1 PBC - 2 Cooks - 3 Happy People

[FishTalesNC]

On Monday I started wet curing a Costco pork belly - two of my traditional recipes and also tried Meatheads Maple Bacon recipe for the first time.


It was raining today (again), but the bacon was ready to roll and I recently picked up an inexpensive 10’ cantilever umbrella to help matters. I got a 100 pounds of sand in an anchor around the base, should help as long as it’s not opened up. At least it wasn’t windy today!


Fired up the PBC with a chunk of hickory and hung the slabs at 1:30pm.


An hour later the smaller one was 160F IT (I like taking it a little higher than MH suggests) so it came off. The other two needed another 15 min and they were both ready.



Let those cool and got them wrapped up. Meanwhile...

I took out a 2.75lb Prime brisket point I found at Costco. They don’t always have them separated and trimmed like this, and they cost 3X as much, but I have made KC style brisket burnt ends before so I jumped on it. It dry brined for 24 hours in Heath Riles Everyday Rub (mostly salt with some garlic and onion, and a little black pepper).


Then I applied some Worcester as a binder and sprinkled with Hank’s Bonafide Beef Rub. Got a hook in it, and into the PBC it went.





After 2 hours it hit the stall at 158F. I was Ok with the bark so I wrapped it dry in foil, got it back on the grate.




An hour hour later it was 195F in the thicker end so I took it off. Poured those juices in a separator and cubed up the point. And sliced the tip off the thumb of some silicone gloves I got for Christmas. 🙄



Then I added the cubes to a foil pan along with BBQ sauce, the juices from the separator, and a little Worcestershire and mixed it up well. Lastly, topped it with dark brown sugar and some butter and got it back on the PBC.


I let it roll for an hour, stirring it a couple of times. Took it off at 7pm.


We haven’t had them before, so nothing to compare them too but the verdict was - delicious. We all liked them better than pork belly burnt ends. Next time I think I’d get a more significant bark, add more rub after cubing it, and let it smoke in the pan even longer.

[RonB]

That looks very good to me.

[Dadof3Illinois]

Excellent job!!! Everything looks great.
I just made my first cook on my PBC and love it!!!

[FishTalesNC]

Congrats and thanks! I can’t get over the PBC honeymoon phase... loving it!

[Dadof3Illinois]

Ain’t that the truth...HA

[Sweaty Paul]

Beautiful. Great write up. Need to try. What BBQ sauce did you use?

[Sweaty Paul]

If your daughter loves it then using it was worth it.

[jfmorris]

Hey - I made burnt ends from leftover point recently using Sweet Baby Ray's, as I prefer to keep my Blue's Hog for other purposes. It was good stuff...

[IowaGirl]

DH, bless his heart, bought some Sweet Baby Rays the other day. I haven't had the heart to tell him.... But he has quite a sweet tooth, so I imagine he'll like it just fine.

[HawkerXP]

Now I see why the performer is up for sale. You have a 26" kettle. Nice.

[FishTalesNC]

Bingo. Definitely keeping the 26”, just so versatile. And it has the SNS!

[NapMaster]

Look great FishTalesNC I got lost. What happened to the pork belly?

[FishTalesNC]

Sorry, long day and posting in a hurry. It was cut into thirds ~3lbs each. Each one put into a ziplock and wet cured since Monday. Those are the 3 slabs in the first PBC pics, and then a pic of all 3 slabs on a baking sheet. They cooled down and were wrapped in Saran Wrap and foil, 2 went into the freezer (but not til I cut a few crispy edge bites off).

[NapMaster]

Gotcha sir!!

[Henrik]

Nice!!! The marbling on that brisket point looks so good! Glad to hear the [glove] thumb was the only thing being sliced off. Always a pleasure to see my rub being used.

I just wish we could buy briskets separated over here, it's always full packers or flats, points cannot be found. I'd love to make brisket burnt ends like this. May have to separate the next brisket I buy for this reason alone.

[FishTalesNC]

You’ve certainly got a good rub for it! It was perfect with the low salt and the kick it added. That point was by far the best looking one they had (there were only 4).

[Spinaker]

Nice work. I always get a little leary of throwing a pork belly on the PBC. It sounds like you did a great job though.

And those burnt ends look delightful!

[FishTalesNC]

To be honest, I was afraid I might ruin an entire pork belly and a weeks worth of curing. The PBC did something very strange this time during that part of the cook - the temps stayed around 245F. In fact had to crack the lid to get that, not exactly sure why (have a couple guesses) but I thought it would help matters actually. It made me consider using your OCD method of PBC lighting. 😃 We’ll see how these taste, I can always go back to the kettle w/ SNS for bacon!

