# Hybrid Smoking Technique



## Chief Longwind Of The North (Jul 7, 2008)

I made pulled pork for Sunday dinner with my sister and nephew but didn't have time to smoke the pork butt for hours. So here's my very own method for making a perfectly smoked pulled pork, with limited bbq time.

Oh, and the pulled pork received rave reviews. Everybody thought I had smoked this batch all day.

This is a two day process that frees most of both days for other things.

Ingredients:
5 lb. pork Boston Butt
1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbs. cooking oil
Kosher salt

Heat up a dry cast iron pan until it's very hot. Lightly sprinkle all sides of the Boston Butt with kosher salt. Add the oil to the pan and place the roast in it. Sear on all sides until browned all over. Turn off the heat and place the roast into a slow cooker, along with the aromatics, on low setting. Cover and cook overnight.

When ready to smoke, fire up the bbq with a divided bed of coals configuration for indirect heat. When the bbq is hot, add apple, maple, walnut, or your favorite smoking wood to one bed of coals. Place the grill-grate back onto the bbq. Put the cover on with all vents fully open.

Remove the roast from the slow cooker, researving the liquid in the cooker on warm setting. Put the lid back on. Pull the pork into shreds and place into a cast iron frying pan. Put the pan on the center of the grill and cover. Smoke the meat for 30 minutes and stir well. Cover and smoke for 30 minutes more. Again stir well. Cover the pan and remove from heat. Put th emeat back into the slow cooker and stir. Cover and serve, or transport to your get-together.

This technique works because by shredding the meat, you have exposed most of it to the smoke, which deposits itself onto the meat. When you stir it all up, you move untouched meat to the surface, where it gets its turn in the smoke. The smoke doesn't require the usual osmosis process to penetrate the meat. And the whole of the meat develops that beautiful redish-brown hue, like a smoke ring, but all over.

Hope you like this. We did.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North


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## candelbc (Jul 7, 2008)

Goodweed,
This is interesting, because I was just thinking about something like this myself. Almost identical in fact. The biggest difference I could see was that I hadn't planned on pre-shredding before introducing to heat. But, I can see where that would help.

I may just have to steal my Cast Iron out of the camper to give this a try.

Thanks for sharing...


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## QSis (Jul 7, 2008)

Sounds great, GW!

The only thing I would do differently is to use disposable aluminum half pans instead of my cast iron pan.

Lee


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## GB (Jul 7, 2008)

You are always thinking GW. Great idea!


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## Maverick2272 (Jul 7, 2008)

I like this idea cause I have everything I need to actually be able to try it! LOL.


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## pacanis (Jul 7, 2008)

hmmm, I don't know why this didn't show up earlier today under new posts....

At any rate, this sounds really good. One thing I don't understand, why do you cover the meat in the skillet when you are smoking it? Or am I reading that wrong? I'm assuming we all know to put the lid down on the grill to retain the smoke. Do you also put a cover on the skillet?

"Put the pan on the center of the grill and cover. Smoke the meat for 30 minutes and stir well. Cover and smoke for 30 minutes more. Again stir well. Cover the pan and remove from heat."


Thanks


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## Maverick2272 (Jul 7, 2008)

I read it as put it on the grill and close the lid. Open the grill, stir, close it again. When you take it off the grill, cover it. I figured this was to keep it warm once you had removed it from the grill?
I could be wrong though but if it was covered inside the grill wouldn't that stop the smoke from getting into the meat?


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## Chief Longwind Of The North (Jul 8, 2008)

Sorry to be unclear.  Yes, the pan is open and the grill is covered.  And by covering when it's removed from the grill, that means after puting the meat back into the reserved broth, in the slow cooker, cover it for transporting to both keep it hot, and to retain all that juicy goodness.  Hope that clears things up.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North


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## pacanis (Jul 8, 2008)

Thanks for clearing the smoke out of my brain


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## Cooper'sMom (Jul 8, 2008)

This sounds all interesting. We are going camping in two weeks' time and I would like to be able to serve my guests this one day before we all go to Oshkosh (Wisconsin). Good idea. Thank GW...!!! I will copy the recipe and give it a go/test before the event. Leftovers can be sandwiches on the way to destination, too.


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## paddfoot (Oct 20, 2008)

wow, that sounds perfectly logical, my last pulled pork came out way too smokey, this seems like a great option, and i don't have to fire up the smoker all day, im gona try it this weekend, do you use any finishing sauce or q sauce for it?


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## jminion (Oct 20, 2008)

Goodweed of the North said:


> The smoke doesn't require the usual osmosis process to penetrate the meat. And the whole of the meat develops that beautiful redish-brown hue, like a smoke ring, but all over.


 
What is the usual osmosis process to penetrate the meat? Never have heard of this?

Jim


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## Chief Longwind Of The North (Oct 21, 2008)

Osmosis is the natural mechanism by which greater concentrations of gas, liquid, or in this case, flavor molecules move from a greater concentration to a lesser concentration until equal distribution is achieved throughout an environment.  For instance, if you place a chunk of meat into a brine solution, the water content of the individual muscle cells has less salt salt in it than does the brine solution.  The difference in salinity is called osmotic pressure.  The dissolved salt will migrate into the meat cells until an equal amount of salt is distributed through all of the water, both inside the meat tissue, and in the brine solution.

