I didn't do any pics, nothing new here that you guys haven't seen from me. But learnt a few things.
I've gotten away from Meathead's Memphis Rub. It's really just not to my taste. It uses both brown & white sugar, and I just don't care as much for "sweet" rubs on ribs. I don't mind it when it comes to sauce, I suppose (a little), but I really prefer my rub to be a little different. More on that in a few minutes.
So I had some things happen that I was afraid were really going to screw things up, some pitfalls with pellet smokers, which is what I use. I love the pellet system, it's mostly "set it and forget it", but not entirely. The model I have (borrowed) is a Traeger with a hopper in the front, which I fill and has enough pellets for at least 10 hours of smoking at low-ish heat... however... it feeds the auger from the center and will run the auger empty with lot of pellets still on the sides, about 6 hours or so into smoking. So, I noticed at one point that my temp had actually dropped a couple of degrees (thank God for the Maverick temp monitoring system and the long leads!) and had to go push the pellets down into the hopper and restart the unit to get the pellets re-lit. Whew!
As for my rub... I just am not a fan of the sweet rubs. So no more sugar for me. I've also tried a rub made mainly with Old Bay seasoning along with more garlic powder, salt (kosher), pepper (fresh cracked), onion powder, and paprika. The problem is, the Old Bay gets a little overpowering on ribs if you use too much of it. This time, I cut the Old Bay about in half, put on some Tony Chachere's and a little more garlic. And it was PERFECT! I mean PERFECT. So succulent, a little salty, a tiny bit spicy and very, very flavorful! By FAR the best ribs I have ever made on the smoker hands down.
As for my pork butt... it was about 8.8 lbs today. I put it on at about 4:30AM, placed my temp probe and got a temp of 52F when I placed it. Within 2 hours it was in the 130s+, and by 3 hours it was at 160. I though this didn't seem right, so I went and repositioned my probe and saw an immediate temp drop of ~40F! Obviously, this was where I wanted to be - deeper and in the colder zone. Now... this time is the first time I did not tie up my pork butt. I usually tie it twice in the horizontal and twice in the vertical. But this time I left it to "hang it all out" and it ended up spreading out a bit more and with a good bit more bark, which is a GREAT thing! And this butt was on par with the best I've made as well... but more on the complications.
I told neighbors to show up about 4 and we should eat around 5. Around 4:30, my temp was climbing to 194F and I figured I was right on time... until I noticed it was 192F, and my smoker was down to 125F!!!! I'd run the auger dry again!!! Argh! So... 12 hours in, and my pork butt was starting to COOL, just after it had pulled out of the stall!!!!! Damn!
SO... I filled the auger, restarted again and this time I cranked it to around 330F (butt cooled quickly to 185F!) to try to finish it off relatively quickly the temptation. I even considered resorting to the Texas Crutch to make it work, but I resisted. It began to climb relatively quickly and in another hour I was at 203F and it turned out to be one of the most savory butts I've ever cooked, and had a TON of awesome chewy bark to munch on!
Sides... I made a Southern Macaroni and Cheese with heavy whipping cream and half-and-half, eggs, some cayenne (not enough) and lots of cheddar. I split the batch and did one half with sun-dried tomatoes in it, and the other half with hatch green chilis. The hatch batch (see what I did there?) was by far the better of the two, in my opinion, it was really, really good. The tomato batch was ok. The other side I made was a jalapeno-cheese buttermilk cornbread. Instead of jalapenos, I used poblano peppers - some of you may recall the problems many of my neighbors have with food that is more than just a little spicy. It was ok, but turned out a bit--- overly moist? Almost like it didn't cook enough. Did it in my cast-iron in the oven, but didn't get that real crust on the edges, so I'm thinking I just didn't cook it long enough - or perhaps hot enough? Next time...
Overall, it was a success. Some lessons learned about monitoring my hopper of pellets when I'm busy making other schitt, but also learned that pork butts can still be fairly forgiving if you lose track. It was divine!
Now, to have a few (more) drinks.... although I ran out of Scotch... and get ready for my first day out of semi-retirement on the new job tomorrow.
