Hello Pit members! June and July have been fun for me. I have been playing with ribs and pork butt. In June I fixed four racks of St. Louis cut ribs. I had to cut them in half to fit on the Masterbuilt Electric smoker.
Quick sidebar – I have/started with an electric smoker because the development I live in allows for a gasser or electric, but I cannot have charcoal. Also, my patio isn’t that big to accommodate a nicer pellet smoker. This is changing though, since my girlfriend has a wealth of deck space at her house, so I am saving up now. We are both excited – she has even given thought to where that future grill/smoker will go! :-)
Back to the ribs… I seasoned half with Bad Byron’s Butt Rub and the other half with SPG. I have the cold smoker attachment for the Masterbuilt in an effort to get more smoke flavor (it helps, but it’s not charcoal). I smoked with hickory and apple chips. The cook took longer than I thought, and I probably pulled them off before I wanted to because it was getting late. The cook took almost 8 hours; I wondered if the Masterbuilt was lying to me about the internal temp (back to that shortly). I spritzed the ribs every 45 mins with apple juice and cider vinegar. I sauced the Byron's ribs with Bone Sucking Sauce and the SPG ribs with Stubbs Hickory Bourbon sauce and set the glaze on the charcoal grill (all this happened at the girlfriend’s house for her birthday). Either way, those ribs turned out pretty decent in my opinion, while the rests of the party goers loved them. Some fell off the bone, some pulled away clean, and some still had a bit of a tug; however, all of the ones I ate were juicy and that seemed to be the case for everyone else too.
I played with some baby back ribs the next week by seasoning with Byron's + dark brown sugar. This time they went on my gas grill, indirect setup. I added a foil packet of mesquite, spritzed with apple juice and cider vinegar, and I sauced them with Sweet Baby Rays. They took almost 7 hours, with the temp holding at about 230. They were so much tastier than those ribs I made on the Masterbuilt. While they didn’t have lots of smoke, they were tender and juicy and oh so good! I would add additional foil packets of chips in the future for additional smoke flavor. I am surprised they took so long for baby backs (when thinking about Meathead’s time ranges), but it was my first time with them and the product was good, so I went with it.
I smoked a good looking pork butt of almost 11 lbs, prior to trimming, for the office’s 3rdof July party. I applied Byron's, dark brown sugar and coarse black pepper to the butt, without any binder. I let it sit for a couple of hours in the fridge. Remember I said I didn’t trust the temp readout on the Masterbuilt? Well, I took my Thermoworks Smoke and set the smoker for 235 and waited. Without meat, the Masterbuilt hit and held between 230 and 240 for an hour. Satisfied with that, I set up the cold smoker with hickory and apple and put the butt on at 8:30 pm, hoping it would be done no later than 10:00 am for a rest prior to pulling. I slept most of the night, but couldn’t go back to sleep after 5:30 am. I checked the butt once at 3:30 am to make sure the wood chips were still feeding and all checked out. The internal temp at that time was in the high 140s. I waited until 7:30 am, hoping the stall would break, but with the temp only up to 153, coupled with the hope to eat no later than 12:30, I pulled the butt, wrapped it in pink butcher paper and upped the temp to 275. Well, 4 hours later I finally hit 195 internal – needless to say, we didn’t eat at 12:30. That butt lazed its way to porky-done goodness after 16 hours. I couldn’t believe it took that long. However, it was juicy, tasty, decent smoke (though still milder than I wanted). The office barely got to enjoy interspersed strands of money muscle, because I devoured most of it hot, juicy and fresh – YUM!
I recognize there are so many factors at play here: thickness of meat, outside temperature, moisture and humidity, so on; however,
(1) has anyone else played with an electric smoker? (If you don’t want to be outed you can always private message me, and I will keep your secret!)
(2) Have you noticed longer cooks when compared to other types of fuel/smokers?
(3) Do you have any tricks to up the smoke flavor imparted to the meat? I am considering trying an A-MAZE-N smoke tube next time with oak, in addition to the cold smoker attachment.
