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When I fire up a smoker, I always cook for the next 5-6 days, and put leftovers in the freezer for the coldest parts of the winter. This weekend's cook included a 2 1/2 lb chuck roast, a rack of spare ribs, stuffed chilis, and pork for pulling.
For the roasted chilis, I used New Mexico Chilis stuffed with Bob Evans original sausage, diced roma tomato, mushrooms and fresh rosemary.
I used my cabinet smoker and put them on the top shelf(the coolest position) for about an hour during the middle of the cook.
I smoked a chuckie which was marinated in a margarita marinade; just over a shot of tequila, 1/2T triple sec, rounded 1/2t salt, and about 6-7 oz of Mountain Dew. It all went into a ziplock bag overnite. In the morning I used my own beef rub which contains onion, pepper, chili powder, a little sugar, salt and spices.
I also did a rack of spare ribs, which was rubbed with Big Ron's Hint of Houston rub several hours before going in the smoker. Here's the chuck, the spare ribs, and some trimmings from the spare that I smoked for cook's treats during the smoke, in the pan with it.
Here's what was left of the chuck after I sliced it.... I think I ate almost 1/3 of it while I was slicing it.
I mopped the spare a couple times, using apple juice with a bit of rub in it, during the last couple hours it was in the smoker.
I also made pulled pork for a family gathering that was yesterday, the reason I'm just now getting this posted today. I had a pork loin in the freezer and bought a pork butt to smoke along with it for pulled pork. I had wanted to do a comparison of loin vs butt for pulled pork for some time, because although it goes against conventional wisdom to use pork loin for pulled pork, I'm not a conventional guy, so I thought it would be interesting. Here's a picture of the pork loin and butt ready to go into the smoker. To see how that turned out go to: Pulled Pork: Butt vs Loin
Here's a picture of the smoker, all loaded up, right after adding some wwod chunks to the coals, It looks tight, but there's around 3/4" of space separating each meat from the shelf above it. The bottom shelf is the warmest, and the top shelf the coolest, so I arrange what I'm cooking accordingly.
I use an 8" fire ring to contain the coals. Above the fire, I have a square cast iron smoker box that came with the smoker, turned upside down and filled with lava rock. That both acts as a diffuser, and also holds a lot of heat, so when I open the cooker to check the meat or add fuel, it gets back up to temperature in about 5 minutes(in this weather, anyway... about 74° when I was using the smoker). That's a drip pan on top of that.... no water pan needed because there's usually plenty of moisture inside on account of loading it up with meat, etc when I cook. The ash pan on the bottom came with a coal grate in it which put the coals only 1/2" from the bottom of the pan. That wasn't near enough room for ash, and the fire smothered easily from ash buildup. I eliminated the ash buildup problem by using two grates turned 90° to each other, laid across the top of the ash pan so smaller bits don't fall through so easily when using lump.
I've tried several different sizes of fire rings and the 8" ring(thie sides of a cookie tin) is all I need to keep it up to temperature well. The lowest rack is usually somewhere between 235-260° and the shelves above are each somewhat cooler as you go up. The shelf with the thermometer laying on it was between 225° and 245° during most of this cook. I also drilled a couple of 1/4" holes on each side to I can check the temperature from side to side at various heights with candy thermometers that I stick through the holes. There was a steady 15-18 mph breeze from the west that was making one side run hotter than the other, so shortly after I took this picture I leaned a large board against one side of the smoker for a windbreak.
Much of the reason for using the small fire ring and coming up with the diffuser/heat sink idea was for efficiency. We're not quite retirement age, and it's lean times right now, so we have to economize. That's also the reason I always load up either of my smokers when I cook. I'd rather spend more money on better eats, and less on feeding the fire. This cook ended up taking 11 hours until the pork butt was up to 195°, and I used between 2 and 2 1/2 Weber chimneys of charcoal and 12-14 lumps or small splits of hardwood. I have more time to plan and to cook than I did when my business was thriving, and thanks to having the extra time for BBQ and grilling(which I also do once a week) we're eating better, and more, meat, than any time in our lives. We're both diabetics, largely controlling it with our diets, so all this Q goes well with a low carb diet!!
