Requested a 3lb (ish) bone in pork shoulder from my local butcher, and also a 2lb piece of brisket (can't remember if it was point or flat). I cut the rind off the pork (which my butcher had kindly scored for me) and put to one side to be turned into crackling. Used up the final bits of rub I had left over from my first attempt at smoking and put this all over both the brisket and pork on the Friday evening.
Also made few additional modifications to the smoker, namely a much improved fire basket made from recycled pyromesh (see my other thread "2nd Smoke - Gammon Joint")
B&Q were also selling off their BBQ gear cheap a couple of weeks ago, so I grabbed a box of lava rock and filled the bottom of the cooking chamber with them to try and help regulate and even out the temperature (covered this with tin foil to keep em clean
). Also picked up a Chimney starter for £6, how did I ever live without one of these?!Smoker fired up on Sat at 8:00am, and meat out of fridge at the same time to take the chill off...
Both pieces went into the smoker at 8:30am
I only have two probe thermometer's, so one went into the pork and one was to monitor the chamber temp. I figured my smoker was not hot enough when I first tried pulled pork, so this time I was aiming to keep the smoker somewhere between 110c and 125c. Also, I decided to predominantly use charcoal, supplemented with pieces of oak. The improved grate meant I could put more charcoal on without it all falling through. Worked really well!
Both pork and brisket were double wrapped in foil once they hit 65c, which took about 2.5 to 3 hours, during which time the temp of the smoker varied considerably unfortunately, and it took a lot of effort to keep it ticking over.
The pork was wrapped up with some value apple juice, whilst the brisket was wrapped up with some homebrew IPA. ** bit of advice, be careful when putting the probe into the meat once wrapped, because it's easy to pierce the bottom and lose whatever juice you've thrown in**
The target temp was 91c for both. I admit I focussed mainly on the pork, and this meant the brisket, being smaller, hit it's temperature a lot sooner without me realising, so it was a bit overcooked I think (this was remedied however
)Took another 4 hours from being foiled to reaching target temp. What I found interesting is that for most of those 4 hours, the smoker stayed at a very even temperature, only needing small amounts of fuel every now and again to keep it going. So I think my crucial error at the start, was not putting enough fuel in to begin with, but I guess that's part of the process of learning how your smoker operates. I now know visually what I should be looking for in terms of the amount burning fuel to keep my smoker at about 115 - 125c, something that is difficult to learn from the internet despite the mountains of advice and help!
So the meat was taken out after 4 hours, double wrapped in towels and put in a cool box to relax for another 1 and half hours whilst the crackling got shoved into the oven! Then it be pullin time...(the smell was amazing at this point)
Oh yeah, and slicing time for the brisket too!
The brisket was a bit dry unfortunately, partly fue to being in the smoker for too long I think, and also because all the juices poured out when I pierced the foiled by accident. So to rescue this, I put about 1/3 of pint of the homebrew IPA in a pan, some tommy K, a stock cube and some worcester sauce. Let it reduce a little bit (5 mins or so) and poured this all over the the sliced brisket. This transformed it, and I got away with it by the skin of my teeth I reckon.
The pork on the other hand...
...came out perfectly! (as did the bone by the way!) So I was rather chuffed! Ate it all with a vinegar sauce (don't have the recipe to hand) and some seriously excellent homemade coleslaw.
Not sure when the next smoke will be, but I'm thinking probably Christmas.