[Sorry there are not lots of action shots - I usually thought about taking pics too late because I was hungry or because I was responsible for making sure others were eating in a timely fashion.]
Quick sidebar – I have/started with an electric smoker because the development I live in allows for a gasser or electric, but I cannot have charcoal. Also, my patio isn’t that big to accommodate a nicer pellet smoker. This is changing though, since my girlfriend has a wealth of deck space at her house, so I am saving up now. We are both excited – she has even given thought to where that future grill/smoker will go! :-)
Back to the ribs… I seasoned half with Bad Byron’s Butt Rub and the other half with SPG. I have the cold smoker attachment for the Masterbuilt in an effort to get more smoke flavor (it helps, but it’s not charcoal). I smoked with hickory and apple chips. The cook took longer than I thought, and I probably pulled them off before I wanted to because it was getting late. The cook took almost 8 hours; I wondered if the Masterbuilt was lying to me about the internal temp (back to that shortly). I spritzed the ribs every 45 mins with apple juice and cider vinegar. I sauced the Byron's ribs with Bone Sucking Sauce and the SPG ribs with Stubbs Hickory Bourbon sauce and set the glaze on the charcoal grill (all this happened at the girlfriend’s house for her birthday). Either way, those ribs turned out pretty decent in my opinion, while the rests of the party goers loved them. Some fell off the bone, some pulled away clean, and some still had a bit of a tug; however, all of the ones I ate were juicy and that seemed to be the case for everyone else too.
I played with some baby back ribs the next week by seasoning with Byron's + dark brown sugar. This time they went on my gas grill, indirect setup. I added a foil packet of mesquite, spritzed with apple juice and cider vinegar, and I sauced them with Sweet Baby Rays. They took almost 7 hours, with the temp holding at about 230. They were so much tastier than those ribs I made on the Masterbuilt. While they didn’t have lots of smoke, they were tender and juicy and oh so good! I would add additional foil packets of chips in the future for additional smoke flavor. I am surprised they took so long for baby backs (when thinking about Meathead’s time ranges), but it was my first time with them and the product was good, so I went with it.
I smoked a good looking pork butt of almost 11 lbs, prior to trimming, for the office’s 3rdof July party. I applied Byron's, dark brown sugar and coarse black pepper to the butt, without any binder. I let it sit for a couple of hours in the fridge. Remember I said I didn’t trust the temp readout on the Masterbuilt? Well, I took my Thermoworks Smoke and set the smoker for 235 and waited. Without meat, the Masterbuilt hit and held between 230 and 240 for an hour. Satisfied with that, I set up the cold smoker with hickory and apple and put the butt on at 8:30 pm, hoping it would be done no later than 10:00 am for a rest prior to pulling. I slept most of the night, but couldn’t go back to sleep after 5:30 am. I checked the butt once at 3:30 am to make sure the wood chips were still feeding and all checked out. The internal temp at that time was in the high 140s. I waited until 7:30 am, hoping the stall would break, but with the temp only up to 153, coupled with the hope to eat no later than 12:30, I pulled the butt, wrapped it in pink butcher paper and upped the temp to 275. Well, 4 hours later I finally hit 195 internal – needless to say, we didn’t eat at 12:30. That butt lazed its way to porky-done goodness after 16 hours. I couldn’t believe it took that long. However, it was juicy, tasty, decent smoke (though still milder than I wanted). The office barely got to enjoy interspersed strands of money muscle, because I devoured most of it hot, juicy and fresh – YUM!
I recognize there are so many factors at play here: thickness of meat, outside temperature, moisture and humidity, so on; however,
(1) has anyone else played with an electric smoker? (If you don’t want to be outed you can always private message me, and I will keep your secret!)
(2) Have you noticed longer cooks when compared to other types of fuel/smokers?
(3) Do you have any tricks to up the smoke flavor imparted to the meat? I am considering trying an A-MAZE-N smoke tube next time with oak, in addition to the cold smoker attachment.
[Sorry there are not lots of action shots - I usually thought about taking pics too late because I was hungry or because I was responsible for making sure others were eating in a timely fashion.]