For the roasted chilis, I used New Mexico Chilis stuffed with Bob Evans original sausage, diced roma tomato, mushrooms and fresh rosemary.
I used my cabinet smoker and put them on the top shelf(the coolest position) for about an hour during the middle of the cook.
I smoked a chuckie which was marinated in a margarita marinade; just over a shot of tequila, 1/2T triple sec, rounded 1/2t salt, and about 6-7 oz of Mountain Dew. It all went into a ziplock bag overnite. In the morning I used my own beef rub which contains onion, pepper, chili powder, a little sugar, salt and spices.
I also did a rack of spare ribs, which was rubbed with Big Ron's Hint of Houston rub several hours before going in the smoker. Here's the chuck, the spare ribs, and some trimmings from the spare that I smoked for cook's treats during the smoke, in the pan with it.
Here's what was left of the chuck after I sliced it.... I think I ate almost 1/3 of it while I was slicing it.
I mopped the spare a couple times, using apple juice with a bit of rub in it, during the last couple hours it was in the smoker.
I also made pulled pork for a family gathering that was yesterday, the reason I'm just now getting this posted today. I had a pork loin in the freezer and bought a pork butt to smoke along with it for pulled pork. I had wanted to do a comparison of loin vs butt for pulled pork for some time, because although it goes against conventional wisdom to use pork loin for pulled pork, I'm not a conventional guy, so I thought it would be interesting. Here's a picture of the pork loin and butt ready to go into the smoker. To see how that turned out go to: Pulled Pork: Butt vs Loin
Here's a picture of the smoker, all loaded up, right after adding some wwod chunks to the coals, It looks tight, but there's around 3/4" of space separating each meat from the shelf above it. The bottom shelf is the warmest, and the top shelf the coolest, so I arrange what I'm cooking accordingly.
I use an 8" fire ring to contain the coals. Above the fire, I have a square cast iron smoker box that came with the smoker, turned upside down and filled with lava rock. That both acts as a diffuser, and also holds a lot of heat, so when I open the cooker to check the meat or add fuel, it gets back up to temperature in about 5 minutes(in this weather, anyway... about 74° when I was using the smoker). That's a drip pan on top of that.... no water pan needed because there's usually plenty of moisture inside on account of loading it up with meat, etc when I cook. The ash pan on the bottom came with a coal grate in it which put the coals only 1/2" from the bottom of the pan. That wasn't near enough room for ash, and the fire smothered easily from ash buildup. I eliminated the ash buildup problem by using two grates turned 90° to each other, laid across the top of the ash pan so smaller bits don't fall through so easily when using lump.
I've tried several different sizes of fire rings and the 8" ring(thie sides of a cookie tin) is all I need to keep it up to temperature well. The lowest rack is usually somewhere between 235-260° and the shelves above are each somewhat cooler as you go up. The shelf with the thermometer laying on it was between 225° and 245° during most of this cook. I also drilled a couple of 1/4" holes on each side to I can check the temperature from side to side at various heights with candy thermometers that I stick through the holes. There was a steady 15-18 mph breeze from the west that was making one side run hotter than the other, so shortly after I took this picture I leaned a large board against one side of the smoker for a windbreak.
Much of the reason for using the small fire ring and coming up with the diffuser/heat sink idea was for efficiency. We're not quite retirement age, and it's lean times right now, so we have to economize. That's also the reason I always load up either of my smokers when I cook. I'd rather spend more money on better eats, and less on feeding the fire. This cook ended up taking 11 hours until the pork butt was up to 195°, and I used between 2 and 2 1/2 Weber chimneys of charcoal and 12-14 lumps or small splits of hardwood. I have more time to plan and to cook than I did when my business was thriving, and thanks to having the extra time for BBQ and grilling(which I also do once a week) we're eating better, and more, meat, than any time in our lives. We're both diabetics, largely controlling it with our diets, so all this Q goes well with a low carb diet!!
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