Wood smoke, beef, pork, chicken

[Stay Sharp]

Picked up a little meat for a smoke-a-palooza weekend

A 12 pound beef brisket

12 pounds of pork Boston Butt

And 11 pounds of fresh chicken.

I will smoke this mess of grub with a mixture of Hickory and apple wood.

The chicken will be finished first, then the pork and then brisket. The brisket may spend up to 12 hours in the smoker.

I love smoking days.

The Brisket rub is made and rubbed on the meat 12 hours prior to smoking.
½ cup paprika

½ cup brown sugar

3 tblsp chili powder

3 tblsp onion powder

3 tblsp garlic powder

3 tblsp seasoned salt

1 tblsp cayenne pepper powder

3 tblsp black pepper

2 tblsp oregano

Use rubber gloves and rub the spices into the meat and let it sit in the fridge over night.

 

[Stay Sharp]

I got the fire lit in the smoker at 6:30 am. Then it was time to rub mustard on my Butt (s) and a secret blend of herbs and spices.

Then I split the chickens and gave them a rub down of not so secret spices.

Then it was into the preheated smoker with the lot of it. The two pans in the bottom are filled with water and beer.

I’ll use hickory chunks to start out with and switch to apple later in the day.

 

[River Rat]

Awesome, thanks for sharing.

 

[Stay Sharp]

The smoke is great smelling in the morning.

Now its time to wait. Occasionally spraying the pork and beef with the mop sauce. I have a temp probe in the thickest part of the brisket and another probe checking internal air temps in the smoker.

The chickens are the first ones done. They look nicely smoked. Time to prepare the rest of the supper menu.

 

[Stay Sharp]

The pork done next. The combination of the smoke, and the mop sauce on the spice rub gives a dark look. Beneath that bark is juicy smoked pork goodness.

The pork is pulled.

Dinner is served while the brisket finishes

 

[Stay Sharp]

12 hours after it began the brisket has reached 188 degrees F. This was a really thick and fatty brisket (all the better) and the amount of juice it let loose when I cut into it was amazing. The groove around the cutting board didn’t hold it all. We captured this flavor in a quart jar to be used when the meat is reheated.

I cut it into meal sized chunks that (once cooled) can be vacuum sealed and frozen. The brisket can be reheated right in the sealer bags and sliced once warmed. I will divide the juice and freeze it as well to serve with the meat. This might be my best one yet. Its been a long day and I smell like a piece of smoked meat. I need a shower.

 

[Stay Sharp]

I ordered a 60 pound case of boneless pork picnic shoulders for a variety of projects. (What the hell happened to meat prices?? What I used to buy at .88 cents a pound was $1.60 a pound ) anyway, I took 30 pounds of venison out of the freezer so I could make a 60 pound batch of breakfast sausage. Then I cut up a few of the pork shoulders into small pieces for grinding.

Then ground them together.

Our family likes the Hi Mountain brand of breakfast sausage seasoning so I got a few boxes. I mixed it with a quart of cold water and 4 tablesthingys of crushed red pepper flakes for some heat.

Then I grind it again through a smaller plate.

 

[Stay Sharp]

Then I convert the grinder into a stuffer and bulk pack it.

In order to continue pork-a-palooza, I saved 15 pounds of butts for the smoker tomorrow. It will spend the day in the new smoker.

Since the trees have already budded out and I know some of the apple trees at the back of ourproperty need trimming, I killed two birds with one stone.

There is a soon-to-be Bacon palooza pictorial coming at some point and I plan to use apple wood so it will be ready when the time comes. This is more than enough for today.

 

[Stay Sharp]

Then all the butts get a rub down

Then into the new smoker for the day.

 

[Stay Sharp]

The half way point in smoking.

After 8 hours in the smoker, the pork butts were ready for pulling.

Pulling pork is a perpetual pain in the posterior and something I wanted to speed up so I went to Ace hardware and bought a cast iron floor drain (like you probably have in your basement floor) a few 3/8 bolts and nuts and a 12 inch long bolt to make the perfect pork puller.

I invited the folks from Youtube over to have some pork and to video the perfect pork puller in action. The pork is only minutes out of the smoker and very hot. You will notice the steam. The Youtube folks were nice and all but they sure can eat. Click below to watch the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqHytg7Rk2U


I only pulled two of the butts, the other 3 will be vacuum sealed and frozen for another day. Then I added just a splash of BBQ sauce to the two I pulled and mixed it tp.

 

[Stay Sharp]

Add some beans, potato salad, a bun and a big frosty beverage and call it day.

 

[BKHunter]

Jesus man......You can cook

 

[buckbull]

Love your posts StaySharp. I always buy my pork butts during labor day weekend. Grocery stores around here always have them on sale really cheap. $.69 per pound was the cheapest I found this year. Of course, you need the freezer room to store them.

 

[Stay Sharp]

You are correct. Prior to labor Day this year I found a deal and bought 130 Lbs of pork butt that I needed to smoke for two archery club functions. I saved a boat load by waiting.