The Big Kahuna

August 20, 2011 - Last Sunday, after much consternation, I finally decided to try the Big Kahuna....Brisket. Anyone who spoke with me leading up to the cook knew I was extremely nervous. Everything I had read would say "Brisket is unforgiving" or "if you don't do it right, it will come out as shoe leather". Wow. Talk about motivation!! At any rate, I had one sitting in the freezer that was waiting for the right time and I finally decided to pull the trigger.

On Saturday night, I started prepping the brisket. Pre-trimmed, it was 10.17 pounds. It came from Costco. I trimmed off 18.3 ounces of fat, which left me with just over a nine pound hunk of meat.

I injected the brisket with low sodium beef broth ( about 1 cup) and saved the rest for later (see below). I then brushed the brisket with oil and used the following mixture of rub:

1/2 cup Paprika

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

3 Tbsp Garlic Powder

3 Tbsp Onion Powder

2 Tbsp Oregano

2 Tbsp Salt

1 Tsp (+ a touch more) of Cayenne Pepper

I then rubbed the brisket on both sides, wrapped it in Saran Wrap and foil, and placed it in the fridge to marinate overnight.

I began the process of firing the smoker at 5:45 am. All that I had read was that a good sized brisket could take anywhere from 9-12 hours to prepare, and since we had guests arriving around 6pm, I needed to make sure it was complete. I removed the brisket from the fridge and the internal temperature was 53 degrees prior to placing on the smoker. I used a meat tenderizer prior to placing on the smoker to first, tenderize the meat, but also to push the rub mixture down into the meat prior to the cook. Here is a shot after marinating all night:

For smoke wood, 2 parts hickory to 1 part cherry. The first smoke wood was on at about 6:45am (the hour between firing and getting wood on...well, that is an aside that I shall share below). The smoker had reached 220 degrees, and the meat went on. I did not flip, mop or spritz during the entire smoke. Below is a table of temperatures and times:

Time	Smoker Temp	Internal Meat Temp
6:55am	220	--
7:25am	235	--
8:00am	225	--
8:45am	275	141
9:00am	255	147
9:15am	230	151
9:30am	245	154
10:15am	205	158
10:30am	215	158
10:45am	245	159
11am	245	158**
12:55pm	250	200 OFF

My remote thermometer worked very well this time. Behind the thermometer in the picture below is a tower of vodka, which we marinated with blackberries for 10 days. Wow, is that stuff good!

At 7:45am, I added two more hickory and one more cherry chunks of wood. In total, I used 4 hickory and 2 cherry.

**At 11am, since the internal temperature had reached approx 160, I removed the brisket from the smoker and placed it in an aluminum pan with the rest of the beef broth, then wrapped the pan in aluminum foil. I had read about this process, which is called "the crutch". It is done for a couple of reasons. One, it helps to speed along the cooking process by creating a moist humid environment for the meat to cook and two, it keeps the meat from drying out. One analogy that I read was once the brisket reached 160, it "hangs" and can hang for hours until breaking through and then proceeding on up to 200. During the hang, it is like an athlete...it sweats. Well, the sweat in this case is the moisture within the brisket. This process worked very well, as you can see and the brisket made its way on up to 200 degrees in just a couple hours.

I have to admit, I was thinking that it would take until about 2pm after using the crutch, so the hour earlier was welcome.

Once the meat reached 200, I removed it from the smoker, wrapped it in old towels and placed it in a cooler to keep it hot. This process also allows for the brisket to re-absorb some of the juices that were in the pan. I left it in the cooler until the internal temp on the meat was about 175 and I then transferred it into the oven at a temp of 185 in order to hold the temp of the meat, not cook it. Since we were having guests over, this was necessary.

I had shut down the vents on the smoker to cool it off....I then had to bring it back up to smoke some sausages. They are so easy to do, and good that you almost have to do them every time you smoke :) I used Werner's Kielbasa again as well as their Italian sausages. YUM! For this, I used one chunk hickory and one chunk pecan.

When I sliced the brisket, as you can see, it wasn't a very good "competition presentation" as I don't think I sliced it the correct way to see all the marbling, etc. The smoke ring was okay...could have been better. I took the point muscle and some of the left over flat and chopped that up for chopped beef sandwiches, and boy were those tasty. The brisket was not dry, had good flavor and was enjoyed by all who ate it.

