9 lbs of Pork Butt on the 18.5" Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker

Started my 9 lbs of pork butt at 5 AM this morning for pulled pork! I hope to serve it by 12 noon today to some friends.

Smoking with apple wood with water in the water pan and placed in the 18.5" WSM. The rub is a combination of Kick Butt Rib Rub's Chipotle Honey and a touch of Famous Dave's and also some cayenne pepper for a bit of kick.

Pit temp averaged around 260-270 degrees. I will cook them until they are around 202 degrees. I cut the butts in half as I usually do for more bark and for a faster cook time. I've done it this way so often now that I'm confident it will pull nicely and cook quicker. My wife took one piece of the two cut pork butts to use to make some potstickers, which left me with 3 pieces. Since the total weight of the two butts were 12 lbs, I estimate I still have around 9 lbs for smoking.

The photo is of the pork just before wrapping at 3 hours and 45 mins into the cook. A bit of apple juice was placed into disposable aluminum pans and covered with aluminum foil covers. The pieces each registered around 157 degrees. I sprayed apple juice on the meat every hour.

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The first pork came out after 5 hours and hit 203 degrees internal.  Pulled really easily.  The other two finished an hour later in 6 hours.

Field Company No. 8 Cast Iron Skillet - Christmas Gift

I received a Field Company No. 8 cast iron skillet from my daughter and future son-in-law as a Christmas Gift!  It is beautiful!

If you are looking for a very smooth surfaced cast iron skillet, you would be hard pressed to find a better one than a Field Company skillet!  For modern skillets, most are very rough in cooking surface (check out modern Lodge skillets!) but there are a number of American companies now offering their versions of how cast iron was made in the past.

I have many skillets from vintage companies like Griswold and Lodge and even a Blacklock skillet (my oldest skillet) and I gave away my vintage Wagner-Ware skillets to my future son-in-law.  He returned the favor by getting me this modern Field Company skillet!  What a beauty!  It is no doubt the smoothest cast iron skillet I now own.

I'm going to season all of my cast iron skillets today.  It's not that hard to do, but a necessity if you own cast iron.  I highly suggest following the instructions of my Facebook buddy Jeff Rogers - The Culinary Fanatic.  Check out this instructional video! and also the second half of this video.

Thanks to my daughter and future son-in-law for the extravagent gift!

Here is my current cast iron collection before seasoning (it was bigger in the past, but these are all "users" for me!)

A Better Batch of Turkey Jook!

I made another batch of Turkey Jook... but this time, I only put in a small amount of chicken bouillon and ground pepper.  I did not add salt.  After cooking the jook in the pressure cooker twice like last time, I added six Century Eggs (preserved duck eggs) and my wife diced up some tofu.

This batch was a LOT better than the last time!  A dash of sesame oil and oyster sauce just before serving are the finishing touches.  Very smooth and flavorful!

Pressure cooking jook is the way to go!  Do not overload the pot with water though!  Cook on high until the pressure builds and steam is starting to escape.  Turn off the fire and let the jook sit in the pot until all the pressure has released by itself.  Do not force remove the pressure.  Once it is done, open the lid and stir and add a little more water.  REPEAT.  After the second time,  you'll find that the jook is even more smooth and creamy!  Doesn't take long to do.  It's the waiting around for the pressure to release itself that takes the time.  But that added time in the cooker while it naturally releases itself is helping to soften the rice kernels.  Don't rush it!

Instant Pot users can obviously do this in their pressure cooker as well.

Turkey Jook - Rice Congee

Yesterday I cooked a 24 lb turkey.  Today, I made Turkey Jook!  Jook is also known as rice congee... but I've always known it as jook!

I took the turkey bones and pieces of turkey and a small amount of rice with a large amount of water and put it in a pressure cooker.  I let it run on high heat until the pressure was built up and then turned off the fire from the stove.  After slowly sitting in the pot until the pressure released naturally from the vent, I did it once again.  After perhaps a total of 40 minutes or so of cook time, it was done.

Seasoning included a small amount of salt, pepper, soy sauce and chicken bouillon.  I added a touch of sesame oil into the bowl just before serving.  It was great!  The only thing missing was a Century Egg (aka: 100 year old egg).  These are the eggs they served contestants on the TV Show "Fear Factor"!  They are preserved duck eggs.  Powerful, but if you are used to it like I am, they are also quite tasty in jook!

24 lb Turkey on the 22.5" Weber Smokey Mountain

I am cooking another turkey!  This one is 24 lbs and will be cooked on the 22.5" WSM.

