Oh, man. I am not afraid to admit that I screw things up, and that sometimes I don’t think, as long as it makes a great story. The number of things that went wrong, and the stupid stuff I did, and everything was still great.
1) Didn’t mix up the MMD for the pork butt. Saturday night, start the smoke and go to mix up the dust: no paprika. 11PM. But, I had some other butt rub. It has salt in it, and I’d already salted the meat early in the day. What the heck, how much of a difference could it make. I used the rub.
2) Using a new pit controller: I use the controller to work the BGE, but I monitor the temp with a Smoke so I can check it during the night. 7AM the pit temp was dropping. I went out to reset it to 275 (I run 225 overnight and then bump to 275 when I get up), and it wouldn’t set. The new controller was defective. (Don’t want to name them, they are taking care of me.) No big deal, I am Eggxperienced. Set the BGE to 275.
3) An hour or so later, I checked the charcoal to make sure there was enough. Now, this is where I get really stupid. I didn’t want to set the deflector down on the wooden table, so I looked around for something to act as a trivet. Without considering the material that is is made from, my eyes landed on one of those reusable grocery bags, the ones you buy for $1. Set the deflector and cooking grate on the bag. It is made out of plastic-infused cloth. Gooey melting plastic smell, ruined my deflector plate. No problem (other than a replacement is $70), butt goes into oven @300. Consider this again, slowly: I put a piece of plastic down on the workspace and put a piece of hot ceramic on it. Wow. All I can say is, I’ll probably do something that stupid again someday. In fact, maybe in 20 minutes or so.
4) The butt was at about 170*, it is now about 12:15. Guests will arrive around 2PM. Should come together. Set up the ChefAlarm... no joy. No temp display. UGH. Idea: The Smoke doesn’t care what the heat source is. Use it without the pit probe. (Checking it out today, the ChefAlarm’s batteries were dead.)
5) Needed the oven for the butt, so I had to take the bacon (for bacon burgers) out of the oven. NP, into the microwave for a minute or so. What can I cover it with? I know! Saran Wrap! Oh jeez. Repeat stupidity. Melted plastic on bacon. Solution, toss bacon. No one will know. But it was that really good Wright’s thick pecan smoked bacon. Me and plastic aren’t getting along today.
6) Pressed out the burgers, cut up the tomatoes, set the table. Guests arrive. Chit, chat, chit, chat, some time goes by. Burgers and dogs go on the grill (without the deflector). I made everything else the day before (beans, macaroni salad, cucumber salad, coleslaw), so once the meats were done the meal was served, buffet style. I sit down with my plate and Linda said, "This is great. Where’s the pulled pork?" Yeah, I forgot about it. Check the oven, the butt is at 207. Oh geez. This is where I get the rubber gloves and pull a pork butt in a minute. It was freakin’ great. Didn’t need any extra salt, for certain. Remember: pork butts are very forgiving!
Everything was absolutely awesome: the beans, the salads, the slaw, the burgers, the pork. Mostly though, the guests. The relatives who couldn’t make it to the wedding got to meet my new son-in-law. We ate, we drank, we laughed.
7) Around 5:30 it rained like a son of a gun, we moved everything inside and continued. Who cares. It was one hell of a good day. This is why we do this stuff.
1) Didn’t mix up the MMD for the pork butt. Saturday night, start the smoke and go to mix up the dust: no paprika. 11PM. But, I had some other butt rub. It has salt in it, and I’d already salted the meat early in the day. What the heck, how much of a difference could it make. I used the rub.
2) Using a new pit controller: I use the controller to work the BGE, but I monitor the temp with a Smoke so I can check it during the night. 7AM the pit temp was dropping. I went out to reset it to 275 (I run 225 overnight and then bump to 275 when I get up), and it wouldn’t set. The new controller was defective. (Don’t want to name them, they are taking care of me.) No big deal, I am Eggxperienced. Set the BGE to 275.
3) An hour or so later, I checked the charcoal to make sure there was enough. Now, this is where I get really stupid. I didn’t want to set the deflector down on the wooden table, so I looked around for something to act as a trivet. Without considering the material that is is made from, my eyes landed on one of those reusable grocery bags, the ones you buy for $1. Set the deflector and cooking grate on the bag. It is made out of plastic-infused cloth. Gooey melting plastic smell, ruined my deflector plate. No problem (other than a replacement is $70), butt goes into oven @300. Consider this again, slowly: I put a piece of plastic down on the workspace and put a piece of hot ceramic on it. Wow. All I can say is, I’ll probably do something that stupid again someday. In fact, maybe in 20 minutes or so.
4) The butt was at about 170*, it is now about 12:15. Guests will arrive around 2PM. Should come together. Set up the ChefAlarm... no joy. No temp display. UGH. Idea: The Smoke doesn’t care what the heat source is. Use it without the pit probe. (Checking it out today, the ChefAlarm’s batteries were dead.)
5) Needed the oven for the butt, so I had to take the bacon (for bacon burgers) out of the oven. NP, into the microwave for a minute or so. What can I cover it with? I know! Saran Wrap! Oh jeez. Repeat stupidity. Melted plastic on bacon. Solution, toss bacon. No one will know. But it was that really good Wright’s thick pecan smoked bacon. Me and plastic aren’t getting along today.
6) Pressed out the burgers, cut up the tomatoes, set the table. Guests arrive. Chit, chat, chit, chat, some time goes by. Burgers and dogs go on the grill (without the deflector). I made everything else the day before (beans, macaroni salad, cucumber salad, coleslaw), so once the meats were done the meal was served, buffet style. I sit down with my plate and Linda said, "This is great. Where’s the pulled pork?" Yeah, I forgot about it. Check the oven, the butt is at 207. Oh geez. This is where I get the rubber gloves and pull a pork butt in a minute. It was freakin’ great. Didn’t need any extra salt, for certain. Remember: pork butts are very forgiving!
Everything was absolutely awesome: the beans, the salads, the slaw, the burgers, the pork. Mostly though, the guests. The relatives who couldn’t make it to the wedding got to meet my new son-in-law. We ate, we drank, we laughed.
7) Around 5:30 it rained like a son of a gun, we moved everything inside and continued. Who cares. It was one hell of a good day. This is why we do this stuff.
JK
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