Campground Smoking: The Portable Smoker Debut Part 2 of 2

After the somewhat disappointing debut of the Brinkman on the ribs, I was extremely hesitant about smoking pork shoulder for both of our parents for Alicia's birthday. Pork shoulder is one of those items that takes a long time to smoke, and if not done properly can come out in a manner very opposite of what you have anticipated. Also, my buddy Jacob had recently purchased the Brinkman and told me that his Boston butt had not come out good. Needless to say, I had some reservations about doing this for an occasion of this magnitude.

Campsite Smoker Setup

That said, I decided that since the ribs had not turned out like I intended, I would start the smoker early - about 8:00am, and that I would use the Texas Crutch the entire time. For those of you not familiar, the Texas Crutch is when you wrap your cut in aluminum foil tightly to prevent any loss of moisture. It almost steams the meat with its own juices.

I'll be honest - I'm not a big fan of the Texas Crutch from the beginning because I don't like soppy food, and to be honest, it feels a little bit like cheating. Also, if you use the crutch from the beginning, you lose essentially all of the bark that you get when you smoke without it. Some people don't like bark - particularly those who think big chains have good BBQ. I on the other hand am a big fan, and felt as though using the Texas Crutch was essentially taking the lesser of two evils in this case.

Anyhow, with the smoker going, I gave a small dose of mesquite chips once everything was up to temp. I tightly wrapped the butt and threw it on the smoker. I was a bit nervous, but it was Alicia's birthday, so we spent the day boating around the lake, fishing, and spending time together in the beautiful weather. I came back to check on the meat a couple of times, at four hour intervals. The Brinkman held it's temp surprisingly well.

At about the six hour mark, the coals had begun to die off, and the meat was far from done. This is where the largest shortcoming of the Brinkman is. It has a tiny trap door you see, on the side, under the water pan where the charcoal goes. This is just big enough to be annoying, because you can see the area you'd like to add coals to, but there is hardly anything you can do with it. The other problem is, in order to remove the ash and old coals, you have to take the entire smoker apart; ie - remove the meat, remove the rack, remove the water pan, and then you are stuck reaching 2 feet down into a hot smoker trying to pull out a tray of hot coals - Not your best option!

So, I took a gamble, lit a chimney, and let it get to temp. I then, carefully (read: painstakingly!) removed the coals from the chimney one by one and placed them into the remaining small gaps in the charcoal basket with long tongs. Several times my hands got very hot and I had to take a break because I didn't have mitts since we were camping. I did however manage to get basically all of it in there after about 30 minutes.

While I did lose some cooking time there, the temp had not fallen off completely, and it was back up to operating temperature almost immediately after the charcoal transplant procedure. At this point, people were starting to come over to our campsite and socialize. I told them dinner would be ready around six.

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Despite it's definite downfalls, it came through for me this time!

I was finally able to pull the butt off the smoker at around 6:30. There was no bark. It instantly reminded me of a pot roast. I was mortified. My initial thought was to put the meat directly on the smoker and ramp up the mesquite one last time to try to give it some consistency. The problem was the meat was so tender it was falling apart and that wasn't going to work. Instead, I chose to unwrap the aluminum foil, leave just enough for relocation purposes, and smoked the heck out of it.

After about 20 minutes of this, I pulled the meat off and let it rest for a brief period of time. Once I began to pull the meat, it literally shredded apart like nothing was holding it together. Further, the induction of the final hard smoke outside of the aluminum foil had firmed it up enough and wicked away enough moisture that it no longer felt like a pot roast.

We served the pork with homemade cucumber salad, garden salad, and macaroni and cheese. The pork was served with my Western NC BBQ sauce, normal and spicy versions, and with my Eastern NC BBQ sauce which is what my dad prefers - it is vinegar based.

It was a big success, everyone liked the BBQ, and to be honest, I thought it was awesome. Despite all the anxiety I had over using the Brinkman and under or overcooking or over or under moist were thrown to the wayside when people came back grabbing more BBQ and more sauce. They were amazed that all the sauce we had was homemade because it was so good they said!

The day was a success, and the Brinkman really pulled through. With some painstaking procedure, and a little ingenuity on my part the Brinkman really pulled it out. I'd design a few things differently, things that probably would even raise the cost of production much, but for a cheap smoker it really did great. I was more than surprised that everything came out as well as it did.

Most importantly, Alicia had a wonderful birthday, and our parents first meeting was a great success. They got along really well and I think everyone had a good time. Maybe next time we meet we should do BBQ again, just to make sure everyone stays in a good mood :)

Till next time folks!