This time I put minimal amount of rub on the turkey (Pork Barrel BBQ) and brined the turkey overnight with less salt.  I could not get one of the wings to tuck backwards like I usually do and you can see it hanging out in the photo.  The drumsticks were tied back with cooking twine.  I wiped on some vegetable oil on the turkey so that the skin will brown nicely.

I am cooking the turkey without wood today so it's just charcoal, no smoke.  The water pan is in the smoker with a foiled pizza pan sitting in the pan, but no water is added.  This allows the smoker to get a high pit temperature of 345 degrees.  I am monitoring with 3 probes in the turkey (one in the leg - later moved to the thigh and one in each breast) and 1 pit temperature probe.  Two ThermoWorks Smoke thermometers are doing the monitoring.

I'm not going to do much at all to the turkey... just let it run in the smoker! I'll cook until the two breasts reach at least 165 degrees internal temp, but may remove it from the smoker at 160 degrees since the turkey will likely carry over and continue to cook to 165 even after removing it. I will probably spray the skin with Apple juice every hour however.

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One hour into the cook:

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Two hours into the cook and the pit temp has dropped to 324 degrees.

The photo below is three hours into the cook.  I added more charcoal hoping to raise the pit temp which is now at 267 degrees.  (15 minutes later after adding the extra briquets... the temp is now risen to 300 degrees.)

4 hours and the internal breast temperatures are at 155 degrees and 162 degrees.  The one breast seems to be constantly lagging behind the other.  The thigh temp is only at 154 degrees, which is surprising to me.  Typically, they say you need the thigh temp up in the 180 degree area to be considered "done".  I'm fearful that letting the turkey sit that long to get it up to 180 degrees will dry out the breast of this turkey!  So, I think I am just going to let the breast get to 170 degrees max and call it a day regardless of where the thigh temp is at.  I'm going to move the probe on the thigh to the other thigh to see where that is at.  I'll also use my ThermoWorks Thermapen Mk IV to spot check temps in other areas.

The photo below is 4 hours into the cook:

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The finished product after 5 hours of cooking:

7 lb Pork Butt on the 18.5" Weber Smokey Mountain

Once again, I'm smoking a pork butt!  This time it is a 7 lb butt (8.16 lbs, but I trimmed off most of the fat cap) on the 18.5" WSM.  I am using Cherry Wood for the smoke this time and as usual, I cut the butt in half to speed up the cooking time.  The rubs are a combination of Kick Butt Rib Rub - Hickory and Famous Dave's Rib Rub along with a touch of cayenne pepper and paprika.  Water is in the water pan and a "pizza pan" with foil is on top of it to aid in the clean up later.

I'm smoking the meat at around 265 degrees on average. The temp outdoors today is 40 degrees and very little wind.  I expect it should take around 6-7 hours like my last cook, but both sections of the cut butt are on the top grate.  I'm monitoring with my ThermoWorks Smoke thermometers again with a probe in each of the cut sections and a probe monitoring the pit temp.  I'll continue until the meat stalls and then will place them into a foil pan and cover the top of the pan with an aluminum pan cover.  Apple juice will be added to the pan very little to keep the humidity in there.  I'll also spritz every hour until the time to wrap.
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One hour into the cook:

Two hours into the cook:

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The meat has stalled at 153 degrees.  It's been at this temp for about 1/2 hour and it's now at 3 hours into the cook, so I'm going to put the meat in an aluminum pan and cover it with an aluminum top as well.  I'll put some apple juice into the pan to keep the meat moist as it plows through the stall and finishes the cook.

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I had to go out with my wife for about an hour, so I couldn't continue monitoring the cook.  When I got back, my ThermoWorks Smoke receiver was in the alarm mode showing that my pit temp had dropped to 205 degrees!  The meat temps had also dropped as they were around 185 degrees when I left, but it was now showing 172 degrees.  I couldn't tell if the meat had reached the desired 197 degrees and then started dropping due to the pit temp dropping or if it never even reached it.  This is where having the Gateway option for the Smoke thermometers would have come in handy!

Regardless, I decided I'd just stop the cook since I was getting hungry anyway.  Turns out the meat wasn't at the point of having the collagen and connective tissues ready for a pull, so the meat was somewhat harder to pull.  Regardless, the taste was really great and the texture was actually quite good.  I'm actually ok with it not pulling totally apart.  It felt like a really soft steak in texture rather than pulled pork, but that made it kind of unique.  I also think I like having a bit of heat in the rubs by adding the cayenne pepper.  Here's what the final product looked like before the pull.  Total cook time was 6 hours, 20 mins.

