Easter lunch is smoking!

Fire in the Hole

I am in charge of the pulled pork for tomorrow's Easter lunch. An assignment that I gladly accepted, of course.[p]The butt for this meal is an 11.79 pounder from Tyson that I picked up at Wal-Mart. I like way Tyson trims the butts. Every one I have low-n-slowed has always been tender with just the right amount of fat cap to provide for a really moist end product. I feel that being consistent when choosing the brands of products that I cook has allowed me a measure of predictability of my finished product. This butt is about the heaviest one I have ever cooked by about one pound. I always try to cook enough for the meal plus have some for everyone to take home for later. Usually, we feed between 12-15 people, half of those are adults. The other folks will be bringing side dishes and someone always brings a sliced ham as well. Funny thing is, I always seem to be the one with the empty serving tray at the end of the day![p]I rubbed it down yesterday afternoon with a generous amount of pulled pork seasoning that I buy from one of my favorite BBQ restaurants here in town. I covered the butt and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight. I then cleaned out my large egg and set it up with a load of Real Flavor lump, again from Wal-Mart. I filled the fire bowl up to the bottom of the fire ring with lump, packing the lump in as tight as possible in hopes of making it through the 24 hour cook without having to reload. I then placed chunks of mesquite in a bucket for soaking.[p]At 7:30 this morning, I plugged in my electric starter and got ready to assemble the egg for the cook. I let the electric run for about five minutes, until I began to get some smoke filtering up through the lump. While the lump is starting, I drain off the water from the wood chunks. When I remove the starter I begin to fill the egg with the soaked wood chunks all the way to the top of the fire ring. I then place the inverted plate setter on top of the fire ring and set a 9x13 cake pan on top of the plate setter. I fill the pan to the rim with plain water. I know the egg holds moisture really well but I have had real good luck with the added water in making sure the pulled pork is extremely moist at the end of a long cook. Works for me![p]Next goes the main grid sitting on the plate setter legs. On top of that goes the v-rack. I set up my Maverick ET-73 grid probe on the rack above the water pan but not directly below the meat. I want to make sure the probe is not directly in the line of fire from the drippings coming from above or from the heat from directly below.[p]Now comes the meat. I place the butt in the v-rack, fat cap up and turned so that the dome thermometer probe can not contact the meat. I insert the Maverick ET-73 meat probe and make sure it is fully inserted without contacting the bone. I then route the probe wires to keep them out of the direct flame path and I close the egg lid.[p]By now the smoke is starting to really pour out of the egg. This has got to be one of my favorite parts of the cook, getting everything set up and stabilized and working though all of that wonder smelling smoke.[p]My intention is to cook for about 24 hours with the dome and grid temperatures hanging in the 250 to 275 degree range for the majority of the cook. I am shooting for a final meat temp of between 185 to 200 degrees by 8 AM tomorrow morning. I have left myself a little slack time if I need to add lump or raise the temp to finish off the butt.[p]When the butt comes off in the morning I will wrap it up in some restaurant-grade plastic wrap and towels and put it in a playmate cooler for the trip to Grandma's house. I will then toss some more lump into the egg and cook up a load of ABTs that will sit on the grazing table for everyone to munch on until lunch is served.[p]It seems that every time I do one of these overnight cooks there is always something new to contend with. The weather guys are predicting some major rain this evening and continuing through the midday tomorrow. One to three inches are predicted. When I did this for Christmas dinner we had record low temperatures. With the help of the BGE I managed to pull that one off without a hitch and I am confident that a little rain should not be much of a problem this time either. I just hope I don't melt while I am standing out in the rainstorm at meat removal time.[p]I hope everyone here has a safe and joyous Easter. Happy EGGster as well!

Fire in the Hole

I am now in the final hour of this 24 hour cook and all is well. The egg stabilized early on yesterday morning and I did not have to adjust it at all. My crew was amazed by the Maverick ET-73's ability to monitor the smoker and meat temps from anywhere with the house. I would catch them looking at the temps and then they would ask questions about the progress of the cook. It is fun to have everyone join in the fun of egging.[p]I am currently in the process of ramping up the dome temp as I like to bring the butt temp up to 195-200 internal right as the pull-off time approaches. I will then remove the butt and wrap it at lease five times around in restaurant-grade plastic wrap (I find this wrap at Sam's Club) and towels and place it in a Playmate cooler. I found that the butt will rest comfortably and it will stew in it's own juices in route to the family get-together.[p]I got the tip about the plastic wrap from the people I know that run a BBQ restaurant and catering business. Those guys wrap all of their butts that way as they come out of the smoker. Great thing about this wrap is the butt can be reheated or kept warm in an 275 degree or less oven without fear of the butt drying out or the plastic wrap melting. Works great! I even finished off the cook of a butt once when I was just an hour short of lump. Just wrapped the butt and placed it in the oven at 250 until it hit my target of 195 internal. Very juicy and tender. No fuss, no muss![p]Once at the family lunch site, I will unwrap and pull the still-steaming pork while the crew gathers around and picks "samples" from the pile. Why is it everyone has to give their approval of my dish but no one seems to care if the potato salad is any good? Gotta love it! [p]I do want to ask a question of the Maverick users out there. This is second time I have used the Maverick for a low-n-slow. I am experiencing something that is somewhat disconcerting. The first time I used the device, the remote receiver unit lost sync with the transmitter sometime during the night. I woke up to find the receiver displaying the three bars only for each probe reading. I found that the egg had done it's job and the cook was a success. This time, the Maverick maintained a solid connection from 8:00 A.M. Saturday morning until at least 4:30 Sunday morning. When I checked it at 7:00 A.M. Sunday morning it had lost sync again. I when outside and reset the transmitter, which was still showing the temps just fine, and the receiver synced up once again and began tracking normally. Since I primarily purchased this device to warn me if the smoker temp falls too low during the middle of the night, I am rapidly loosing faith that the device is going to be of any help in this regard. Anyone else had this happen to them?[p]Well it is time to remove the butt and get the ABT's ready to go. Happy Easter to everyone!

Fire in the Hole

The pulled pork was a big hit. Plenty to go around and everyone had some to take home for later. That 11.79 pounder yielded 7.75 lbs of finished product after a 24 hour cook. I still had enough lump in the egg to finish off with a full hour of smoking ABT's without having to add any more. Man, that egg is something else![p]The ABT's didn't last long enough. The people that found them first ate most of them before the stragglers showed up. If you snooze, you lose! I must now plan to make a double batch next time we all get together.[p]I hope everyone's Easter meals went as well as ours.[p]Any comments on my Maverick inquiry?