As I stated earlier this week, I opened my mouth and inserted the
offer to make pulled pork for our church's fall festival. The offer
was graciously accepted.

We took the smoker and plenty of pecan to the churchhouse Thursday.
The event's director got a total of 30# of Boston Butt and two
volunteers to watch the fire Friday night. We planned to get started
about midnight. The largest cut of meat was a little over 10#, so I
figured that would be just enough time to have it ready to pull by
6:00 or 7:00 Saturday evening.

I arrived Friday night to get the fire started at 11:00. I figured
I'd be the only one there, I could have it ready to roll and all I'd
have to do at midnight would be to give my volunteers their
instructions, then go home and go to bed and come back in the morning.
Wrong. The others had gotten excited and had gotten there at 9:00
along with a support crew to watch.

They already had a fire in the smoker, temp up to 180deg, and had just
put the pork in, straight out of the refrigerator. Arrrgghhh! Oh
well, not much to do now except get on with things, right? In
retrospect, we could have pulled the meat out and let it sit while the
temps got where they needed to be. But, I didn't want to make anybody
feel bad, so just kept my mouth quiet for the time being.

I'd brought the chicken with me, already quartered. I laid it in the
top of the smoker and we proceeded to stoke the fire until it was
where it needed to be. Managed to keep it within reasonable
temperatures most of the time with only a couple of spikes over 300
during the next 3 hours. One of the ladies who'd come was watching
the temperature guage like a hawk. She'd let us know every time it
got "one click over 250!" Who needs a digital thermometer with an
alarm? I've got Tammy. : ) Took the chicken out around 1:30. It
was a deep brown color, and smelled divine.

Most of the support crew left around 1:00 or earlier, I stayed until
2:00. I made sure my volunteers knew to keep the temps between
250-300, and that at 3:00, they needed to wrap the pork in foil to
keep it from getting too dark. I would be back in the morning to
relieve them.

Got back about 9:30. One of my volunteers was munching on something.
Pork. "Bones are falling out," says he. I checked with a thermometer
- pegged over 200 degrees. Huh? They've only been in there for
10-1/2 hours. Come to find out, there was at least one spike well
over 400 after I left. I suspect more than one. And, as I was
cleaning out the smoker later that afternoon, I noticed the temp
guage's probe had a thick coating of grease and smoke on it. I image
it was insulated pretty well and was reading a bit cooler than it
actually was.

But here's the amazing thing - even with the extremely accelerated
cooking time, the pulled pork was absolutely delicious. I was able to
let them know what they should have done the night before without
hurting any feelings by saying "Ya' know what would have made it taste
even *better*?"

Anyhow, by now, I've infected two church members and their associated
spouses with the smoking bug. At 12:00, I was asked - how long to do
pork ribs? Dunno, haven't done ribs yet. Shouldn't take too long.
*Bam*, his wife was off like a shot to get some ribs. I told her not
to refrigerate them, I'd get the smoker ready. I cleaned it out
(that's when I found the layer on the temp probe), got the fire
started. Figured I'd want to keep the temps a little lower for that.

Got it steady at 225 when she got back around 1:30. "Had to run some
other errands, but I got the ribs first" They were cool, but not
cold. Just about perfect, I'd imagine. Tossed them in there, let
them cook until about 4:30, then pulled them and covered them in pans
to cook some more. 6:00, we pulled them, stoked up the fire and
brought out the bbq sauce. Used the grate over the fire to charbroil
sauce onto the ribs, then the chicken. Had slight problem with the
meat wanting to fall off the bone before we could get it back into the
pan. Mmmmm....

Anway, all that meat - not one crumb left. Several more church
members infected. I predict a run on smokers next spring.
_____

Lori

Indirect vegetarian

Lori wrote:
>
> But here's the amazing thing - even with the extremely accelerated
> cooking time, the pulled pork was absolutely delicious. I was able to
> let them know what they should have done the night before without
> hurting any feelings by saying "Ya' know what would have made it taste
> even *better*?"

> Anway, all that meat - not one crumb left.

No "sorta" about that story. You had a resounding success. That's a LOT of
meat to cook so well. A tip of the gimme cap to you.

Geez, you'd think that "firefighters" could keep the temp from spiking to
400! God bless Boston Butts, the most forgiving of cuts!

John in Austin

On Mon, 27 Oct 2003 17:30:30 GMT, "JakBQuik"
> wrote:

>God bless Boston Butts, the most forgiving of cuts!

Amen! I've now been asked how we would go about doing a turkey for
the Harvest Dinner next month. Looks like the boyfriend is going to
have to suffer through a practice run or two. : ) He just *hates* it
when I practice...

I know turkey isn't as forgiving, but I've learned a lot about fire
management from this last stint, and the same two guys have
volunteered to help out. They got pretty good at maintaining a
consistent temperature towards the end, too, so I think we'll be all
right.
_____

Lori

Indirect vegetarian

On Mon, 27 Oct 2003 19:40:38 GMT, Lori
> wrote:

>On Mon, 27 Oct 2003 17:30:30 GMT, "JakBQuik"
> wrote:
>
>>God bless Boston Butts, the most forgiving of cuts!
>
>Amen! I've now been asked how we would go about doing a turkey for
>the Harvest Dinner next month. Looks like the boyfriend is going to
>have to suffer through a practice run or two. : ) He just *hates* it
>when I practice...
>
>I know turkey isn't as forgiving, but I've learned a lot about fire
>management from this last stint, and the same two guys have
>volunteered to help out. They got pretty good at maintaining a
>consistent temperature towards the end, too, so I think we'll be all
>right.

