Smoked Pork BBQ - Part 6 - the pulling

The feast is over, it's a New Year, and I look forward to continuing my quest for a hollow leg. In the mean time, here's a wrap up of the BBQ.

At about 4PM, I wrapped the roast in heavy duty aluminum foil and stuck it in a warm oven for another hour. This was mostly so I could prep the grill for grilling some wings (more on that some other time). The temp became much easier to maintain during the day as I added charcoal and wood chunks almost exactly once an hour. This means a total smoke time of 11 hours, and continued roasting for another 1 hour wrapped. Oh yah, then another 90 minutes or so resting on the counter, still inside the foil. After unwrapping, the pork was still steaming hot and smelled fantastic.

The darn thing nearly fell apart as I transferred it to a cutting board for the pulling. The crust was sweet and peppery, and the inside was moist and smoky - exactly what I was looking for. Four of us feasted on the pork and sauces below, and we still have enough left-overs for another meal's worth (some sent some home with our guests) for everyone. I used almost an entire bag of charcoal (6 bucks), a bag of wood chunks(5 bucks). Add that to the pork itself (12 bucks) and we ended up with what should be 8-10 meals for 23 bucks (not including rub and sauce ingredients - which were all pantry items anyway). Smoking large hunks of meat might just be the most affordable way to eat! Anyone interested in joining me for a giant brisket sometime?

Smoked Pork BBQ - Part 5 - smoking continues

The pork is 7 hours into the process. I'm actually having the opposite problem this time than over the summer. Since it was so cold out this morning, I had a little trouble keeping the temperature up. The result should be just as good (we'll see), but I'm using a heck of a lot more fuel. Also, the wood chunks are burning faster than I expected - so perhaps more of those will be be used as well. It's almost 12:30 and the smoking is in a nice groove. I'll probably smoke for another few of hours, then wrap.

As I said, there's as school of thought out there that says a piece of meat can actually be "saturated" with smoke. Meaning that it doesn't matter how much longer you smoke it, the smoky flavor will not actually increase. Also, wrapping in foil will actually allow enhance the tender texture of the pork. Either way, here's how things looked at high noon. If you need something to read in the meantime - here's a great site with pork butt tips.

Smoked Pork BBQ - Part 4 - Smoking begins

It's 5AM and the butt is now in position. The charcoal is arranged just how I wanted it and the wood junks are on top of them smoking away. Of course, right away the first problem comes up. After only 5 minutes, the temp has spiked to around 300 on the meat side and the fuel side is going like gangbusters. It's producing a lot of smoke, but also a lot of fire.


Not too worried about it though, this is exactly what happened the first time I tried this, except the temp actually spiked even higher. I'll monitor it for the next 20 min before dozing off for a nap. Once I get into a groove, all will be well.

UPDATE: It's now 5:20, the temp has come down to 250 (the goal is 200-225), and there's tons of smoke moving through this thing. The pork now begins absorbing flavor. Yum!
UPDATE 2: It's now 6:20, the temp has come down to 230. I added a few more coals and wood chunks. Things are going fine now but the temp needs to drop just a smidge more. This process will continue with wood and coals being added about every hour or so. I'll post another pic around 10AM when the meat starts looking crusty.

Smoked Pork BBQ - Part 3 - The Fuel

Yah, it's just about 4:30AM on New Year's Eve. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one away in the neighborhood, except for whomever ran over the skunk that I can smell. Of course, as awful as it sounds, I hope that's what happened. The alternatives are not good.


It's important to smoke pork for a long time. I don't want to leave the impression that this is incredibly difficult, it's not. It just takes a while, and the longer the better, so I decided to get an early start. I do subscribe to that school of thought that a hunk of meat can actually only hold a certain amount of smoke, but the cooking time still needs to be long (more on all that later).

So, out of bet at 4, prepped up and ready to go - just waiting for the charcoal to get ready. Before all you purists scream at me, please know that I'm not claiming to be a purist. I don't have an actual smoker, so this modified version will have to do. My fuel will be reliable Kingsford charcoal (for heat), and water-logged hickory wood chunks (for smoke). I've got just under half a chimney heating up, and about that same amount in on the coal tray waiting. This is sotof a modified "minion method" that prolongs the heat without the need to add a lot of charcoal.


Here's the wood chunks, and chimney a smoking...

Smoked Pork BBQ - Part 2 - the Sauces

As I said, traditional Lexington pulled pork BBQ is sauced with a vinegar based condiment. In fact, some restaurants offer nothing but the vinegar sauce. There's always this discussion going in North Carolina regarding Eastern vs Western NC styles. The differences are slight for my purposes - and I'm certainly not going to be smoking an entire hog, or even a side of pork as they do in the East. Some say Western (Lexington) style is supposed to have a touch of tomato in their sauce as well, but in my experience, some joints in that area do it that way, and others do not.

