I decided to cook ribs without monitoring their temperature. Usually I follow the 3-2-1 method (three hours unwrapped, two hours wrapped in foil, one hour unwrapped) but cook them until they reach 190. But, I was cooking these on a workday, so I needed to be able to focus less on the cook, and decided to just throw ’em on and try not to be overly involved with the effort.
They may actually have been the best ribs I’ve made yet.
Read more
Smoked brisket and burnt ends are a special treat these days in the Carr household. This past weekend was the second time I’ve made brisket on the smoker, and it’s a significant time commitment, but the payoff is worth it. I wrote a few weeks ago about how my butcher has hiked their price for brisket from $3.99 to $5.99, which is a significant jump in cost for smoked brisket. Thanks to a neighbor, I was able to get an 18-pound packer (both point and flat cuts) for $3.69 per pound at Costco. Despite my wife raising the alarm when I brought it home, I didn’t quite consider how damn big this chunk of meat was, and as it turned out, had trouble fitting it on my 18.5″ Weber Smokey Mountain cooker. There are worse problems one could have, I suppose, when making smoked brisket.
Read more
Food: Smoked pork butt
Temperature: 270°
Cooking time: 9:30
Wood used: Cherry
Notes: Cooked using minion method to start charcoal, then basted several times, wrapped after 8 hours
We all love pulled pork, and I wanted to try a sandwich I miss from when we lived in Florida. So, I threw a pork butt on the smoker and let it cook all day while I was stuck on conference calls. There was a barbecue place in Jacksonville called Bono’s BBQ, which offers a sandwich they call a Bo-Hawg. It’s a pulled pork sandwich with a link of smoked sausage and a slice of cheddar cheese. And it’s very amazing.
Read more
After trying my hand at smoking a pork butt a few weeks ago, I decided to try a smoked brisket on my new Weber Smokey Mountain cooker. This was a little daunting to me because of the duration of the cook, but it actually wasn’t anymore involved than the pork butt was. And the payoff was incredible.
For this cook, I followed Malcolm Reed‘s recommendation for cooking brisket burnt ends. If you haven’t seen Malcom’s site, HowToBBQRight.com, you’re missing out on a great resource. His videos were very influential in making me want to buy a smoker and start making some of the stuff from his site.
Food: Brisket and Burnt Ends
Temperature: 250°
Cooking time: 9-12 hours
Wood used: Pecan, Cherry
Note: Cooked low and slow until internal temperature reaches 205°
Food: Smoked pork butt
Temperature: 225-250°
Cooking time: 12:00
Wood used: Apple
Notes: Cooked using minion method to start charcoal, then basted several times
I really want to cook a brisket in the coming weeks, and I felt that a pork shoulder or pork butt would be a good stepping stone for a long cook like the brisket. There’s less risk, obviously, in a $16 butt than a $60 brisket, so if I’m going to mess things up, it’s preferable to do it with a shoulder or butt. Previously, I’ve only done shorter smokes, using a chicken or ribs. Also, it’s worth noting — since many people don’t realize this — that the pork shoulder and butt are not the same thing, nor is the butt from the rear of the pig.
Read more
Food: Smoked baby back (pork) ribs
Temperature: 275°
Cooking time: 5:30
Wood used: Apple
Notes: Cooked using minion method to start charcoal, then the popular 3-2-1 cooking method for ribs, spraying regularly with apple juice.
OK, it’s time to smoke some ribs. I’ve tried out the smoker on a couple of chickens and learned how to use it a little, so it’s time to make something I love… pork ribs!
I decided to try a popular way of cooking ribs called the 3-2-1 Method. Basically, you cook the ribs uncovered for three hours, then sauce and wrap them for two more hours, then cook them uncovered with another layer of sauce for one more hour. I deviated from this slightly in that the last hour was too long — the ribs were already at ready temperature — so I only cooked them about 35 minutes.
Read more
Food: Smoked Chicken
Temperature: 275°
Cooking time: 3:00
Wood used: Apple
Note: Used Minion Method to start charcoal, which worked great. Kept consistent temperatures throughout the entire cook and held right around 270-280 degrees.
This was actually my second time using my new smoker, having just wrecked a similar chicken a day earlier. I’m not entirely sure where things went wrong on the first go-around, but the breast read a little under minimum safe temperature and the leg was a little over. When I carved it, the breast was fine, but everything else was undercooked.
Since I wanted to try ribs this weekend, I decided to get another chicken and give it another shot. This one turned out pretty great.
I put a rub on the chicken and held the smoker at 275° for three hours, spraying it with cooking spray every 30 minutes or so to help the skin turn crispy. Overall, I think it went well and I’m getting used to tuning the temperatures with the vents on the Weber Smokey Mountain cooker. It’s still going to take some practice though to get better at it.