The Witches Brew

I might have to investigate these smokers.... of course, a smokin' butt may be dangerous..

You should know. I'm told the guys can't get enough of yours

Ayup', i think it must be the RUB.....

Think i saw some of these at Lowes last week...

So got the smoker at Benny's Sat, bought the pork butt up the street. Got home took the pork out of the wrapping put the rub on and threw out the wrapper(this is important later). Using my infinite wisdom and extended knowledge of smoking, I figured the meat was around 6 lbs. and would take around 7 hours to cook. I needed to put the grill together with 2 two year olds and season it to get it ready for a smoke on Sunday. 2 year olds are cute, but not when they keep on dropping the screws under the deck.......................

Sunday morning rolls around, move the seasoned smoker to the driveway. At around 10:30 I have an epiphany. I never checked the weight of the butt. The wrapper is now at the bottom of the trash covered in who knows what. i take out my kitchen scale that goes up to 7 lbs and the butt is too big to register on the scale. Approching panis now, but sill think I can have an 8 lb butt done by 7 pm. Did I mention my VAST experience in this mode of cooking? Smoker is doing great maintaining heat. etc. Needless to say, you all who smoke know what happened.......Stuck at 170 for 3 hours. Wife ordered chinese at around 6:45, pork came off at 10:15. IT IS REALLY GOOD and worth the wait.

Next time, check the weight and start before 11:00am.

I'm hooked!!!

Ned, next tyme .. pre-assemble could be an option... .. hope it works out for ya..

Last fall I once again hosted "Masstoberfest" at my place. I started the whole hog around midnight and got up a few times over the night to throw a few logs in Bertha. Everything was on track.

Until a freakin' MONSOON blew in....

It rained like crazy starting around 5 am. I couldn't keep the temp up in the cooking chamber. I ended up having to keep a blazing hot fire in the fire box just to maintain 190. Finally got the hog done, many hours late.

Don't worry Ned, it won't be the last time your BBQ doesn't go stricktly as planned. What counts is that you ended up with some good eats.


Mmmmm, now I'm thinking about brisket and drooling.

PTN

Now I'm thinking about brisket and drooling too.

Smoking some ribs for my Bday toady!! got some westy 12s to go with it!

Happy Birthday man! Enjoy!!!

Happy BDay Joos.

I still want brisket though. Gimme just about 12 hours of wood smoke on a whole brisket, a bag of crappy white bread rolls and a gallon jug of hot sauce and I'll give you the closest you can get to Texas without a plane ticket.


Mmmmmmmmmm


Brisket!!!!

PTN

Paul i think it's time to get Bertha all fired up.

I had a real hankering for BBQ last night but I'm working tonight so I had to sleep today. THe (admittedly weak) solulution? Stopped at the S & S on teh way home. picked up a three pound flat of brisket. Cut it up and put it in a dutch oven with a can of beef broth and an ass ton of chili powder/chopped chipoltle peppers/tomato/beef stock/salt/cayenne/etc and left it in the oven for 7 hours at 225*F.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm Fall apart brisket goodness. Of the cheating kind. Should be pretty good at 3 AM, at least compared to the 'cold sandwich from the vending machine' option.

PTN

The "All New and Improved Bertha" will be making her professional debut in a few weeks, when Drunken and I do our third wedding. The first two we've done have been for friends (including Drunkens wedding when I did 75 racks of ribs and 10 turkeys in Bertha and his 'B2'.) But now we have our first paying gig.

Bertha has been surgically enhanced by getting welded onto a trailer so she's mobile, given a better firebox, a new door, better vent control and a smoke/heat baffle that more evenly distributes the heat/smoke in the smoking chamber. We gave her a facelift of sorts. She's so slick now I can maintain a perfect 225 for hours at a time with nary a bit of effort, leaving much more time to drink beer while Q'ing.

Now I'm getting all fidgetty. Masstoberfest can't get here soon enough.

PTN