Butts and a down hummingbird

Goatsegg · August 2013

I put a couple of butts on last night and spent a few hours reading the forum. I learned a lot and already have plans to change my next low and slow. I have a CyberQ and got the email working, so just checked mail each time I woke up. Anyway, the butts progressed through the night and into the early morning. While my wife and I were having coffee, we heard a faint knock on the window. When we looked out, there was an unconscious hummingbird, sprawled out on the deck. We went out to check on him, but there wasn't much we could do. After a minute or so, he began to twitch and rolled over. Shortly thereafter, he was on his way back to the hummingbird feeder. The bird survived and the butts came out really well. Pics of both are attached.

smokesniffer · August 2013

We have hummingbirds around our place. They are so cool to watch, glad it made it through the collision ok. The pulled pork looks great. I am getting ready to throw 24 pounds of butt on my egg tonight.

Eggcelsior · August 2013

How close is your feeder to the house? I had a diagram from a local bird place that recommended more than 10 feet or less than 3 feet to prevent things like this. I'm glad the little buddy is okay.

FLbobecu · August 2013

Man, that pork looks awesome!! Getting ready to do a small bone-in shoulder myself, tomorrow. Hopefully mine turns out half as good as yours.

-Nick

Goatsegg · August 2013

@eggcelcior the feeder is pretty close to the house ~2 feet? We have two kinds of hummingbirds that visit the feeder- black ones and green ones.(I'm pretty sure that isn't the scientific name,though.) the birds dive bomb each other in order to get access to the nectar. The window the green bird hit is in off the deck, about 15 ft from the feeder. We suspect the the injury could have happened during aireal combat. Fwiw, this isn't the first time this has happened ( different species last time) it could be lighting or window size- who knows. All's well that ends well, I suppose. @smokesniffer & FLbobecu- thanks for the kind words, my last low and slow cook was a nightmare so it was a relief to nail this one.

Skiddymarker · August 2013

Pork looks really nice, great cook, even with the interruption of local wildlife.

How'd you serve that great looking pork?

williamadamsesq · August 2013

Leave the sugar water out until it turns to wine and you'll never get rid of the drunk hummingbirds.

Goatsegg · August 2013

@skiddymarker- I made some sweet and spicy coke slaw and served them on Martin's potato rolls. We had corn on the cob, too but there's a lot leftover. I had 2 sandwiches and was stuffed. Kids had brownies a la mode for desert but I had to pass. @william- maybe he was drunk? That would explain it!

Skiddymarker · August 2013

Sounds good, slaw and potato rolls, mmmm. Pulled pork with a sauce freezes very well. Prolly overkill but I use a zip lock with as much of the air out as possible, then food saver bag it. Two of us so, enough for two to four sammies. Keeps frozen for at least 3 or 4 months and is easy to heat up in the food saver bag and water bath or nuke it if you want.

Goatsegg · August 2013

My son is 16 so we never seem to have issues with using up leftover smoked pork! I made these for breakfast- grilled flour tortilla, pulled pork,fried egg with red pepper jam, cheddar and siracha.

Austin Egghead · August 2013

Glad the little fellow is ok. The gulls regularly flew into the windows at the Bayside lab in Emeryville. Would scare the H__L out of you if you were at the computer processing data. Gulls never recovered...never sure if it was the collision or the 5 story drop to earth.

Butt looks good....What have you learned and your plans to change?...Care to share.

"My son is 16 so we never seem to have issues with using up leftover smoked pork! I made these for breakfast- grilled flour tortilla, pulled pork,fried egg with red pepper jam, cheddar and siracha."

When he goes off to college you will learn what expendable income is (lowered grocery bills, fridge almost always full)...that is until he comes home for Christmas vacation with 2 roommates.... :-)

Goatsegg · August 2013

@AE- a couple of things I'll change: I'll tie the butts before I brine. This time I tied afterwards and it was a bit of a pain. (Messy too). Of course if the butts are bone in, this is a non issue. I'll get the pit to temp before I connect my cyber q. This may be common sense but it wasn't obvious to me until Friday night. The fan ran like crazy and produced a ton of smoke. I'll wait until the pit is stable before I add the meat. This will also give me some time to prep butts while pit comes up. I'll clip the pit probe to the grill. Again, may be obvious but I had the probe dropped in through the daisy wheel and suspended between the butts. (Embarrassed to say it) I've done butts with and without apple juice on the drip tray, I think with is the way to go. Last and most important- don't fuss with the setup. This time, I got everything going and let it ride. Last butts, I didn't. I prolonged the stall and ended up with dry meat. I've heard that its tough to screw up butts, but I did it last time. (Didn't tie butts, put mat in too soon and fussed with the dome. This cook was really good and I want to be consistent with my results. No way I'm trying brisket until I nail a few consecutive low and slow butts. Some of these point may be just common sense, but I tend to learn the hard way. There are a lot of great members on the forum who are willing to share hints and techniques, Thanks.

Butts and a down hummingbird

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