Another, maybe more clear example is explained with perfume.  When you open a bottle of perfume in a room, there is a great concentration of the aromatic oils in the bottle, while none exists in the outer air.  If left for a short time in the open position, the aroma of perfume will begin to distribute itself throughout the room, even if there are no air currents.  Again, this is due to osmotic pressure, or by definition, the property that all things in nature seek to be equal.

In smoking meat, there are aromatic oils contained in the smoke.  These are free to saturate the meat tissue unless some barrier exists to stop them.  That is how the smoke flavor penetrates the meat, because of osmotic pressure.  Hope that helps clear things up.  I'm sure my good freind YT could explain it a bit better.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North


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## jminion (Oct 21, 2008)

Osmosis:
Osmosis is the spontaneous net movement of water across a semipermeable membrane from a region of low solute concentration to a solution with a high solute concentration, up a solute concentration gradient.

Diffusion:
Diffusion is a spontaneous movement of particles from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration. 

I can see diffusion happening but not osmosis. Smoke is particles in the envionment that can be layed on the meat but not osmosis into the meat.


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## Chief Longwind Of The North (Oct 21, 2008)

jminion said:


> Osmosis:
> Osmosis is the spontaneous net movement of water across a semipermeable membrane from a region of low solute concentration to a solution with a high solute concentration, up a solute concentration gradient.
> 
> Diffusion:
> ...



Ahh.  But doesn't moisture that accumulates on the meat surface while cooking dissolve and then carry some of that smoky flavor into the meat.  If not, then how does that flavor get into the center of a Virginia Smoked Ham?  There must be a mechanism to transfer the molecules responsible for the smokey flavor into the meat.  And though I may have gotten the definitions of osmosis and diffusion a little mixed (Ok, completely mixed up), I still believe that osmotic pressure is the mechanism by which smoke flavor infuses the meat.  Though I don't have any scientific evidence to back me up on this one.  This is simply a hypothesis.  And  have to ask forgiveness for my sometimes inaccurate scientific jargon.  It's been a good while since physics class for me, many, many years.  Still, the idea, I think, is valid.

Seeeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North


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## jminion (Oct 22, 2008)

Goodweed of the North said:


> Ahh. But doesn't moisture that accumulates on the meat surface while cooking dissolve and then carry some of that smoky flavor into the meat. If not, then how does that flavor get into the center of a Virginia Smoked Ham? There must be a mechanism to transfer the molecules responsible for the smokey flavor into the meat. And though I may have gotten the definitions of osmosis and diffusion a little mixed (Ok, completely mixed up), I still believe that osmotic pressure is the mechanism by which smoke flavor infuses the meat. Though I don't have any scientific evidence to back me up on this one. This is simply a hypothesis. And have to ask forgiveness for my sometimes inaccurate scientific jargon. It's been a good while since physics class for me, many, many years. Still, the idea, I think, is valid.
> 
> Seeeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North


 
If you are equating the pink color to smoke penetration in ham that is different functions, the color is caused by the curing which is an osmosis reaction. Smoke penetration in preservation of meats is done at low temps and takes days. The meat needs to be low in water content, water actually inhibites smoke curing. 
There are artifical means or quick smoking, the meat is dipped into a mixture of pyroligneous acid, water, and juniper oil. Either way osmosis doesn't explain smoke penetration and our cooking methods don't explain how we can achieve smoke penetration.


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## Chief Longwind Of The North (Oct 24, 2008)

Actually, I'm not so much speaking of the pink color (which in processed meats comes from staining caused by the use of sodium nitrites/nitrates), as the smokey flavor that permeates, say, a smoked pork roast, or smoked turkey.  I am fully aware that it is the deposition of smoke particles on meat surface that creates the grilled flavor of a good steak.  In fact, I did some experimentation to determine whether it was high heat and charring that created the flavor, or smoke deposition.  I pan-fried a steak,and then hit it with a propane torch to induce the high-heat charred flavor as erroneously proposed by several cookbook authors.  I found that intense heat did nothing to develop the classic "char-broiled" or grilled flavor of grilled meats, but rather that smoke deposition from burning fats created the flavor.  In fact, I cooked very lean beef on the covered grill and did not get the classic flavor.  I then added extraeous fat to the grill and cooked another very lean chunk of beef and got the flavor, pretty much proving my hypothesis.  

Regardless of the side topic on which I just expounded, smoke particle deposition does not explain the permeating flavor in a  cold-smoke piece of meat, be it red meat, poultry, or fish.  There is some other mechanism by which the flavor becomes distributed throughout the meat.  It is my hypothesis that aromatic oils from the smoke distribute themselves through the meat tissue, and due to the nature of oils, it takes much time for this to happen, hence the long cooking time requirements for the process.  Again, this is speculation on my part.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North


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## jminion (Oct 25, 2008)

Great hypothesis ranks with cooking brisket fat side up so the rendering fat will keep the brisket moist.


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## buckytom (Oct 25, 2008)

Goodweed of the North said:


> So here's my very own method for making a perfectly smoked pulled pork, with limited bbq time.
> 
> 
> Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North


 
omg, uncle bob must be turning over in his woodpile!

j/k, gw. another one for the "try someday" file. thanks.


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