Later ya'll... hope you can learn a few small tips from my BBQ/smoking adventures!
I've gotten away from Meathead's Memphis Rub. It's really just not to my taste. It uses both brown & white sugar, and I just don't care as much for "sweet" rubs on ribs. I don't mind it when it comes to sauce, I suppose (a little), but I really prefer my rub to be a little different. More on that in a few minutes.
So I had some things happen that I was afraid were really going to screw things up, some pitfalls with pellet smokers, which is what I use. I love the pellet system, it's mostly "set it and forget it", but not entirely. The model I have (borrowed) is a Traeger with a hopper in the front, which I fill and has enough pellets for at least 10 hours of smoking at low-ish heat... however... it feeds the auger from the center and will run the auger empty with lot of pellets still on the sides, about 6 hours or so into smoking. So, I noticed at one point that my temp had actually dropped a couple of degrees (thank God for the Maverick temp monitoring system and the long leads!) and had to go push the pellets down into the hopper and restart the unit to get the pellets re-lit. Whew!
As for my rub... I just am not a fan of the sweet rubs. So no more sugar for me. I've also tried a rub made mainly with Old Bay seasoning along with more garlic powder, salt (kosher), pepper (fresh cracked), onion powder, and paprika. The problem is, the Old Bay gets a little overpowering on ribs if you use too much of it. This time, I cut the Old Bay about in half, put on some Tony Chachere's and a little more garlic. And it was PERFECT! I mean PERFECT. So succulent, a little salty, a tiny bit spicy and very, very flavorful! By FAR the best ribs I have ever made on the smoker hands down.
As for my pork butt... it was about 8.8 lbs today. I put it on at about 4:30AM, placed my temp probe and got a temp of 52F when I placed it. Within 2 hours it was in the 130s+, and by 3 hours it was at 160. I though this didn't seem right, so I went and repositioned my probe and saw an immediate temp drop of ~40F! Obviously, this was where I wanted to be - deeper and in the colder zone. Now... this time is the first time I did not tie up my pork butt. I usually tie it twice in the horizontal and twice in the vertical. But this time I left it to "hang it all out" and it ended up spreading out a bit more and with a good bit more bark, which is a GREAT thing! And this butt was on par with the best I've made as well... but more on the complications.
I told neighbors to show up about 4 and we should eat around 5. Around 4:30, my temp was climbing to 194F and I figured I was right on time... until I noticed it was 192F, and my smoker was down to 125F!!!! I'd run the auger dry again!!! Argh! So... 12 hours in, and my pork butt was starting to COOL, just after it had pulled out of the stall!!!!! Damn!
SO... I filled the auger, restarted again and this time I cranked it to around 330F (butt cooled quickly to 185F!) to try to finish it off relatively quickly the temptation. I even considered resorting to the Texas Crutch to make it work, but I resisted. It began to climb relatively quickly and in another hour I was at 203F and it turned out to be one of the most savory butts I've ever cooked, and had a TON of awesome chewy bark to munch on!
Sides... I made a Southern Macaroni and Cheese with heavy whipping cream and half-and-half, eggs, some cayenne (not enough) and lots of cheddar. I split the batch and did one half with sun-dried tomatoes in it, and the other half with hatch green chilis. The hatch batch (see what I did there?) was by far the better of the two, in my opinion, it was really, really good. The tomato batch was ok. The other side I made was a jalapeno-cheese buttermilk cornbread. Instead of jalapenos, I used poblano peppers - some of you may recall the problems many of my neighbors have with food that is more than just a little spicy. It was ok, but turned out a bit--- overly moist? Almost like it didn't cook enough. Did it in my cast-iron in the oven, but didn't get that real crust on the edges, so I'm thinking I just didn't cook it long enough - or perhaps hot enough? Next time...
Overall, it was a success. Some lessons learned about monitoring my hopper of pellets when I'm busy making other schitt, but also learned that pork butts can still be fairly forgiving if you lose track. It was divine!
Now, to have a few (more) drinks.... although I ran out of Scotch... and get ready for my first day out of semi-retirement on the new job tomorrow.
Later ya'll... hope you can learn a few small tips from my BBQ/smoking adventures!
