# Pork Butt and the Alton Brown Smoker:  A cautionary tale



## Ender1 (Mar 13, 2011)

So this weekend, I decided to smoke my biggest butt, about 8.97 lbs.  Decided for the same ol same ol and went with my usual seasonings along with the brine.

For those who have asked about the brine and what it does.  It #1 imparts flavor.  Namely salt and molasses.  The salt goes all the way to the bone.  

Ok, so I started it around 10 am and got it to heat at around noon.  Smoked nicely most of the day.  Then, in the afternoon around 2-3 pm, I decided to put a bit more wood on.  A nice sized pile in my cast iron pie pan (imagine the size of a pie plate, that's the size).  Sorry guys, no pictures this time 

Anyways, the smoker started pushing out plumes of smoke and was really humming along.  Nice temp of 225 or so.  So I took a small nap and woke up at around 5-6 pm and went and checked it.  It was super hot, around 275 degrees.  The bowl on top was hot to the touch and hard to remove, but remove it I did (big mistake).

My idea was to vent the pit to cool it down really quicky.  Bad idea.  It allowed much more oxygen in and, after looking at it for about 3 minutes a drop of grease ignited the entire pan.

The fire enveloped the butt first and foremost along with the handles of the grate that it was cooking on.  I urgently asked the neighbor for a plate and huge fork to get the meat off of the fire pillar it was currently sitting in.

After about a full minute and a half, I grabbed it from one end, barehanded, and drug it off and into the lid of the smoker while waiting for the plate.

I let the fire burn down a bit, dumped the burning embers into my small Webber grill and lidded it, put some wood back in the pan, and got back to smoking.  It finished up at around 10pm that night.  

The taste was not good.  The bottom was pretty much ruined from the burning and the flavor was kind of rampant.  That being said, still edible.

My first pit fire.  Learned a lot lol.


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## bbquzz (Mar 13, 2011)

Ender you have to lean ... No pictures, no cook (no pit fire either)!


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## Ender1 (Mar 13, 2011)

lmao the last thing I would have done is say, "Ok, keep it going!  I'll be right back with the camera!!"

But yeah, I know how much fail I have at not getting ANY pics.  All I have is pics of some french onion soup that I made 

Lazy bbqer is lazy and he started a fire.


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## Nick Prochilo (Mar 13, 2011)

Yeah buzz is right, no pic = no cook or fire. See this time it will work towards your advantage!


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## Smokey Lew (Mar 14, 2011)

Sorry to hear about the cook gone wild. It would be nice if every cook was a success but it just doesn't always work out that way. I think this one you can blame on Alton Brown.


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## bigwheel (Mar 14, 2011)

Classic case of waking up a sleeping dawg. If a person hadnt messed with the lid it woulda prob went on down after a bit. Actually 275 aint a bit too hot for much of anything except sausage. Great temp for butts. Now on the other hand a person should be able to take off the lid without a bon fire erupting so their is bound to be grease pooling up somewhere on the interior of that gizmo and awaiting the critical time to ignite. Or maybe you already figgered out that part and are working on a solution. That grease gives a really good flavor when added to the fire at a reasonable rate such as the rate at which it comes out of the meat at least if you got some good distance between the meat and the fire. I like about 3 feet.  At that distance a little flare up aint even noticed by the meat. Or you might need a grease drain hole etc. Do them pots have holes in the bottom? Or maybe it is pooling up in your firepan or the water pan went dry. Who knows?


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## TimBear (Mar 17, 2011)

Ender said:
			
		

> lmao the last thing I would have done is say, "Ok, keep it going!  I'll be right back with the camera!!"
> 
> But yeah, I know how much fail I have at not getting ANY pics.  All I have is pics of some french onion soup that I made
> 
> Lazy bbqer is lazy and he started a fire.



This is some funny stuff going on here. Tuesday night I did a fantastic cook (IMHO) with scallops kabobs mango/pineapple and squash kabob, took great pics, resized the pics and then accidently deleted them off the camera without moving them to my computer. I'm such a "Dumb-Ass"


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## LarryWolfe (Mar 17, 2011)

TimBear said:
			
		

> Ender said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



No pic's.......you're lying.  Nick told me to call you out.....sorry.


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## bigwheel (Mar 17, 2011)

Yeah he prob thanks Rachel Ray is his girlfriend. Yeah thats the ticket. Little fibber Boy.


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