I don't remember what you're cooking on, but you might glean some tips
from my web pages about cooking a turkey on a Kamado.

http://www.webpak.net/~rescyou/turkey/turkey.htm


--
Kevin S. Wilson
Tech Writer at a University Somewhere in Idaho
"Anything, when cooked in large enough batches, will be vile."
--Dag Right-square-bracket-gren, in alt.religion.kibology

"Lori" > wrote in message
...
> On Mon, 27 Oct 2003 17:30:30 GMT, "JakBQuik"
> > wrote:
>
> >God bless Boston Butts, the most forgiving of cuts!
>
> Amen! I've now been asked how we would go about doing a turkey for
> the Harvest Dinner next month. Looks like the boyfriend is going to
> have to suffer through a practice run or two. : ) He just *hates*
it
> when I practice...
>
> I know turkey isn't as forgiving, but I've learned a lot about fire
> management from this last stint, and the same two guys have
> volunteered to help out. They got pretty good at maintaining a
> consistent temperature towards the end, too, so I think we'll be all
> right.
> _____
>
>
I think it's fair to say that most of the folks here have done birds
low
and slow and determined that that is not the way to go. Birds just
don't really benefit from *technical* 'Q' techniques. Brined is good.
Spatchcocked is good. 350° indirect is good. Low and slow won't
ruin it. It just isn't the best way to go *IMHO*. Think about Hound's
or TFM®'s brine, a nice rub and something like 30 minutes/lb at 350°.
Get the breast to 160° or so and the thighs to 170°. It might not even
make it to the table.

Brick

"Brick" > wrote:
> [ . . . ] It might not even make it to the table.
>
Spoken like a true Q'er. Well, try to get a picture to post on a.b.f afore
ya scoff it down!

--
Nick, Retired in the San Fernando Valley www.boonchoo.com
"Giving violent criminals a government guarantee that their intended
victims are defenseless is bad public policy."
- John Ross, "Unintended Consequences"

On 28 Oct 2003 09:56:36 GMT, wrote:

>Spoken like a true Q'er. Well, try to get a picture to post on a.b.f afore
>ya scoff it down!

Thanks for the advice everybody. I'll try to get a picture, but
you've not seen these people eat. For last weekend, I just kind of
set it on the table and got out of the way. I'm a short person and
could have easily gotten trampled in the stampede that followed. You
just don't mess with church folk and their food. : )

_____

Lori

Indirect vegetarian
New Braunfels Bandera model since 8/03

"Lori" > wrote in message
news
> On 28 Oct 2003 09:56:36 GMT, wrote:
>
> >Spoken like a true Q'er. Well, try to get a picture to post on
a.b.f afore
> >ya scoff it down!
>
> Thanks for the advice everybody. I'll try to get a picture, but
> you've not seen these people eat. For last weekend, I just kind of
> set it on the table and got out of the way. I'm a short person and
> could have easily gotten trampled in the stampede that followed.
You
> just don't mess with church folk and their food. : )
>
> _____
>
> Lori

Lori,

I'm going to expose myself here, but since you identified your cooker
as the NB Bandera, I wonder if you can get the heat high enough to
do some decent chicken. OTOTH, if you can cook in the main
chamber, you can spatchcock and then brine the bird and cook
direct for a few minutes to set the skin and then finish indirect to
achieve a truly amazing bird.

I usually fail at this because I pop a few brews and watch TV or
run the computer and the cooker gets away. But if you pay
attention, it will work nicely.

Brick

On Tue, 28 Oct 2003 21:46:58 -0500, "Brick" >
wrote:

>but since you identified your cooker
>as the NB Bandera, I wonder if you can get the heat high enough to
>do some decent chicken.

I think so. We had the heat spiked up well over 400 for a bit after
we took the pork out trying to burn some of the residue off the
grates. It took a ratherlarge fire, but it can be done. I just don't
know if it can be done for an extended time.

I found that if I positioned the smoker so that the firebox door was
away from the wind and then opened it all the way, I could get a much
hotter fire. I'll give things a shot, and if they don't work out,
well, at least we will have tried.

I'll look at using the firebox as the cooking chamber - it would make
sense to keep the bird closer to the heat. My only concern is that I
don't know what the temperature is in the firebox. No thermometer or
anywhere to put one. Also, would smoke pool in the lid and leave
creosote on the bird?

_____

Lori

Indirect vegetarian
New Braunfels Bandera model since 8/03

"Lori" wrote;
>
> I found that if I positioned the smoker so that the firebox door was
> away from the wind and then opened it all the way, I could get a
much
> hotter fire. I'll give things a shot, and if they don't work out,
> well, at least we will have tried.
>
> I'll look at using the firebox as the cooking chamber - it would
make
> sense to keep the bird closer to the heat. My only concern is that
I
> don't know what the temperature is in the firebox. No thermometer
or
> anywhere to put one. Also, would smoke pool in the lid and leave
> creosote on the bird?
>
>
You're not likely to have a creosote problem unless you use raw wood
with insufficient draft. Also larger logs are harder to deal with
creosote-
wise then smaller ones. Control the (log) fire with the intake vents
and
leave the stack damper wide open. Be sure to add fuel before you
actually have to so there's enough heat left to light it off without
smoldering.
Lump should be no problem at all.

Brick