Pork butt challenege: Kettle w/ Slow 'N Sear VS Yoder Stickburner

[smarkley]

I think A is the SnS... I have no particular reason why cept maybe the bark

[Steve Vojtek]

I think A is SnS. IMO the bigger smoke ring from the built in waterpan .

[fzxdoc]

OK, those photos are making me really hungry, and it's only 6:40 am here. I vote A for the SNS/ B for the Yoder. Both look amazing.

Kathryn

[Huskee]

I really should've made this an actual poll.

So far the votes are:

• 5 for A= stickburner, B= SnS
• 9 for A= SnS, B= Stickburner

I'll let it go through today in case anyone else cares enough to cast a vote. Maybe Meathead wants to give it a try.


On the bright side, folks at the party yesterday raved. It was a hit. It's hard to beat fresh, but even reheated the next day it was still plenty moist and I even enjoyed it.

There were 2 1/2 of these, several inches deep. Sweet baby Ray's sauce (my favorite commercial sauce).

[fuzzydaddy]

Your pictures are excellent in case no one has told you. And they keep my appetite in high gear.

[Steve Vojtek]

Sweet Baby Ray's ? I'l vote for that ...

[Huskee]

Thanks! fuzzydaddy

[kranknhank]

B is the SnS

[Jon Solberg]

......

[Breadhead]

Jon... Very appropriate post..

[fzxdoc]

Those recent photos actually made me salivate, Huskee . I need to stop living off virtual BBQ and fire up the smoker. Tonight, though, is chicken on the grill. In the meanwhile, I'll look for Sweet Baby Ray's, on your recommendation. My fav has always been D.L. Jardine's Killer BBQ sauce, but had some Dreamland BBQ sauce (a gift) on the last ribs I smoked, and it was a winner.

Now back to the regularly scheduled program...

Kathryn

[Huskee]

Thanks! To be fair, I haven't tried tons of commercial sauces, and I didn't include Max Good's Black Swan in the "favorite commercial sauce" statement...his sauce is awesome! (My fav of his is the "Original" it's got a little spice to it...) Anyway, of standard-available-everywhere sauces, I've preferred SBR's for years. I like their regular and their Sweet & Spicy personally.

[Breadhead]

@Huskee... My favorite off the shelf BBQ sauce is Rufus Teague's touch of heat. It's a little more money than Sweet Baby Ray's but it is a stand out sauce.

[Henrik]

fzxdoc - give Sweet Baby Rays a try, it is definitely one of the best sauces out there. I keep a regular stock at home. Start with the one named Hickory & Brown sugar.

[Huskee]

OK you've waited long enough, here's the results................................

A)





B)








Here's exactly what the SnS setup looked like when this test started:




One chimney of Kford charcoal, 1 1/2 fills of water (no refilling until 5hr mark), and the three chunks of wood you see were all that were used to get B) above on 6lbs of pork, with room for more.

To recap:

• both tests were identical timing,
• identical meat prep, (mustard slather because some meat was par-frozen) and HRR
• near identical temps (Yoder struggled to climb once 45lbs (18 butts) of 36* meat were added...I assume this led to the slightly deeper smoke ring on the stickburner pork.
• Yoder temp avg 210-220 for first 90 min, then 235 remainder until the wane
• Kettle temp avg 230-240 entire cook
• In both cookers I let the meat get past the stall (~180 IT; ~8hrs) then wrapped in foil and took to 203-205 average.
• After hitting target temp, both cookers' temps waned for 2hrs, essentially mimicking a cambro hold ("Power Cambro" I call this).
• Yoder used all ash logs, kettle used 3 ash pieces as pictured

Any taste difference?

Well, I knew which was which obviously to take these photos. So I thought I might be subconsciously biased even though I was trying not to be...so I asked my wife, and gave her a blind sample. She ended up saying the stickburner (A) had a little more smoke flavor, but the difference wasn't very obvious. I thought the exact same thing, but I knew if I said that some might think 'yeah right, of course he'll say that he runs a stickburner...'

But truly, we both had to do a repeat sample of each, and side by sideyou could tell which was the stickburner. Both had identical moistness. If I had done this test a day apart and NOT side by side, I would tell you they tasted the exact same.
​

[DWCowles]

Huskee it was hard to decide looking at the first A & B pics but when I seen the second set of pics with the meat on the fork it wasn't hard to pick which one was the stick burner. I have seen that smoke ring and texture to many times. Was there a difference in taste that you notice?

[Huskee]

DWCowles great question, I forgot to post that part. I'll edit above...

[boftx]

I agree with @DWCrowles, the fork pics said it all. That being said, I'm sure the taste was the same.

[fzxdoc]

This was fun. Thanks, Huskee . It's great when you can get nearly identical PB taste/texture from two completely different cooking setups. That makes it a win/win situation for sure.

Kathryn

[Steve Vojtek]

I got it wrong . Moisture may help the smoke ring but it's combustion gases that cause it. A stickburner will produce those more than charcoal ( slapping myself on the forehead ) Rookie mistake . I should have known better as my pellet grill gives me a great smoke ring without a water pan. Pellets are just really small sticks - aren't they? So when is the next exam? I promise to study and do better....

[Jon Solberg]

Great test! Thank you!

[Huskee]

I got it wrong . Moisture may help the smoke ring but it's combustion gases that cause it. A stickburner will produce those more than charcoal ( slapping myself on the forehead ) Rookie mistake . I should have known better as my pellet grill gives me a great smoke ring without a water pan. Pellets are just really small sticks - aren't they? So when is the next exam? I promise to study and do better....

I used a water pan on the stickburner too. One bread pan full on the firebox side, under the food grate...I usually do. The lower temp the food smokes at, the deeper the smoke ring to a point.

The smoke ring happens from the gases affecting the myoglobin in the meat, until it (the meat) hits ~170, after this temp, the meat gets grey/tan and that pink color stops being "locked in". Essentially, the NO & CO in combustion gases (smoke) are racing the heat inward, and both are competing to affect the meat...the gases keep it pink, 170+ turns it grey/tan. Eventually the heat wins and overtakes the smoke ring. I attribute areas of deeper smoke ring on the Yoder pork from my temp being lower at the start of the cook, therefore taking longer to get the meat fibers to that magical 170*, resulting in a deeper smoke ring.

Fun test!

[Steve Vojtek]

Yeah it was fun - i have so much more to learn .. But i still want the SnS - the smaller smoke ring doesn't bother me at all....

[_John_]

Too good to have forks like us plebs huh? When I was a kid we called those threeks, but I think everyone did. Threeks are for salad and the smaller twooks are for pickles.

Looks good though, thanks for the test.

[Huskee]

Those are large forks even though you can't really tell from the pics, I use 'em for pulling pork/beef. Threeks, I like it!

[Huskee]

I suggest David Parrish (next week when he's home) do a test with two kettles simultaneously, one run at 200-210, one run at 240-250. Then we inspect the smoke rings from each.

[Steve Vojtek]

That would be interesting.....

[David Parrish]

At the end of the day you had a $150 kettle and modestly priced accessory run neck and neck with a $2000+ offset... I call that a win for both the kettle and the offset crowds.