PBC cookin' coming up - Pork butt, turkey , maybe lamb

[Jerod Broussard]

Good job Bruce!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[BruceB]

Things went totally to plan. got the turkey hung right at 4 PM on one bar. I could have let the chimney go for another 5 minutes as it took the PBC longer to get to 325F range than I would have thought, with the lid cracked and only one rebar in place. It finally settled at 320F. About an hour in, I removed the foil booties and cracked the lid a bit more and it settled at 335F for the final stretch. Ambient was mid 40's, and pouring rain, but at least I had the deck umbrella to keep it dry.

The turkey came off when the ET-732 said the breast was at 160F, and the little Thermopop agreed that everything was at least that high. The dark meat areas were a bit higher, but well withing reason. It looks great! Total cook time right at 2 hours.


I had to take down the umbrella late evening as it was getting too windy for it. The PBC was still warm, but I woke up to a snow-covered cooker this morning!

[Jerod Broussard]

My 13 pounder averaging 320 took 2 hours 20 minutes yesterday to get to 160 internal.

[BruceB]

Chapter 2 - The Turkey

Our schedule got modified by the kids, instead of turkey on Thursday for just Mrs. B and me, and lamb shanks on Saturday with the kids, it's now turkey today with the kids and lamb postponed.

So - one 12.8 lb. turkey, spatchcocked and dry brined yesterday, a fresh batch of S&G rub mixed up for the rub today, and of course the nice weather from yesterday turned into a downpour today, and temps approaching 60F yesterday now plummeting. I relocated a deck umbrella over the PBC this time, so at least it won't get washed down during the whole cook. Shooting for 3:30 to 4 PM into the PBC, with dinner when the bird is done.

[BruceB]

Drat! I had typed a nice long follow-up comment to yesterday's event, but it seems to have disappeared.

The pulled pork turned out great. The troops liked it and I got to fill the main office staff room with wonderful aromas when I pulled the hunks from the cooler to pull them. Then I got to walk away with the full pan to go to the lunch site down the street.

I brought a jar of the AR Kansas City style BBQ sauce, and a bottle of Carolina sauce from Trader Joes that I wanted to try.

[Ernest]

I love lamb shanks but I've tried to smoke them before braising.
Now I've a boneless leg of lamb on a PBC and it was fantastic. I do not like smoke with lamb though.

[Huskee]

Weather can be a killer regardless. See my above comment on square hunks. Try again! The beauty is repeating until you nail it!

[Huskee]

Yeah BruceB, I neglected to mention I cut mine into squarish hunks as opposed to following the bone and doing oblongs. Sorry. Next time try 'em more squareish, obviously perfect isn't necessary, just equal hunks.

[BruceB]

I think I would try to cut them differently next time, to get two more even-sized lumps. Might require some experimentation to get it right.

[Jerod Broussard]

Sounds like you did good for a cook in a rainstorm. If you cooked until at least 180 internal, your bark will be fine. As soon as you unwrap it will bounce back as it steams off.

[BruceB]

This was not my finest hour. The butt was split in two along muscle/fat separation, which produced two wedge-shapes hunks, with the large muscle holding the bone, and the "other" side which included the money muscle and the rest. The whole thing was a bit of a challenge to hang and have enough grip for two hooks in each piece.

I got it on at just about midnight, fighting wind just to get the chimney lit. I left the lid cracked until the cooker temp was 350F, then closed it and went to bed with the ET-732 on duty. I checked it at 3 AM, the cooker temp was down to 240F, and it was raining hard on the cooker. Internal temp was at 151F on the piece with the Maverick. At 4 AM, it looked like a stall, so I moved them onto the grate unwrapped, with the lid cracked. The highest temp I got with the Thermopop was just over 180F.

From here it went downhill fast. I left the lid cracked maybe 1/4 inch, but never got temp over 270F again. Finally around 6:30 AM the temp dropped like it fell off a cliff, and another check revealed the coals were exhausted. Less than 8 hours on a full basket, it must have been the weather effect.

The lumps are now wrapped and finishing in the oven. Nice colored bark, not sure how thick it is.

[BruceB]

Thanks, Huskee

I'm going with the halved plan. It will give me more flexibility if plans go sideways time-wise.

[Huskee]

I'm a big advocate of cutting pork butts into smaller butts. You could easily halve or third that 11 pounder to get more bark and more seasoning, and quicker cook time. If you don't have enough probes you can just place the probe in the biggest one and spot check the smaller one(s) as neccesary, or vice versa, with your ThermoPop. Something to think about. Some guys like cooking a large chunk, but I like more seasoning and smoke from the extra surface area.

Lamb like any red meat will surely benefit from a little smoke for another dimension of flavor. As far as sharing time with the turkey, never tried it. Report back with results!

[David Parrish]

Bruce btw the best pork butt I ever made on the PBC went the entire cook without wrapping. Once it hit 150F internal I took it off the hooks and put it on the grate. I let it go until it hit 203F. I cooked it side by side with a wrapped but and the crowd consensus was the unwrapped butt was better. It took about 2 hours longer to cook. If you keep the PBC 270F or above it'll do a pretty good job of minimizing the stall.

[smarkley]

need a bigggggg pot!