So, for all the stress and worry, it turns out that it wasn't so bad after all. If I could do one thing different, I would have brought the smoker down to the bottom grate and just put a little sear on the outside of the brisket prior to letting it rest. This would have given a nice crust on the outside. The outside bark was okay, but could have been a little firmer and the sear would have provided that.

Okay, so on to the story of the lag between firing and getting the meat on. Typically when I fire the smoker, I will put a nice amount of briquets in the lower ring of the smoker then separately will fire about a half to two-thirds of a charcoal chimney. Once the coals in the chimney are good and orange, I will dump them over the top of the unlit coals and then assemble the smoker and allow it to come up to temp. This day was no different. I fired the chimney, as I always do, on the sidewalk about 10 feet from where I put the smoker. I had just come back out from getting a cup of coffee, walked down the steps off my deck, and set my coffee down so that I could go pick up the chimney and dump it over the unlit coals. No sooner than setting the coffee down, I hear (and see) this HUGE EXPLOSION that shot the charcoal chimney about 6 feet up in the air and scattered the HOT coals all over the place...in my yard, on the sidewalk, etc. Fortunately, none of them hit me, but this explosion happened at about 6:20am. I am quite surprised none of my neighbors (or my wife) heard it. Talking to my neighbor later that morning and looking at the aftermath, the best explanation that we could come to was that we had been having rain in the days leading up to the cook and that there must have been trapped moisture in the concrete. When the heat from the chimney got so great, it boiled the trapped water and caused it to erupt. Pretty cool from a science perspective, but man, did it scare the hell out of me. I am just glad that I took an extra few seconds somewhere along the way as I could have easily been right over top of it when I popped. That could have been very, very bad. As you can see from the picture below, it left a nice mark in the sidewalk, by blowing off the top finish layer of the concrete.

God Bless America....and Pork!

July 3 -

For the 4th of July weekend, I decided to try pulled pork for the first time. Pork is one of the meats in BBQ competitions (Pork, Brisket, Ribs and Chicken) and pulled pork is one of my wife's favorite BBQ meats. For pulled pork, you start with the pork shoulder or butt. Even though it is called a butt, it is really the butt end of the shoulder. I had chosen a 7.25 pound Hormel bone in pork butt roast a couple weeks back at Hy-Vee and had put it in my freezer. Since it was a solid 7+ pounds of meat, I started thawing on Monday in my refrigerator.

In preparation, I read about different rubs/marinades/injections and the like, but finally decided on Chris Lilly's 6 Time World Championship Rub and Injection. I figured that if the recipe has won six championships, it is probably pretty darned good.

On Sunday morning, I rolled out of bed (with the assistance of my alarm clock) at 6 am to begin preparation of the pork. First things, first....I had to make coffee! After the coffee was brewing, I removed the butt from its packaging and rinsed with cool water then patted dry with a paper towel. Recipes call for the removal of the fat cap, but this particular roast didn't have a cap. It had a thin layer of fat on the top, which was just fine for me. I had pre-mixed the rub the night before, but still had to make the injection. After making the injection, I began to inject the meat with my injector. What is interesting is that the meat is not a sponge and a lot of the injection runs through the meat...but, that is okay. It helps to keep the meat moist. There are different schools of thought on injecting. Some don't do it, while others say it is a must. As I am finding out with BBQ, injection, like most other things, is a matter of taste.

After injecting and rubbing, it was time to let the meat rest while I prepared the smoker. The meat rested for about an hour and 15 minutes.

I used apple smoke wood, about 7 pieces. It was the last of my batch and these pieces probably were the equivalent of 6 fist sized chunks. Below is a chart of the times and temps of the smoker along with other notable information:

Time	Temp	Notes
7:45am	225F
8:30am	231F
9:20am	240F
10:05am	200F
10:55am	235F	Rain!
11:10am	260F	Closed down vents
11:30am	220F	Opened back up a bit
11:48am	250F	Rain stopped
12:32pm	240F	Internal temp 168F (don’t trust this)
2:45pm	180F	Rain…again!
3:00pm	200F
4:15pm	255F	Internal 185F
5:00pm		Internal 191F – meat off

In my notes, I exclaimed rain! Yes, it did rain on this day, which definitely played havoc with the smoker. I wasn't quite prepared for the fluctuating nature of the smoker as the rain was on and off. You will notice the 2 hour gap between 12:30 and 2:45. Well, I had looked at the radar and there was nothing in the area, so we decided to leave the house for some errands. Not 30 minutes into our errand run did it start raining. The showers had been so spotty earlier that I hoped (wrong) that maybe my house would be missed. When we did get back, I added some charcoal and opened up the vents. All was okay, but I did learn some lessons about cooking during changing weather conditions.