[jfmorris]

Question for FishTalesNC - do you cover up the burnt ends in the foil pan, or leave it uncovered when you put it back on the smoker? Just curious.

[FishTalesNC]

jfmorris for this cook I sorta kinda followed Susie Bulloch’s recipe which did not have them covered.

[jfmorris]

FishTalesNC ok - uncovered makes sense! I just tried these for the first time recently, but being the day after the brisket smoke, and raining, I did them in a cast iron skillet, in the oven, uncovered. I was just wondering if they were supposed to be covered or uncovered. Thanks!

[JeffJ]

Your patio is identical to mine: A 22 Performer, a 26 and a PBC. Nice!

[FishTalesNC]

Great minds and all!

[Troutman]

Both bacon and burnt ends look fabulous. Love to have some bacon for breakfast, then have those burnt ends for dinner !!! That point does look insane, that is a good find. My Costco never sells separated flats and points, but our local grocery does. I like it because you don't have to always deal with a whole packer.

Funny story I bought a similar umbrella to cover the half of my cookers that aren't under shelter. So I set it up and did a cook under it and went to bed that night. During the night we had a wicked thunderstorm and it took down the entire canopy in a mangled mess. One of the arms punctured one of my $200 cooker covers. Anyway so much for cheap shelters. Hope yours works out for you, just don't fail to secure it when finished !!!

Again, nice cook !!!

[FishTalesNC]

Thanks Troutman! Yeah I made sure to close up the umbrella before going to bed. I think the 100lb anchor will keep it in place during most storms as long as it’s closed. Unfurled that thing is just a sail. I only paid $65 for it, so I’m definitely more worried about it damaging my cookers than losing the umbrella itself!

[PappyBBQ]

Lucky you! That's a GREAT looking point. My Costco sells flats but I've never seen it sell points. Gonna have to ask next time I go in there. I love doing just points and usually only get them when I buy a packer and separate point from flat and use the flat for corned beef and, or pastrami.

[FishTalesNC]

I wanted to follow up on the bacon results of this cook, partly because I had a difficult time finding past posts where folks made bacon in the PBC and I was concerned about the temps being too hot and ruining it somehow. For comparison...

Bacon made on 26" kettle w/ SNS:

• Ambient temps closer to 225 (was at 183F after putting the meat on, slowly climbed during the cook to 236F). My goals at the time were lower temps for prolonged exposure to smoke.
• Cook times were 2h15m for the thinner pieces, 2h45m for the thicker piece
• 160F internal temp on all slabs

Bacon made on the PBC:

• Temps hovered around 245F
  • Rambling thoughts - feel free to ignore, we know not to watch/question the PBC and its temps: I was concerned about the higher temp spike typically seen right after firing up the PBC. For this reason I waited 30 min after the 15/10/10 lighting for the temp to come down, but it did not (I guess cuz I didn't put any cold, dripping meat in there), it stayed closer to 345F and held there. So I gave up, and hung the meat. I noticed when I did, that the upper left third of the charcoal basket wasn't lit up orange like the rest - hmm (seen in one of the pics in the original post). When I put the meat on and closed the lid, temps plummeted to 165F, slowly climbed to 185F, then started to fall again! So I cracked the lid for 10 min and got it up to 245F and it hovered there nicely for this bacon part of the cook. I was actually happy with this lower temp (for the bacon), and I'm still curious if the typically 285F temp might have an adverse affect. Should I adjust next time? PBC mind games, moving along now...
• Cook times were 1h for the thinner piece, 1h15m for the other two pieces - significantly shorter!
• 160F internal temp on all slabs

You can see the obvious difference in the end results, and I was still concerned that maybe the PBC had overdone it. But after having a BLT for lunch yesterday, and bacon and eggs this morning (we get a little carried away when a new batch is done)... The clear consensus in our house is that the PBC bacon is WAY better! Even though it was in the cooker for far less time to reach the same IT, it has a much more pronounced smokey, grilled flavor to it. My daughter is beside herself and says its the best we've ever had! So... fear not, give it a whirl in the PBC, and I hope your results are as good as this one!

[andy.wpg]

Nice!!! The marbling on that brisket point looks so good! Glad to hear the [glove] thumb was the only thing being sliced off. Always a pleasure to see my rub being used.

I just wish we could buy briskets separated over here, it's always full packers or flats, points cannot be found. I'd love to make brisket burnt ends like this. May have to separate the next brisket I buy for this reason alone.

I did that the last time I did brisket in the MES. I cooked the point and flat separately. The point was at 165 a lot faster. I then cut it into cubes, applied rub and BBQ sauce, then put it back in until the flat was ready.

Big hit! Everyone loved them!

[Thunder77]

Looks fantastic! Now I have to go to Costco and get some pork belly...