Cooking Cheap

It wasn’t in the plan to make pulled pork on Friday but the mega mart had pork shoulder at $0.88/lb. A Cinco De Mayo special. That’s too good to pass by. I could have frozen it for later use but I’m on for a all night smoke tomorrow night. That 8.5lb shoulder should take about 12 hours to cook, more or less.

I’m doing the Renowned Mr Brown. I’ll deviate from that recipe by design and by error. First I’m using shoulder and not butt. Butt wasn’t on sale. In fact, it’s not usually seen at my mega mart. The problems started early. I didn’t have enough dry mustard for the rub and I didn’t feel like going to the mega mart so after trimming the shoulder I lathered on some wet mustard, maybe a quarter cup, maybe less. It helps the rub stick to the meat and it’s not going to hurt the taste (I like mustard).

Trimming the skin off was easier than I expected (before rubbing). I’d guess the skin and trimmings are a pound. It’s still a huge hunk of meat for a single guy but an overnight cook is something all would be pit masters need to get right. This will be my second overnighter. I know from the first one (brisket) that once the Weber Smoky Mountain (WSM) gets settled in on a temperature, it’ll hold it while I sleep. The WSM just works and I have to learn to trust it.

The weather report for Thursday night is dry, but cool (a low of 40F is predicted),. That will be a test.to get the fire up fast enough given my last cooking session. I also need to make some bread, but that’s another post.

9:00PM Thursday , May 4, 2006

Before I started to get dark, I’ set up the chimney of charcoal, a full right of charcoal and smoke wood in the smoker. Just light the charcoal, wait a while, put the pork on, get the temp set. Meanwhile, I made the baked beans (this recipe is on this site). They’ll cook tonight and go into the fridge. I’m already to go. Snort.

I had just put the beans in the oven and came in here to write this update when I noticed it had started raining. WTF. So much for weather forecasts! One cloud in the sky and it’s sprinkling on the Rancho, and the chimney and ring of charcoal. It was just luck that I managed to get it all covered before much water fell, but it’s going to affect the charcoal and temps. I had counted out 22 briquettes for the chimney, I think I might go for 24.

I could move the smoker to a covered area. It’s a real pain in the ass to attend it there, so I didn’t.

11:15PM. I fired up the chimney and it was happy at 11:45 so I scattered the 24 burning briquettes in the grate (Minion Method), assembled the smoker and filled the water pan. 12:15AM, it’s running 220F as measured at the top. I”d like that to be higher. 12:40AM, 225F. Not that much better, but I’m getting weary. I put the meat on and added some apple wood chucks. Half hour later, it’s a smoking, at 225F (sigh), bottom vents 100% open. I’m looking for 240F or 250F so I can close the vents a bit and go to bed.

1:35AM. Up to 235F. I remove the lid and put in the probe on the thermometer to get a reading at the rack instead of at the top. You, know, just in case the top therm went bad. It read 85F. Must be operator error, it’s too dark to figure out the buttons.

1:50AM. Yes!. It’s up to 240F at the top, 203 at the grate (assuming I got it right on the probe). I closed the bottom vents to 1/3rd open and if the temp locks in around 225 (top or bottom), I can got to bed. This is the sweet spot where the WSM show’s it’s mettle, When it gets dialed in, it stays there. He says. I am ready to crash too. With the beans and the bread and the smoker and dinner, I’ve been cooking and worrying for 8 hours. Granted it isn’t hard work or easy to screw up but anal compulsives have rules that you may not know.

2:25AM Near 250 at the top. No it’s not a problem. I closed the bottom vents to 1/4 open which seems about right considering the outside temp. I won’t predict how many hours I’ll get out of the charcoal ring. It’s a cool night (some would say it’s cold at 40F).

3:10AM. 230F.

3:30 AM. 235. Turned down one vent that was a bit more open than the others. Nothing wrong with 235. I ‘m going to bed.

9:00AM. 220F, I filled up the water pan. Back to sleep.

11:00AM 170F, but still smoking. Opened the vents full and strirred the coals.

Noon: Back to 220F. I put the probe in the meat. 145F – That’s not so good.
I fired up another 20 briquettes in the chimney and added them and that much unlit.

7:00PM. This is a lot longer that a 12 hour cook I had planned on. Smoker is still running 230 or so. The meat is 183F. If it ever gets to 190,F I pull it (or I’ll run out of fuel) – which ever comes first.

I took the meat off at 8:30PM. 186F and let it cool before pulling. It’s was awesome BBQ. A little dry because I didn’t mop or turn it but very good. There a huge pile of leftovers in the fridge. I’ll deal with that tomorrow.

It’s 10:30PM and the smoker is still running at 220F. I have no idea what it’s using for fuel. It must make it out the air.