My neighbor asked me to make some pulled pork for them and provided me with two pork butts to do it. Naturally, I had to buy two more for myself! All were cut in half as I usually do to speed up the cook time.
The butts that were on top (theirs) came out great, but the middle rack (ours)... one pulled well, but the other did not. It always seems that the middle rack meat do not do as well as the ones on the top rack.
Total cook time on the 22.5" WSM was 6.5 hours.
My wife wanted chicken tamales, so we decided to make them! This is our first attempt and we followed the recipe on this video: https://youtu.be/XFwHkwUddZQ
My wife does not like certain ingredients, so we took out most of everything on the recipe! We removed the jalapeño peppers, the onions, the cilantro, and the garlic. So what's left?!
Well, we kept the tomatillos with cumin. Yeah, that's about it. Ok, my wife added some salt in there as well. And she added some sugar and some baking soda to counteract the acidic taste of the tomatillos. But believe it or not, it still wasn't too bad! Oh... yeah we took out the lard in the recipe for the masa too. I substituted a cup of canola oil instead. Going forward, my wife wants me to skip the oil and just add more chicken stock. Not sure how that would turn out, but I'm willing to give that a try one day.
Steamed in my double decker steamer for one hour. I added water a couple of times just to be sure it did not run out, but the steamer has a large section for the water so it was always in good shape.
Even though so much was removed, overall, the tamales were still very good! It was not hard at all to make really. Worth trying if you are in the mood for some modified Mexican tamales. Or, make it the way the recipe says if you are ok with those ingredients. Overall, the masa made the taste authentic as well as having the cumin in the sauce.
The tamales are way too thick with the Masa. It should be spread with a thin amount of Masa. I did not realize this. Also, the masa needs to be more wet compared to how I mixed it. I'll know better for next time.
Made bread once again, but this time, I wanted to try a recipe from Tasty: https://youtu.be/91ZXVw58Ths
I followed the directions as stated in the recipe, but suggest not removing the cover for the last 15 minutes during the baking as the video says. Doing so, the top of the bread darkens way too fast and was on the verge of getting burned. The photo above was taken about 35 minutes into the total 45 minute baking time.
I used parchment paper inside the dutch oven to make it easier to remove the bread.
Overall, the bread was decent, but I feel the Challah bread was far better. This bread however, had good crunch to the crust and I baked it until the internal temperature reached 190 degrees.
This was the first time attempting to make bread and it turned out great!
The recipe was found here: https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-challah-bread-181004
I followed the instructions to a tee and my wife braided the bread for me with the six braid method.
Overall, I'd say we did really great! To see a video of the process, go here: https://youtu.be/2CoIJcdIhC4
Edit Note: A second loaf was made the next day that tasted better. It's a bit sweeter. This recipe is most likely better in my opinion: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/four-strand-braided-challah-recipe
I decided to do another $0.99/lb pork butt to see if I could duplicate the great and fast pull from my cook the last time I used the 18.5" smoker. Trying it on the 14.5" smoker, I could not get it to pull as easily last time.
The butt was cut in half like the previous two times... directly right down the middle, meaning it was thicker than I have cut them in the past. The pit temp was set for around 270 degrees for most of the cook time. I wrapped the meat and put in some water in an aluminum foil pan at 3.5 hours into the cook when the meat hit the stall.
Checking on the temp, at 5 hours into the cook, the pit temp was around 249 degrees. The meat was at 186.3 degrees for the portion that had the bone and 193.5 degrees for the one with the bone.
At 7 hours, it was done. The meat never rose past 97 degrees, and was starting to drop, so I figured it was done. I checked with a Thermoworks Thermapen IV thermometer and it was very tender so I knew it was ready.
To see the pull, go to this video I made of the cook and pull: https://youtu.be/eoD2W33pvqA
The meat totally fell apart like the last cook on the 18.5" smoker. At first, I thought it had to be the meat quality. But this one was from Smithfield just like the one on the 14.5" smoker and that one did not pull as easily. Not sure why, but this one was really great.
I had to cook this 14.5 lb Butterball Turkey two days earlier than Thanksgiving Day because we had purchased the turkey too early and it was thawing out in the refrigerator before it should have.
The turkey was brined for a full day in the refrigerator with kosher salt and then dried with a paper towel and then put back into the refrigerator for an hour just to make sure it was dry enough to put oil on the skin and then the rub. I used Weber's Kickin' Chicken on it.
I put the turkey on the 18.5" WSM to smoke at 350 degrees for 3 hours. The smoker had the water pan in there but no water. The charcoal was placed in the smoker without using the minion method to insure that the temperature of the smoker would remain hotter than normal smoking. It did the trick.
I smoked the turkey until the internal temperature of both breasts were at least 157 degrees and then I took the turkey off the smoker. The internal temperature continued to rise during the rest and went to 167 degrees... just 2 degrees higher than the ideal 165 degrees.
The turkey was really good. I removed the skin as usual but it was crispy. Too much salt in that rub, but I had hoped it would impart good flavor into the meat. The turkey was moist throughout. Probably one of the best turkeys I have smoked so far.
I made a YouTube video of this cook which you can see here: https://youtu.be/wBzV6WnBi_I
Trying to duplicate the last cook on the 18.5" WSM, I wanted to see if the 14.5" cooker could do it. While the taste was identical, the meat did not pull apart as easily and had sections that were hard to pull. Even after 8.5 hours, it just did not match.
I think it's all because of the quality of the meat and the fact that the 14.5" smoker could not keep a lower temperature through most of the cook. In the beginning, the temperature was pretty much 315 degrees for at least the first couple of hours. I would have preferred a lower temperature, but it's hard to do any kind of thing similar to the Minion method for charcoal in such a cramped space where the charcoal ring is at.
I refilled the water level once in the smoker and added just a little bit more charcoal about and hour before the cook finished.
Overall, the 14.5" WSM just is a lot harder to keep temps correct for low and slow cooking. Still took 8.5 hours and it wasn't anywhere close to the quality of the easy pulling from the 18.5" WSM cook from last time.
Watch the video for more details.
It's been a while since I last smoked something but the weather was going to hit the 70's today, so I thought I'd smoke up some pork butt!
9.5 lbs of Hormel pork shoulder (bone-in) went on the 18.5" Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker today and I cooked it at 275 degrees to start and then allowed the smoker to drop to the 235 degree range. I cooked the meat until the stall and then wrapped it at around 155 degrees internal temp.
The total time was 9 hours to finish the cook.
This was undoubtedly the BEST pulled pork I've ever made! Total time to pull the meat was perhaps 10 seconds! It literally fell apart. The bone came out cleanly. I think it may be due to the quality of the meat. This Hormel pork shoulder was soft in the packaging unlike other pork shoulder (pork butts) I have bought in the past. The extra nice thing was that it was on sale for only $0.99 per pound! I will get another one and make Char Siu out of it before the sale ends!
