why I think my cooks have gotten spoiled much better

[stevenschwartz]

Hi All, so I've been doing this for almost 15 years. The entire time on weber smokey mountain smokers. It's always been pretty good, but in the last year I've gotten more regular in smoking and have changed a few things that I believe have really made a difference. By the way, yesterday's pork butt/pulled pork shown below, just started pulling, did not need bear claws, hands in silicone gloves did the trick.

So here's what I've changed:

1) Texas crutch. For some reason I avoided this as unnecessary effort; in fact it makes all the difference for me. I wrap brisket in pink butcher paper and pork butt in foil. This for say the last 3 hours of the cook. Wish I hadn't been so stubborn and done this years ago. As long as I wrap well into the cook, say at 6 hours, the bark stays great, even in pork when I add apple juice.

2) Temperature. I have finally shaken off the shackles of 225. As has been discussed many times, the "natural temperature of the weber smokers seems to be about 250-280. I now do pork butt at 275-300 and brisket at 275. Come out great, and all seem to be done in 9 or so hours. A much more reasonable time to start something and get dinner. The 15-18 hour smokes only work if you're willing to start at 2 am, and no matter what anyone else found, these long smokes for me tend to dry the meat out. Only meat I still battle with the smoker to stay at lower temps are ribs - even with St. Louis, I find the lower amount of meat appreciates the lower temp. I think if you have a 1000 gallon offset in a restaurant it is a different world - for those of us with more humble equipment, higher temps just seem the way to go.

3) Fuel. Switched to B&B from good old Kingsford blue bag. Huge step up.

Thanks to all of you - most of these small changes came from paying more attention to people on this board and to the expert videos.

Steve

[Duanessmokedmeats]

Never had a problem with my pork butts or briskets in my Pit Barrels, which like to run @270 degrees.
Just as good as the 225 meats, with less time.

[HawkerXP]

..., ..., ...!

[LegoMySearwood]

Forgive my newbie inexperience but which B&B exactly? The new oak and hickory briquettes that Walmart was selling for $10 recently, or logs? I mean I’m in Idaho… not too much bbq history out here.

[HawkerXP]

I use the B&B briquettes for my loong cooks. Weber kettle and PBC.

[Panhead John]

The B & B briquettes are the way to go, and yeah, they recently changed from oak to oak and hickory…..I haven’t found a difference really. What a lot of us do with the B & B charcoal logs, is use them to supplement the briquettes, not use them by themselves. They take a long time to light, but burn forever. I’ll add maybe 4-5 of the logs for a long smoke, but the briquettes are great by themselves.

[Ace]

Great looking cook...

[fzxdoc]

Those pork butts look great! How big were they to start with? How long was the cook? Looks like they still had some delicious barky bark despite braising in the Texas Crutch step. Nice job for sure.

Kathryn

[ecowper]

your pork butts look solid! As far as the WSM temp …. My WSM 22 dials in really solid at about 275 and holds that for pretty much the whole cook. I can also get it to run 325 for turkey. That basically means all my big primal meats get cooked on the WSM: Pork Butt, Brisket, Turkey. The only time I do ribs on the WSM is when I’m cooking a lot of ribs, at least 6 racks. Otherwise that big machine is not really worth it. A single rack of ribs or a chicken goes on the SnS Kettle and 2-3 go on the Hasty Bake.

I do use the crutch on just about any long cook. I’ve completely switched to butcher paper and left the foil behind. I found that I don’t appreciate the braising effect of foil. That’s me, though ….. Your methods are clearly working great for you. Keep it up!

[stevenschwartz]

Those pork butts look great! How big were they to start with? How long was the cook? Looks like they still had some delicious barky bark despite braising in the Texas Crutch step. Nice job for sure.

Kathryn

Hi Kathryn,

The Costco "packer" was a split butt total weight about 18 or 19 pounds. I trimmed about 3/4 - 1 pound of fat. Ended up with about 13 3/4 pound packages. Total cook was about 9 hours, 6 hours open 3 hours in the wrap.

Steve

[fzxdoc]

Thanks for the additional information. Sounds like it was an enjoyable cook. You sure got a great result.

Kathryn

[stevenschwartz]

your pork butts look solid! As far as the WSM temp …. My WSM 22 dials in really solid at about 275 and holds that for pretty much the whole cook. I can also get it to run 325 for turkey. That basically means all my big primal meats get cooked on the WSM: Pork Butt, Brisket, Turkey. The only time I do ribs on the WSM is when I’m cooking a lot of ribs, at least 6 racks. Otherwise that big machine is not really worth it. A single rack of ribs or a chicken goes on the SnS Kettle and 2-3 go on the Hasty Bake.

I do use the crutch on just about any long cook. I’ve completely switched to butcher paper and left the foil behind. I found that I don’t appreciate the braising effect of foil. That’s me, though ….. Your methods are clearly working great for you. Keep it up!

I totally agree for ribs - 22 in WSM is for port butts and brisket. For ribs I have a tiny WSM - I think 14 inch. It works surprisingly well. I use a full bag of the B&B briquettes in the 22. In my area about 15 dollars. No way I'm spending 15 dollars to smoke 7 ribs for my wife and myself. The tiny one takes a small fraction and is stable at 225-250 for a 6-7 how cook on big st Louis ribs. By the way, I have a pit barrel that I hardly use, but I do find it wonderful for poultry. Never did a turkey, but have done chicken and duck to great effect.

Steve

[stevenschwartz]

Hi All, so I've been doing this for almost 15 years. The entire time on weber smokey mountain smokers. It's always been pretty good, but in the last year I've gotten more regular in smoking and have changed a few things that I believe have really made a difference. By the way, yesterday's pork butt/pulled pork shown below, just started pulling, did not need bear claws, hands in silicone gloves did the trick.

So here's what I've changed:

1) Texas crutch. For some reason I avoided this as unnecessary effort; in fact it makes all the difference for me. I wrap brisket in pink butcher paper and pork butt in foil. This for say the last 3 hours of the cook. Wish I hadn't been so stubborn and done this years ago. As long as I wrap well into the cook, say at 6 hours, the bark stays great, even in pork when I add apple juice.

2) Temperature. I have finally shaken off the shackles of 225. As has been discussed many times, the "natural temperature of the weber smokers seems to be about 250-280. I now do pork butt at 275-300 and brisket at 275. Come out great, and all seem to be done in 9 or so hours. A much more reasonable time to start something and get dinner. The 15-18 hour smokes only work if you're willing to start at 2 am, and no matter what anyone else found, these long smokes for me tend to dry the meat out. Only meat I still battle with the smoker to stay at lower temps are ribs - even with St. Louis, I find the lower amount of meat appreciates the lower temp. I think if you have a 1000 gallon offset in a restaurant it is a different world - for those of us with more humble equipment, higher temps just seem the way to go.

3) Fuel. Switched to B&B from good old Kingsford blue bag. Huge step up.

Thanks to all of you - most of these small changes came from paying more attention to people on this board and to the expert videos.

Steve

SORRY - not SPOILED in title - should just be so. Darn autocorrect.

[ecowper]

Autocorrect is EVIL

[captainlee]

You got it down.

[Oak Smoke]

The door has opened for you! You’re discovering what works for you on your equipment. It took me over a year to try to get better results on my kamado by trying some new things. It was the best thing I’ve done for my smoking success. That was 13 years ago and I’m still learning.

[Sweaty Paul]

Nicely done. Never too old to learn something new and never a bad idea to try something new too!

Thanks for sharing!

[itsnotmyfault]

Welcome to the Amazing Pit from Georgia!