All's well that ends well (boston butt)

Dude!

Well, after careful consideration of my cook, it was decided that we should eat the butt, even though I lost fire sometime between midnight and 6:30 AM.

One neighbor is a nurse, the other is an accomplished cook. We decided to give it a chance.

I pulled the butt off at 196 internal, wrapped it and dropped it in the cooler to wait for pulling.

Quite simply, it was worth it. Wow. Lots of conversation about what the Egg was, how it works, etc., etc. I guess I'm preaching to the choir here.

We made sandwiches on white buns with no fancy sides, and a couple of bottled sauces for condiments (Stubb's, Jack Miller's). I've been trying to keep things simple on these first few cooks - no sense sweating home made slaw, etc. when I'm still learning BGE fundamentals.

In the end, I think you're doing something right when your neighbors suggest that from now on, they're going to drop meat off at your house, then come over and eat later.

Pics follow.

BigGreenDawg

Hey like you said what counts is the end result, have you done butts before this one? Doesn't look like you have one of the fancy DigiQ's, etc to monitor everything yet. I am going to try the same this weekend without any "artificial intelligence" myself but i read all the time how fantastic they are compared to doing without one. The EGG is a wonderful thing.

Beanie-Bean

Bravo, Dave! I waited a few months before doing one of those. Read a lot of bad press about some train wrecks people had before I did my first one, but I see that you've got this thing down. Congrats! We had the same thing here at our place, with my brother and his family, our good friends and their family, and my parents! We fed off a single roast, and the other one is in the outside fridge now and will be eaten throughout the week. We even sent some home with everybody!

I'm checking out everyone's handiwork on the forum so that I can start meal planning for the week. So far, I've got these ideas from here:

Lamb chops
Chicken quesadillas
Steaks
Shrimp skewers of sorts
Stuffed pork tenderloin
Salmon
Fried rice

I'll do at least two or three cooks during the week and definitely some next holiday weekend.

reelgem

That looks great Dave!! I think you made the right decision. It would've been a shame to have thrown it out.

Little Steven

Dave,

Congratulations!

Steve

Beanie-Bean

Mark,

For me, it was a bit more work to do low-and-slow before I got the DigiQ. That meant hanging out on the back porch with some beers in hand to keep a close eye on the cooker. I also had a wiggle rod fashioned out of a coat hanger to keep the cast iron grate clean of any ash or tiny lump chunks.

I learned that two things will cause the fire/temp to go out of spec:

air flow
fuel

As long as you have plenty of charcoal in there (I tend to load out the larger chunks on the bottom first to help promote adequate airflow) and keep the air flow going, you'll do just fine. And, the food will taste that much better after you're done!

Lookup the Elder Ward pulled pork recipe on the Naked Whiz's site, and he gives the lowdown on how to setup the lump prior to an overnighter.

SSN686

Morning David:

Looks like a weekend for butts! :laugh:

Yours do look mighty fine, good job for the first time!

Panhandle Smoker

Congrats! Looks like it was worth any risk. Thanks for reminding me to get Maw in Law to bring us some more Jack Millers next week. :laugh:

JLOCKHART29

Well done! It will only get better to. Trust me. After a while controling temp will be just like dialing in the water temp for a shower. Don't even have to think about it. That said I do use a Guru for over nights. Working shift work if I get up I may be awake for the next 3 or 4 hours so I like to set it and forget it for the next 8 or 10 hours!

Florida Grillin Girl

David, that was very ambitious for one of your first cooks. Good job. I didn't try anything like that for the first couple of years! Good for you and good luck with your first egg (yeah, I said first!).

Faith
Tampa, FL

Grandpas Grub

Great looking butt there, thanks for posting the pictures. Butt's are always a great cook.

GG

Spring Chicken

You live close enough to Lafayette that you should stop in at Gator Cove Restaurant and meet Chef Wil (Wil Menard). He would enjoy meeting you and he's a good one for tips on using the Egg.

Glad everything turned out well for you.

Spring "Living Large" Chicken
Spring Texas USA

Dude!

Thanks for all the feedback. It's great to be tackling something new and have a great community like this for support and inspiration.

Mike, I agree with you - I'm inspired by looking at people's cooks. This week includes an anniversary and two birthdays, all before the holiday weekend, so yeah, we'll be cookin'!

I'm thinking maybe:

ribs of some sort
another butt, or a brisket
stuffed pork tenderloin
ABTs!
who knows?

Gotta get those gasket burn-in cooks out of the way so I can get to searing steaks and cooking pizza.

Spring - we do Gator Cove for boiled crawfish from time to time, I may have to look Wil up.

Eddie - I try other things, but Jack Miller's is a favorite.