I've learned that BBQ sauce is actually quite easy to make, although there are also some very good commercial brands out there. My favorite right now is Sweet Baby Ray's (really a rib sauce), with other good choices including Stubb's (from Texas), and Open Pit - which is more of a Kansas City style) sauce.


So, I decided to make several sauces - 4 totally difference varieties in fact. Here they are left to right:


1) Mid-Western tasting -tomato/molasses based sauce.
2) South Carolina style mustard based sauce.
3) NC style vinegar based sauce.
4) Chimichurri sauce. I know, I know - this is meant for the fantastic beef that's found in Argentina. I had the opportunity to spend some time in that beautiful country many years ago, along with one of our New Year's eve guests. So, the chimichurri will be something completely different, and I can always save it for a nice steak or roast if it tastes horrible on the pulled pork.

Smoked Pork BBQ - Part 1 - The Rub

I've decided to bring you along for the ride as I prepare smoked pork BBQ for New Year's Eve.

I prefer a North Carolina Style BBQ - using a pork butt roast (don't worry, it's actually a shoulder roast). My wife's family hails from the Winston-Salem area, very close to Lexington - the BBQ capital of the world. In that part of NC, BBQ means very slow wood smoking, and a vinegar based sauce. There are a number of places that have great Q, but my favorite is called Speedy Lohr's in Arcadia. Not to be confused with the dozen or so other places called Speedy's in that region. If your ever traveling and have a hankering for decent BBQ, just make sure you see a wood pile somewhere on the property. The only thing I don't like about Lexington BBQ is the bread. They usually just serve cheapo hamburger rolls. These lousy rolls show up all across the Southern US as well.

One great thing about the fact that I love BBQ is that our best-o-friends also love BBQ. They'll be joining us for what I hope will be a festive evening with some fine chow.

The proper pork butt does take some time - a bit of prep, and 10 or so hours of smoking. I also like to use a tasty rub - one that will make a nice crust. So, I picked up a 6.8 lb roast at the Fairgrounds Farmer's Market today. I could blog several posts on that place alone! Anyway - I rubbed the roast with a mixture of sugar, brown sugar, salt, pepper, paprika, chili powder, cayenne, and cumin. It's all wrapped tight in foil and making itself happy in our fridge. My mouth is watering already!

Sorry 'bout the glare...

Just getting started

Well, here's another blog. Not that I have as much time as I should for the adoption blog but this will be much much easier to post. I'm kindof using it as a journal for my food experiences as well - something I should have done many moons ago.

My wife and I absolutely love to cook, and absolutely love to eat out. Whenever we travel, we tend to avoid chain restaurants, which has led to some interesting experiences. Unfortunately, I've just recently gotten into the habbit of taking my camera with me in order to photo-document those experiences. As this new blog progresses, I will go back and re-count some more interesting food escapades, some with pics, some without. This is also my way of sharing more of myself because I'm incapable of creating a blog without a theme. Call it anal, but I just can't bring myself to do it!!! In actuality, this blog will be similar to the other in that much of what actually happens will be joint experiences, but will be reflected on by just me. On second thought, it's a good bet to think that I'll include her thoughts as well.

Also, you'll be more likely to see home-made experiences more often. We've fully shifted to our more streamlined budget (nice way of saying forced semi-poverty) in order to work on serving our church and adopting a child. Because we saw that coming, we have spent the last couple of years aquiring some mid to higher level cooking tools. For instance a new stove, a chest feezer, decent knives, and most importantly, a kick arse grill that can double as a smoker. Pictures of all forthcoming. In the long run, this will save a ton of cash, because being able to cook larger quantities of tasty chow (and freeze the leftovers) will be more cost-effective even before our family grows.

So, what can you expect? What kinds of food do I like? I like many of the same things most people do, such as pizza, burgers, ice cream, etc. But I've also really come to appreciate the difference between Frank's in Mt Penn and Domino's (ick), as well as the difference between Fudruckers and McDonald's. As far as cooking food myself, here's what I aspire to perfect...

* Pizza- I'm starting to figure this one out, but I can get better.

* Smoked Pulled Pork BBQ - first attempt at this on the new grill came out great, not sure if I can duplicate.

* French Toast - this has always been a specialty, and lately I'm experimenting with some slightly different techniques. For me French Toast is not a desert and should not be eaten with powdered sugar and whipped cream.

* Macaroni and Cheese - this is my wife's absolute favoritest food, so I want to learn how best to prepare it. I've still got a lot to learn about cheese and cream sauces though.

* Thanksgiving dinner - something I love to host. Melissa and I split the cooking duties down the middle, I make turkey, stuffing, and mashed taters. She makes cranberry sauce, gravy, yeast rolls, and apple pie.

* Chili - at this point, chili is the one food that I feel confident I can make better than any restaurant, so I'm always torn when I see "worlds best chili" on a menu. Should I order it and find out for sure? Or would that be a waste of $3.99?

* Hot Sauce - this is kindof a hobby and passion. I love spicy food, and have been growing peppers for a number of years now.