I made a note at the 12:32 internal temp check. I was using a remote thermometer and when I plugged it in (I had the probe in the meat from the start and the cord running up through the top vent), it read 168. At first, I thought this was probably a good number...maybe a touch high...given that the meat had been on for nearly five hours. However, when I checked temps again at 3, I was getting readings all over the board...197, 191, 185 (and dropping), so I had little faith in the remote thermometer on this day. I placed an instant read in the center and it read 170F at 3pm. I knew we still had some time to go. I was able to place the instant read in a location where I could see it with a flashlight through the top vent hole (so I didn't have to take off the lid again.

Once I saw the temp go between 190 and 195, I took off the lid and saw this:

I wrapped in aluminum foil and placed in a cooler for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, I prepped the smoker for some Scimeca's Italian Sausage (medium). Susan and I have always enjoyed Scimeca's sausage, so I figured what the hell? I would have some heat left and sausages only take about an hour. I put two small pieces of pecan wood on, waited 10 minutes and then added the sausages. At the end of there cycle, I brushed with Head Country sauce and left on for another 5 minutes. Then it was time to eat!

After 30 minutes of resting in the cooler, I took out the pork butt and began to pull it apart. It fell right off the bone and I was able to get some of the fat and connective tissue out and away from the meat. The outside layer and a nice pink smoke ring. Here are the pictures of the final product. It tasted as good as it looked.

Father's Day

June 19th, 2011 -

Father's Day, 2011. I decided that I would once again do the same three meats: ribs, chicken and sausage. This time, I bought a package of ribs from Costco. They were Swift Premium Baby Backs. The package contained three racks and weighed a total of 9.41 pounds. Since there were three to a pack, it was difficult to gauge how good each rack was, how thick, etc. But, I had been told that the Costco ribs were very good, so I gave them a shot. (As it turned out, they were just okay. I actually preferred the taste of the Hormel ribs from the previous smoke much, much better.)

For the chicken, I had previously bought a whole chicken from McGonigle's, but I had them quarter it versus half it. It had been in the freezer for about 10 days, but figured I would throw it on and see what happened. Once again, I bought 4 Italian sausages from my favorite south Kansas City grocer and I was ready to go.

Due to my work on a home improvement project, I wasn't able to take as many pictures or document temps, etc. However, on this day, the smoker locked in at 225F and really didn't move an inch. I am quite impressed with how well the Weber Smokey Mountain locks and holds the temp.

On this day, I fired up the smoker a little later than the last time (which my wife wasn't happy with since we weren't able to eat until 8pm). The weather conditions were a little different. The weather was muggy, it was hot and there was a slight breeze from the east. Perhaps the humid air is what kept the temp locked in so well.

On two of the racks, I seasoned with Smokin' Guns mild rub and I did one with the Plowboy's Yardbird. Instead of apple smoke wood, I used cherry this time around.

Rather than firing up a chimney full of briquettes, I actually followed advice from my cousin and placed a layer of unlit briquettes in the smoker base and lit them directly. His advice was to do this then assemble the smoker and allow it to gradually creep up to 220F before really tweaking the controls to lock in the temp. This did work well, although I think I didn't allow the coals to really get going before assembly. When I put everything together, it took a good 30 minutes to get up to temp.

The ribs were once again rubbed and allowed to set at room temp for a couple hours. The seasoning occurred around 11am and the ribs finally went on the smoker about 1:30 (the extra half hour was due to the slowness of smoker heating up). Put on the smoke wood, then the meat and sat back. Again, on this day, the smoker locked in and held very consistently. I sauced one rack again with the Head Country sauce and placed in the oven to keep warm. The ribs were off the smoker about 6:30 (I think...bad note taker...but, in my defense, I was working on a project).

For the chicken and sausage, I used apple wood and put the chicken on the lower rack and sausage on the upper (lesson learned from previous smoke). And, at the behest of my wife, I sauced two of the sausages at the end of the cooking cycle. This turned out quite well. Since I was dealing with quartered chicken versus halved chicken, I probably left it on a little longer than I could have. It was still tasty, but not as juicy as the first time around. I think that I also mastered the "crisping" of the skin this time around. Perhaps it was because the coals weren't as hot...who knows? Either way, it was great.

