Memorial Day Cook

Short week this week as expected with the holiday and all.  I am starting to get frustrated with the home building process. Honestly I don’t know why I didn't expect this to happen…I guess I was just being dumb in thinking that it would get moving the day after we closed. I think realistically it will not be finished until mid to late September. Whatever. Still need to pick out flooring and talk about a few other things with the design but right now any forward progress is what we are looking for.

Memorial Day BBQ- I purchased a little gizmo called “The BBQ Guru” that is intended to help control the temps a bit more effectively in most wood/charcoal fired cookers. Basically what it is a watertight programmable device that is connected to a 10 CFM fan that will pulse off/on to stoke the fire for an indefinite amount of time.  You set the temp to whatever you desire; close all the bottom vents on the cooker and let the fan do the work. It’s really a great idea and seemed to work very well under the right conditions.

Here is a photo of the set up. It looks a little robotic with the whole contraption but well worth the results.

I was able to figure out a few things that I was previously un aware of. First off, the temperature that I had  been cooking at prior to using the controller were considerably higher than my targeted 225 while manually setting vents and adjusting the temps. This was evidenced by the much longer cooking period…the shoulders never got to the target of 195F internal and I decided to pull them anyway as we were all getting hungry. Important note: The target temp of 195 is not the temp that the pork is safe to consume…realistically is in the 160 range. For smoking a shoulder the magic happens at around 195F. It’s at this point the shoulders have broken down to the point all the fat renders out of the meat making for a juicy and tender product once you start shredding. In my experience anything south of the 195 mark makes the shoulders a little tougher and not quite as juicy.

The other thing that I noted is that I stink at cooking ribs. My technique is not consistent enough to produce the same quality every time. It also might be that I was still operating the cooker at the 225F mark and realistically the temps should be a bit higher than that. The other thing I did was instead of foil wrapping the ribs I instead put them all in an aluminum pan and covered them in foil. Bad idea. I was using spares trimmed to STL style and truthfully I have not had good luck with them and I think I am not using high enough heat and long enough cook times. I want to give it another try in the near future at a higher temp and see what the outcome is. They looked good just didn’t have that fall off the bone texture I like. I need to try to get a little more consistent to attempt a competition cook that I am thinking about next May.

Lots of experimenting with this weekend and for the most part it turned out OK…Pork shoulders were the stand out. I fired the smoker up around 2 pm on Saturday to try some chicken thighs and didn't shut it off till Sunday at about 5:30pm adding charcoal only once.

I didn't get a ton of pictures with this cook as I drank my way through most of it!

April is Here

I have let another week slip by without posting anything on this site....I really do want to get in the habit of doing this at least once a week but it’s hard to find the time. I typically burn though a lunch hour writing these things but for some weird reason I think I enjoy it.

Few things have happened in the last week or so…Record snow fall and our first camping trip of the 2013 season. If you live in St. Louis you are aware of the 15” of snow that fell last week. Pretty cool really. I don’t think that I have ever seen this much in my lifetime in a single event and it was impressive. There was even the elusive “Thunder Snow” that makes St. Louis Meteorologists piss their pants with joy every winter season.  For some reason I thought that this would be a good time to smoke 20lbs of pork shoulder….actually it turned out good surprisingly. However, I almost had to throw it all out due the temps in the cooker dropping off severely overnight.  You can throw a lot of things weather wise at the Weber smokers….Snow, Rain , sleet, heat and subzero temps and it does a great job of maintaining temps but a constant wind really throws the whole thing off kilter. It seems to stoke the fire to the point it burns much faster and hotter than typical and that’s exactly what happened.  Few more hours un attended, it would have all gone in the trash…but it all worked out.  

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

Applewood Smoked Pork Shoulder

Frozen and Ready for the Track

Made up a season’s worth of rub as well…

 

Also this weekend was the first season opener for the camping season. All in all it went very well and everything worked just fine. It was good to spend some time with Sam. Max and Ali roughed it at home as Max is not quite to the point where it’s enjoyable for really anyone when nap time comes around. Having a full hookup campground literally one exit down the highway has its benefits for opening and closing the RV. Unfortunately, I had to go through the process of winterizing the entire thing again due to the freezing temps expected this week. That sucks.

 

I even got to play with the new LED lights

 



 

Few things on tap for sure this year are a Lake Ozark trip in May, a trip with a co-worker and his son Sam’s age, I am sure at least one Cuvier River Trip with everyone and for sure the April Race in Kansas with friends.

April is going to prove to be very busy around here…this upcoming weekend is our first trip to Houston (I was just there Wednesday for work) with everyone. As much as air travel sucks alone, it sucks even more with 2 kids, 2 car seats and luggage. If you think going to the grocery store with a 3 year old is anxiety inducing….try an 1800 mile round trip. Not looking forward to this one at all.

The rest of the month is filled out with other things as well such as the already mentioned spring Kansas race…a 5K race that Ali is in and at least another attempt at opening the camper up most likely on the 13^th. I also need to start riding my bike again…

Still no action on the house….bummer. Today we need to re-sign for our lot and cross our fingers for a sale in the next 3 months.

