoked turkey taste to me.  I love chicken and turkey, but can't stand them when they've been smoked.  This may be a similar situation.  I tried to eat a bit on a hamburger bun last night and made it about 3 bites before I couldn't handle it anymore.

They also ended up being a royal pain in the rear to cook.  In my last post, I was talking about a storm moving in.  Well, it hit and had lots of wind with it.  We had to move the pork into the oven in the house to finish because the rain was blowing straight into our fire box.  I cooked it for 5 more hours at oven temp 200 degrees.  At this point in time, in the middle of the night, all 3 of my electric thermometers decided to crap out on me (run out of batteries).  I grabbed an old manual one I had and it said pork was only at 160 degrees.  Bumped the oven up to 225 for 3 hours.  Thermometer still reading 160, but I can tell the pork is warmer.  Decided that thermometer was screwed as well.  I bumped the oven up to 250 for 2 more hours and then turned it off and let them rest in the oven for an hour or so.

So, basically, the pork had 23 hours of cooking time, which included me having to get up in the middle of the night several times to check on it.  Then, it took almost an hour to pull it apart.  Then I couldn't stand the taste of it.  So, basically, I don't think I will be doing a pork butt again anytime soon.

But, as I keep coming back to, the briskets were really good.

Oh, and I don't think I like ABTs anymore.  The last time before this that we made them, I had trouble eating them with the bacon.  I used to crave bacon, but now I can hardly eat it without the fat making me want to hurl.

Hubby liked the bacon and cream cheese, but said the peppers were way to hot.  We ended up chunking the batch.

What did we learn from all of this?  Well, having our last 5 or more briskets turn out terrific has reassured us that we really do have our method down and there is no reason to mess with it anymore.  We also know that we can do country style pork ribs pretty well (why I can eat them and not the pulled pork, I don't know.)  I think we are going to pass on the ABTs for a while, any maybe avoid the pork butts as well.


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## LarryWolfe (Jun 19, 2006)

Allie, 
    The butts didn't happen to be enhanced did they?  That would give you an off some what "hammy" taste and totally different texture vs. a fresh butt.


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## allisonandrews (Jun 19, 2006)

I don't know if they were or not.  I thought about that later on, but I had already thrown away all the packages and hubby had taken the trash out.  It might have been something like that.  My husband loves ham, I can't stand it.

On one side note, the dogs definately enjoyed the bones!


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## wittdog (Jun 19, 2006)

I think that Larry may be onto something, those butts may have been enhanced......You should try the butts again sometime making sure that they have not be enhanced. As far as the ABT's not liking bacon  :ack:  try the low fat bacon next time and try to clean out the pepers better if you get all the pepper ribs and seeds out then they won't be hot. You might have to cut the peppers in half to accomplish this. Butts can take awhile to cook but are worth the effort. If hubby like them you should give it another shot......Glad to hear that the Brisket came out great the Mrs. wants to do one this week now.....


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## allisonandrews (Jun 19, 2006)

Yes, maybe someday I will look at doing the pork again.  I may need to look into how to trim it or something.  It had that huge fat cap on it.  I scored it, because that is what I thought I had seen to do.  Actually, part of me thinks it could have even been skin, but I hope that is just my mind going overboard.  I have a real mental thing about food.  If it resembles any part of the animal at all, I can barely eat it.  So, is the thing on the top of the picnic a fat cap or is it skin?  Should that be removed?


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## wittdog (Jun 19, 2006)

allisonandrews said:
			
		

> Yes, maybe someday I will look at doing the pork again.  I may need to look into how to trim it or something.  It had that huge fat cap on it.  I scored it, because that is what I thought I had seen to do.  Actually, part of me thinks it could have even been skin, but I hope that is just my mind going overboard.  I have a real mental thing about food.  If it resembles any part of the animal at all, I can barely eat it.  So, is the thing on the top of the picnic a fat cap or is it skin?  Should that be removed?


It depends on how tough it was, I've gotten em with skin on.....it's not hard to remove it.......


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## allisonandrews (Jun 19, 2006)

Okay, gross.  This probably was skin.  Yep, that about does it for my experience with pork - at least for ones with the skin on.


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## cflatt (Jun 19, 2006)

if it was a picnic then it was the skin. you can cut it away if you want...gives more area for bark, but I think I remember one of your first posts saying something about not being a big bark fan. I have had better luck with butts than picnics as far as flavor, but there are others on here that could cook a tire and it would probably taste great. If/when you try one again I would look for a boston butt.


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## Captain Morgan (Jun 19, 2006)

allisonandrews said:
			
		

> Okay, gross.  This probably was skin.  Yep, that about does it for my experience with pork - at least for ones with the skin on.


.


ROFL!!!  We all have to learn from our mistakes.  Don't give up yet.


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## wittdog (Jun 19, 2006)

No skin on the butts and IMHO you get a better yield of meat off a boston butt.


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## allisonandrews (Jun 19, 2006)

Is the Boston Butt a lot more expensive?  I seem to remember seeing one, but it was over $2/lb where the picnic was .98/lb.


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## wittdog (Jun 19, 2006)

allisonandrews said:
			
		

> Is the Boston Butt a lot more expensive?  I seem to remember seeing one, but it was over $2/lb where the picnic was .98/lb.


Typicall the butt around here runs between 1.18-1.28 lb sometimes I can get them as cheap as .87lb. The whole picnic may be cheaper but it has more bones and I think less of a yeild..IMHO it' worth it to pay a little more for the butt.


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## Green Hornet (Jun 19, 2006)

I like yer "Texas " popper holder for the ABT'S! Try a turkey bacon on them next go. The food looks delicious. You really do have that Brisket down! =D>


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## allisonandrews (Jun 19, 2006)

Yeah, I got nice and up close and personal with the internal makeup of the butt.  Bone was huge.  The yield was pathetic.


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## allisonandrews (Jun 19, 2006)

Green Hornet said:
			
		

> I like yer "Texas " popper holder for the ABT'S! Try a turkey bacon on them next go. The food looks delicious. You really do have that Brisket down! =D>



Thank you.  The holder is at HEB for less than $10.


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## wittdog (Jun 19, 2006)

allisonandrews said:
			
		

> Yeah, I got nice and up close and personal with the internal makeup of the butt.  Bone was huge.  The yield was pathetic.


IMHO there seems to be more fat pockets in a shoulder as well.


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## Green Hornet (Jun 19, 2006)

I need a Florida one though :!:


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## allisonandrews (Jun 19, 2006)

WHAT??  Not everyone wants a Texas one??


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## wittdog (Jun 19, 2006)

Green Hornet said:
			
		

> I need a Florida one though :!:


Talk to your mech/welder at work....It wouldn't be too hard to fab. John Pen was talking about making me one..............


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## allisonandrews (Jun 19, 2006)

You could do a pig or armadillo


http://leos.zoovy.com/category/chile_grills/


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## allisonandrews (Apr 8, 2008)

Captain Morgan said:
			
		

> allisonandrews said:
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FYI - I still haven't been back near a pork butt since I last commented on this thread.  After almost two years away from this forum, I've returned to ask about a pork loin that my husband got from his mother in law.  The thread almost got a bit lively.  Maybe pork and I just don't get along!!!

Oh, and sorry some of the pics are now gone.  I must have gotten delete happy at some point.


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