Pulled Pork Extravaganza

So, you may have read my last post, Don’t Burn the Burgers! which was written after that weekend, but not posted until yesterday. For that I apologize, and I’m telling this to my readers so you won’t be confused when I write this expose on my pulled pork from last weekend.

The winter can be brutally cold here in Asheville, and despite my one frustrating attempt to smoke chicken this winter in seventeen degree weather with a two degree wind chill, I haven’t been using the smoker much in the “off-season.” Since this past weekend was nice and sunny with highs in the mid 50s and low 60s respectively, I had to get out and fire up the smoker.

I decided I would invite over some friends for some cold beers, good times, and delicious pulled pork. I want to preface by saying that pulled pork and I have a love-hate relationship, since it is probably the one thing I find most frustrating, not because of the flavor, but because of the texture.

Boston butt trimmed and ready for rub

Understanding all that, I want to describe the process by which pulled pork should be properly prepared. Again, all of this stuff is something that anyone who is a backyard chef can do, and if you don’t have a smoker, you can emulate with indirect heat in a large kettle charcoal grill.

First, you must trim your meat. Some folks like to skip this step, gesturing that the fat will melt off over time in the smoker, but I like to go ahead and get a clean rub up front. I want to make sure that my rub is on the meat, not on the fat which is melting away. Trim the fat until there is just a thin layer showing on the “fat side” and then you are ready for rub.

Homemade shaker from a Parmesan can

Rubbing the pork is a crucial step. I’ve done this many ways, including coating the butt with olive oil and then rub, a little apple juice then rub, but my favorite is getting the pork good and dry and literally rubbing the spices into it until it has a nice coating. For my rub, I used a custom homemade concoction, which is a little sweet, a little spicy, and has plenty of salt for tenderizing. My next feature article will be on rubs and BBQ sauces made from scratch, so keep your eyes peeled for that one. I will give you a little preview, and it is my homemade rub distributor – a used parmesan cheese can. For something the size of a Boston butt, it spreads great, doesn’t cause a lot of mess, and keeps your hands clean until you begin rubbing.

After your shoulder is rubbed, I like to let it sit in the house for about an hour. Your meat will not go bad, the temperature will be rising from about 34 degrees to a little closer to room temperature. This also gives you the chance to go fire up your charcoal chimney, and get your smoker ready for the meat.

Boston butt seasons and sitting before the smoke

After the smoker is fired up, the temperature should be normalized right at 225 degrees. This is a perfect temperature for slow and low smoking as I have explained previously. With the smoker normalized, place it on the grill grate, above a pan of water (I custom fabricated my smoker to have a shallow one built in which doubles as a heat shield to the firebox.

Close the cover, and keep your eyes on the temperature. Do your best to keep the temperature around 225 degrees throughout the smoke.

After about four hours, I like to take my butt off the smoker and wrap it in aluminum foil. This is colloquially known as the “Texas Crutch.” This will preserve moisture in the meat. Some folks don’t like doing this for a butt because of its sheer size, but for me, it produces the best results. Remember, I don’t have a $1200 smoker.

After that, just keep an eye on your pig, checking it every couple hours or so. The total cook time should take 1.5 hours per pound. For me, this never holds true, and I always end up having to cook it longer for some reason. The internal temperature of pork is not done until it is at least 160 degrees according to the USDA. The ideal temperature for a Boston butt is 190 degrees, because at that temperature it has fully broken down the meat inside. I didn’t quite get mine to 190, closer to about 185, but that was fine because people were getting hungry, and the meat still turned out awesome!

Boston butt ready to be pulled

Once your pork is done, pull it off the smoker and let it sit inside for 30-45 minutes. When mine is “resting” I like to keep it wrapped in aluminum foil to retain heat and moisture. This gives the juices inside a chance to reset, and normalize. It also will allow the pork to cool enough that you can pull it without burning your fingers (been there, done that!)

After your pork has sat for that time period, you can begin pulling it. I simply take two forks, and pull it into large chunks. Once I have those, I pull it into smaller chunks, more manageable for a sandwich. I pull it and toss it into a bowl, and it is ready to eat!

Have your guests serve themselves with tongs and buns on paper plates! I live in Western North Carolina, where the sauce of choice is typically a tomato based, so I had that in two forms – normal and spicy. Additionally, since I am from the Piedmont of North Carolina, my favorite is Eastern NC style which is a vinegar based, so I had that available as well. I’ll be featuring recipes for these sauces along with my rubs in my next piece.

My friends loved it. I had a 6 pound shoulder, and about 10 people over eating and it was all gone – you do the math – with potato and macaroni salad, cole slaw, and macaroni and cheese, each person still manage to eat on average over a half a pound of pork.

Please come back and read up on the sauces and rub feature coming before the end of this week and check back regularly!