New ECB with Mods and Picture
 

You may recall my first attempt at Q with the slightly modified ECB
(http://tinyurl.com/5faqb). I took the advice of drilling holes in the
bottom and adding a 13.5" grill for a Weber to separate the ashes from the
lumps.

My 13.5 lb port butt from the big box store was $1.45 a lb. Less than $20
for two huge hunks of meat.

My plan was to do the Modified Armadillo Willy's Rub:
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/pork1.html
but my wife insisted on variety so she coted one in her secret Achiote
sauce.

Despite wind and rain (solved by placing ECB out of the wind and under a
patio umbrella), I was able to smoke the two buts in 9 hours. I was not
happy with the crumbs of mesquite that weren't burning well, so I threw the
whole thing out and restarted, Minion style with hand picked lumps.

The results were great:

http://www.geocities.com/bradhouser/porkbutt2.jpg


Now they want more!

Brad Houser

Brad Houser wrote:
> My 13.5 lb port butt from the big box store was $1.45 a lb. Less than
$20
> for two huge hunks of meat.
> <snipped>
> Despite wind and rain (solved by placing ECB out of the wind and
under a
> patio umbrella), I was able to smoke the two buts in 9 hours.

Brad-

Congrats on your cook on the modded ECB despite the weather challenges.
The bark looks great. Glad everyone liked it.

>From looking at the photo, I couldn't tell... but, were you shooting
for some pulled pork? If so, how'd the fork test go? 9 hours seems a
bit short but, I know they can be flaky and the same time as being very
forgiving. Were the two butts a total of 13.5 lbs? What temps were you
cooking at?

Rob

On Tue, 22 Feb 2005 09:56:29 -0800, "Brad Houser"
> wrote:

>The results were great:
>
>http://www.geocities.com/bradhouser/porkbutt2.jpg

Those look good, but they don't look pullable. Were you aiming for
pullable? If so, you'll probably need to go longer than 9 hours until
you reach an internal temp of 195.

Nicely done! Did you find that you needed to tend the fire every 30 minutes
or was your newly modified ECB able to maintain temp for reasonable periods
of time?

J.P.

"J.P." > wrote in message
news:1109101816.63432fcc381560486878e92062b743f3@t eranews...
> Nicely done! Did you find that you needed to tend the fire every 30
minutes
> or was your newly modified ECB able to maintain temp for reasonable
periods
> of time?
>
> J.P.
>
>

I checked up hourly for the first 3-4 hours, then when the temps got too low
I reloaded with new chunks, checked again for the next 2 hours and actually
left for the last 3, and it was done when I came back. I still had good
heat going then, and the meat was at the right temp.

Brad

"Brad Houser" > wrote in message
...
>
> "J.P." > wrote in message
> news:1109101816.63432fcc381560486878e92062b743f3@t eranews...
> > Nicely done! Did you find that you needed to tend the fire every 30
> minutes
> > or was your newly modified ECB able to maintain temp for reasonable
> periods
> > of time?
> >
> > J.P.
> >
> >
>
> I checked up hourly for the first 3-4 hours, then when the temps got too
low
> I reloaded with new chunks, checked again for the next 2 hours and
actually
> left for the last 3, and it was done when I came back. I still had good
> heat going then, and the meat was at the right temp.
>
> Brad
>
>

Glad to see you made the mods, Brad, and you'll be better off in the long
term for doing so.

I've managed a 14 hour cook in my ECB with the minimum of fuss, and the only
real drawback with this unit is when the ambient temperature drops to near
freezing. It then becomes a battle to get the temp above 250F. Good quality
low ash lump is also a useful acquisition.

Graeme