 

FIrst Long Cook With WSM

So I have had this odd shaped steel vessel in my back yard for a month or so and have used it once to cook some ribs back in February but really wanted to give it a test run on a long cook. I have been looking at a lot of info on how to run the cooker, methods and techniques to get good results. The site is where I got my main source of info is virturalbullet.com and is dedicated specifically to the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker. It is so in depth you can even toss the manual that comes with your cooker. This site alone is one of the main reasons I decided to go with the Weber and not an Egg (other than price). Everything is there and in easy to read formats. Its organized into a few diffrent sections.....operation, maintenance, start up and a forum section. If you have seen the show Pitmasters on TLC....Harry from Slap Yo Daddy BBQ is a regular in the forum area as are others on the BBQ circut....so lots of good info here.

On Saturday it was cold and crappy in St. Louis and we decided to pack Sam up and go to the store for a few things. I recently bought a new cookbook on line and its loaded with items all focused around grilling. last weekend we grilled some shrimp and small fillets and it turned out excellent... so shrimp was on the menu this weekend as well. We picked up some things for Cajun Po Boys and I on a whim decided that I wanted to try a pork shoulder and give it a try...The rule of thumb for cooking at low temps is roughly 2 hours per pound so I would need do an overnight to make this happen. The cut of meat I bought was roughly 7 lbs and after trimming the fat cap and it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 6.5 or so. This means i had no option but to start it late on Saturday Night in order to have it ready for Sunday lunch or dinner. If you have ever smoked anything in a kettle for a long period of time you will know that it seems that you need to monitor and adjust air into the cooker on a constant basis to keep the temp low. This is where things get normally sketchy.....you need to plan your day out around the approximate time of it takes to fully cook the product and with anything but a dedicated smoker. This means either getting up extra early or staying up late. Or you can get up every few hours though the night to "feed" the fire. Its almost like a newborn.....I didn't care for the 2 hour feedings with Sam early on so this option was clearly off the table.

Around 8 pm we started prepping the meat....trimming and applying the rub. The standard rub I have been using I found on a website called amazingribs.com and is a take on Charlie Virgo's famous blend.  Its probably not the best for pulled pork and really is better suited for ribs but its all I had at the time. Here is the recipe:
http://www.amazingribs.com/recipes/rubs_pastes_marinades_and_brines/rendezvous_rub_and_BBQ_ribs.html
Ingredients8 tablespoons paprika
4 tablespoons powdered garlic
4 tablespoons mild chili powder
3 tablespoons ground black pepper
3 tablespoons kosher salt
4 teaspoons whole yellow mustard seed
1 tablespoon crushed celery seed
1 tablespoon whole celery seed
1 tablespoon dried crushed oregano
1 tablespoon dried crushed thyme
1 tablespoon whole allspice seeds
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 tablespoon whole coriander seed
1 teaspoon ground coriander

It also calls for Accent but if you read the ingredient list on the package it is just MSG. Leave it out...you wont notice.
I fired up the WSM using the Minion Method....A good write up on it is found here:
http://virtualweberbullet.com/fireup2.html#minion
This is a good way to ensure there is enough fuel for at least a 12+ hour cook and  is contrary to the Weber guide. The Minion brings the temp up and then you begin dampening air to maintain rather than fight it down from 350F to get to the correct temp as in the Weber guide.

A bit of a tangent about charcoal.....I primarily use Kinsford for both the kettle and smoker. Costco has been where I historically buy but they have recently began to only carry the Competition briquettes. If you pay close attention to the packaging you will notice that you get less in terms of volume with the Comp. vs the standard blue bag. Also, it does burn hotter...and faster. This is not desirable in a smoker. Most write ups for running a WSM you find out there base most if not all the info on the standard blue bag. I have been using lump hardwood Charcoal lately in the kettle  for things that require lots of heat such as steaks....anything you need to get a good sear on really. I won't go into that as it is two different animals.

Anyway....I loaded the chamber up with about 13lbs of Kingsord Blue and started roughly 30 coals and threw them on. Then Assemble the cooker, water pan and added the meat. I also Foil the water pan FYI...this allows for easier clean up. Let the unit run up to 250 or so and then damper the bottom vents to about 25%  I even went as far as drawing a simple spreadsheet on our Ipad to track vent locations...cooker temp and meat temp.  (Again with the Engineering Background)


I monitored the temp for about 2 hours and finally felt it was to the point that could go to bed. At that time it was a constant 220-235. This was about midnight and I really didn't know what to expect in the morning. For some reason I woke up around 5:30 and went out to check. I was certain that I would find that the fire went out and all would be lost but to my surprise a rock steady 225 was indicated on the dial. Checked the fire box and plenty left so I went back to bed! Fast forward until 10am or so and the meat finally reached 190 (perfect temp for pulling..well beyond the recommended 160 for pork)

It was stupendous.....if I may say so myself. Just a note....I only used the rub above....no brine or baste. Nor did I touch the meat until at least 8 am. Keep the lid on....every time you open the lid you add about 15min to the cook time. I cant say enough about the WSM and look forward to whats to come in the next few months.