Next up....pork butt for pulled pork. Stay tuned!!!

First Time out

June 11, 2011 - After much reading, I decided that I would do three types of meat; ribs, chicken and sausage. With all the reading I did, these seemed like the three easiest meats to do and since it was my first time out, I wanted to play it a little safe.

I began prepping the ribs around 8:30am. I knew that the ribs would take the longest to cook, so I decided to do those first. I got my ribs at Hy-Vee grocery store. I purchased two racks of Hormel Baby Back Ribs, weighting 3.21 and 3.31 pounds.

I used two types of rub on the ribs, one rack with Smokin' Guns BBQ (a BBQ restaurant and caterer in North Kansas City) rub (mild) and one rack with Plowboys Yardbird rub (made for pork, but great on chicken). I had pre-determined that one rack would be given a light coating of BBQ sauce, mainly at the request of my wife. We had chosen Head Country BBQ sauce, and we were amazingly surprised of its flavor.

Here is picture of the ribs after I seasoned them.

I allowed these to rest for two hours at room temperature. The moisture in the meat really came out and they marinated quite well. The other interesting note here is that I had read (and observed from my cousin) that prior to applying the rub, applying a thin layer of yellow mustard to the meat allows for the rub to stick better and create a nice crust. The yellow on the ribs is that mustard.

At around 10am, I began to prepare the smoker. I used a charcoal chimney to start several briquets (Kingsford).

I then placed a layer of unlit coals in the bottom of the smoker and poured the lit coals over top of the unlit coals.

I then put two fist sized chunks (plus a little extra) of apple smoke wood on the coals and allowed it to start smoking (about 10 minutes). After the wood was smoking, it was time to put the ribs on the smoker.

Once I got the temp locked in where I wanted it (around 225-230 degrees F) it was time to sit back and relax.

Below is a chart of temps and times throughout the prcoess

Coals on at 10:40am

Wood on at 10:55am 230 degrees

Meat on at 11:15am 215 degrees

12:30 225 degrees Air Temp - 76 degrees

1:30 250 degrees Air Temp - 79 degrees

2:15 240 degrees Air Temp - 79.5 degrees (this was the first flip)

3:30pm 230 degrees Air Temp - 80.6 degrees

4:15pm - Ribs came off

While preparing and cooking the chicken/sausage, I wrapped the rib racks in aluminum foil and put them in my oven at a keep warm temp of 170F so as not to continue the cooking process.

Next, it was time to prepare for the chicken and sausage. I smoked two whole chickens that were halved as well as several Italian sausages. The chickens and sausages were purchased at McGonigle's Meat Market, a local grocer in south Kansas City. They are known for their outstanding meat selection, and they didn't disappoint. Since the Weber Smokey Mountain has two grates, you can smoke quite a bit of meat during a single session. In this one, I probably made a slight error in putting the sausage on the lower grate, while smoking the chicken on the upper rack. Given chicken fat drippings, etc...but, since then, I have flipped things around and cooked the chicken on the lower grate and sausage on the upper grate.

With the chicken, I seasoned with the Plowboy's seasoning and for the sausage, well, they don't need any seasoning.

I used pecan smoke wood for this part, and again, I put the wood on for about 10 minutes before the meat to allow it to start to smoke. The chicken went on at 4:28pm at a temp of 240 degrees.

The chicken was on for about an hour and 15 minutes until the internal temp registered 160 degrees with a meat thermometer. I then took down the smoker to the base (removed the sausage). I then put a layer of BBQ sauce on the chicken and flipped it skin side down so that it would crisp up a bit. This only took a minute or so.

The final product(s) were delicious.

Here We Go

I recently bought a smoker, the Weber Smokey Mountain 22.5" version. This blog will document my adventures in smoking different kinds of meat. The blog is really for two reasons; first, everything that I have read indicates that the chef needs to keep notes of each smoking session so that s/he is able to review the things that went well, what worked, what didn't, etc. This seemed like a fairly logical place to keep those notes. Second, I have had people ask me to post notes, pictures, etc. of the smoking as I try to perfect my craft.

So, there you have it. I have already used the smoker once, and will be posting notes, pictures from that first smoke soon.

While I in no way claim to be an expert, it is my hope that as time goes on, I will get better. Who knows? I may even end up doing a competition some day.....