Second Engagement Party - Pulled Pork

In preparation for a second engagement party for my daughter's upcoming wedding, I am smoking 13 lbs of pork butt for pulled pork on the 18.5" Weber Smokey Mountain smoker.

This time, I am using Famous Dave's Rib Rub with Apple Wood for smoke.  I've never used this rub before, so I hope it's ok.  As I usually do, I purchased the butts from Costco and cut each butt in half for faster cooking.  The outside temp is currently 19 degrees with very little wind, so I am not going to wrap the smoker with a welder's blanket.  After 1/2 hour, the pit temp is hovering around 244 degrees.  I am monitoring the two pieces of pork butt in the middle grate and also the larger of the two pieces of pork butt on the top grate.  The pit probe is on the top grate.  I am monitoring with four probes, but now I wish I had five!  I am using two ThermoWorks Smoke units.

I'll let the smoke go until the meat is well into the stall and then put the butts in aluminum pans and will cover the pans with aluminum foil.  I'll spritz the meat with apple juice every hour and put some apple juice in the aluminum pans.  I expect to go around 6 hours which would be just in time for the party.  The meat was placed in the smoker at 6:50 AM.
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Two Hours into the cook:

The meat stalled at about 3 hours into the cook.  Temps were 153, 159, 164 degrees.  I don't know what the last meat was on the top grate since I didn't have a probe in it and I didn't remember to take it with a Thermapen.
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The finished product.  This is the meat from the top rack.  It finished at 195 degrees after 6.5 hours.  I could not wait any longer since guests were anxious to eat, but even at 195 degrees, it pulled easily.  Lots of compliments from my guests too!  The meat in the second grate was pulled out after 7.5 hours, but the internal temps only reached 185 and 191 degrees!  Still, the temperature probe was easily poked into the meat and when I pulled it, it was even softer than the first!  Who knows why the temp didn't reach my normal 202 degrees, but it turned out great anyway!!

Getting My Priorities Straight - It's Shoveled for a Turkey Cook!

With the first snow, you just got to get your priorities straight!  Yes, it's shoveled and ready to go!

I decided to smoke a 13 lb Butterball turkey on this first snow day.  The pit temp hovered around 350 degrees and only dropped to 300 degrees after the cook was around 2.75 hours.  I monitored the cook with two ThermoWorks Smoke thermometers.  I kept an eye on the pit temp and three other probes were set in the turkey.  One probe was in each breast and one was in one of the thighs.

I decided I would let the breasts' internal temperature get to 167 degrees in the breasts before taking the turkey out of the smoker.  Throughout most of the cook, the thigh was always 5-10 degrees hotter than the breast.  One breast was almost always 10 degrees hotter than the other, but towards the end of the cook, the two breasts were only 1 degree different from each other.  The thigh however ended up 10 degrees higher than the breasts.

I used Weber's Kickin' Chicken rub on the turkey and sprayed it with Canola Oil spray to help the skin crisp up and get a nice brown tan.  The wood was Apple wood.

Took 5 days to thaw.  I brined it in salted water overnight.

1/2 Hour into the cook:

2 hours into the cook.  I decided to tent the turkey with some aluminum foil to keep it from getting too dark.  I just laid the foil on top lightly.

Monitoring the pit temp, thigh temp and both breasts:

The final product.  3 hours for a 13 lb turkey.  Not too bad.

I believe the key to the quickness of this cook was the high temp of the pit. 

I cooked with the water pan in place, but did not put in any water.  The higher temp crisped the skin.

A Second ThermoWorks Smoke Thermometer

Thanks to a Facebook forum member for selling his ThermoWorks Smoke to me for half the retail price!  With my other Smoke thermometer, now I will have one monitoring the middle grate food and  one monitoring the top grate food on my WSM or I can run one on one smoker and another on a second smoker!  I put a piece of electrical tape on one to distinguish the middle grate set from the top grate set.  Or, I can monitor three sets of meats while one probe monitors the pit temp.

Looking forward to trying it all out together!

Thanksgiving Day - Nov 22, 2018

Thanksgiving Day started out with my wife and me making cookies.  Ok, she did most of the work.  Later, I made fried rice to bring to the Thanksgiving feast at my brother-in-law John's home.

As usual, there was an abundance of food!  I'm sure I didn't even photograph all of it!  Very thankful to have wonderful family to celebrate with every year.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Believe it or not, but that's 12 eggs in that wok!

Added dark soy sauce and salt and chicken bouillon.

Two pounds of frozen mixed vegetables added.

The finished product... lots of fried rice (a mix of long grain and basmati rice).

Turkey!

A whole pig!