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!

Smoke Versus Fire

INTRODUCTION
The age old debate is in grilling is gas versus charcoal. While there are benefits and detriments to each method of cooking a cut of meat, large or small, I want to focus specifically on smoking meat with charcoal versus grilling meat with gas. Some of the comparison will bring to light deficiencies in charcoal and gas generally, but this is a specific comparison of smoking with charcoal and grilling with gas.

The reason for this is that you can modify this comparison any number of ways. You can smoke with gas, or grill with charcoal. Personally, I think if you are grilling items like hamburgers or chicken, charcoal should be reserved for portable situations, like tailgating. Likewise, I am a firm believer that if you are smoking something it should be with charcoal (or wood if you have the equipment) and that gas or electrics cheapen the process.

Below you will find an overview of each, and some detail on their application. I will close with my final thought on the comparison.

CHARCOAL SMOKER
The charcoal smoker is in some ways an evolution of cooking since the beginning of time. Charcoal is just a simple way to have a controlled wood fire, and putting it in a smoker helps you obtain a safe environment, and (semi) stable cooking temperatures. Smoking with charcoal is a great way to enjoy an entire afternoon or day outside with your dinner, watching it progress over time.

The Benefits
As previously alluded to, charcoal smoking is particularly good at cooking large cuts of meat. These include things like pork shoulders, beef briskets, beef and pork loins, whole chickens and turkeys, pork and beef ribs, and really, anything else that is over 5lbs and could benefit from sitting in a smoke filled chamber for 4-12 hours.

The reason that this piece of equipment is so well suited to these types of cuts is because of its ability to cook at a low temperature over time, and the ability to force a smoke flavor onto the food. Sitting somewhere between 200-250 degrees (I prefer 225, but opinions vary) you can hold that temperature and smoke the meet to the point that it is so tender it falls apart at the touch of a fork for some things. For most cuts, you should be able to get a nice crisp outside, a smoke ring (I'll be doing a post on this soon) and a mind-blowing, juicy inside.

The Detriments
The downsides to charcoal smoking are almost as numerous as the upsides, depending on how you look at it. First of all, charcoal is not cheap. You could easily spend $20 on charcoal that you would use in a day with a fully loaded smoker and 12+ hours of smoking. By comparison, you could spend about $20 for a propane tank exchange, and it would last you for dozens of grilling sessions. Also, charcoal is dirty; you have to clean up the ash and you have to wait for it to cool down before you can do that. There may also be problems depending on your setup and duration of a smoke with ash interfering with oxygen flow to your coals. Finally, you have to wait for charcoal to be ready, which depending on your setup could take anywhere between 20 minutes to an hour.

GAS GRILL
The gas grill is also an amazing innovation. The idea that without ever striking a matchbook or flicking a stick lighter, you can have a burning hot grill in 10 minutes is quite appealing. Whether it is a piped in natural gas unit, a sub-$100 unit from the hardware store, or a massive expensive ceramic lined unit, the general mechanics are the same. Gas grills are best suited to quick fires for hot items, and easy cooks during the week.

The Benefits
Gas grills are perfect for smaller cuts of meat, as well as items sensitive to charcoal or wood smoke. Gas grills are great for quick fire items, like beef steak (cook with the cover OPEN please) or more medium fire items like chicken breasts, drums or wings. It's also very good at fish like salmon, also shrimp, vegetables, hamburgers, hotdogs, and yes, even fruit!

Gas grills are substantially cheaper to operate than charcoal, create very little mess which means very little cleanup, and are usually ready in about 10-15 minutes. They are also extremely stable once the temperature is set, and very easy to change the temperature on if you didn't have it quite right to begin with.

The Detriments
The number one detriment to a gas grill, is that it isn't charcoal! What I mean by that is that it doesn't produce the smoke, the flavor, or the general experience that cooking with charcoal does. Most inexpensive home gas grills are also extremely difficult if not impossible to keep at a low enough temperature to cook even medium cuts, like a small roast or a rack of baby backs. There is also always the problem of running out of propane mid-grill if you are not prepared.

CONCLUSION
There you have it - a brief overview of the benefits and detriments of each cooking tool / method. For your big cuts, stick to smoking it low and slow. It produces better flavor, and you can make an entire day out of it with friends if you like. For an evening dinner, or an afternoon of burgers or similar sized fare, go ahead and fire up the gas grill. By the time your charcoal smoker would have been ready to put the meat on, dinner will be done!