I'm doing 160 pounds or so of pulled pork for a benefit lunch at church tomorrow. I did half of the butts last night and the other half are going on about 4:00 this afternoon. I didn't take pics last night... but will try to remember to this afternoon.
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That's a lot of meat Brent:-)


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Sorry for the delay, fellas. Life has been crazy.

It DID happen and it WAS delicious.


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:-)
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Nice smoke ring! :-)
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Nice avatar. :-)
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For all you BBQers and mad grillers, a way to show your stuff to the general public. It's a way to say, "You want BBQ, I know how to get it!"

http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/showthread.php?t=45845
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I can't believe it....I smoked my first Bacon and did not take a single photo.
What was I thinking? I have good and bad news. Good news is I didn't kill myself.
I thought that if I was making my own bacon, there is no way I was putting in nitrates
of any kind. So I strictly salted it and added sugar and garlic and mustard for the "cure".
The good news is I sliced some up last night and fried it up and it was good...great.

The bad news is now my face muscles are paralyzed. Any ideas??


Haha, I am kidding. No Botulism. Bad news was I can tell now what I got. It wasn't just
a pork belly sliced into easy to smoke slabs. It was trimmings from a nicely crafted pork
belly. There was precious little pink in these slabs. What threw me is that the chunks
were all very uniform in shape, not obvious trimmings. And maybe I am wrong. And I like
fried out pork fat anyway. But now that I have a new skill, I am going to have to get a
whole belly and try again. I also picked up some brown sugar and kosher salt at the sto
on Sunday, since the table salt I used apprently is not the best thing to use. I have
another pack of this belly trimmins, I am gonna give it another shot this weekend.

OH, I know why I didn't take pictures...It was pourin'-a$$ rainin yesterday. It was all I could
do to keep my fire stoked. Of course, the no pics outside doesn't excuse the inside finished
product pics, but it explains forgetting easier.
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did the same thing i did a BC Chicken, and smoke corn and i was in such a rush to eat i fortgot pics but it did turn out incredible...
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Brad, without the introduction of nitrates/nitrites (aka pink salt), your finished product won't have that pink hue to the meat that you're used to in normal production bacon. It'll turn grey when cooked like normal pork does. I used pink salt when curing my bacon, but in very low quantities. Off hand it's like 25g of pink salt to 300g of kosher salt, which is enough to cure 25lbs of meat. If you're interested, i can get my specifics when I get back in town in a couple weeks.
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Yesterday is was a small pork butt, a couple of small port tenderloins and a ring of sausage. A little pork variety platter for the week.
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It sure was the right color when I fried it up in a pan last night, lol. I had some problems with my brain, though.
Not sure if I related this earlier, but I left the salt on the bacon when I smoked it, and that was a mistake. I rinsed it
off after the smoking was 80% complete, but it was SALTY. Next time I rinse it, pat it, wait for the pellicle and then
smoke that $hi+. :-)
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The wife bought me Bobby Flays Mesa Grill cookbook for my birthday. There are several rubs and sauces that we enjoyed at the restaurant in Vegas so we are going to give several of them a shot over the long weekend.
We are going with 2 7lb butts with a couple of different chili based rubs and 3 racks of baby backs on the WSM. We are also going to try some Yucatan chicken skewers with mango habanero sauce on the gasser.
So far it looks like the weather is going to cooperate. Should be a good holiday weekend full of smoking meat and cigars!
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Found out baby backs are going to be on sale for $2.77/lb for the next week. Had to get a rain check for spare ribs at $1.47 lb.

Picked up a 10# whole brisket at walmart today of all places that had the point and the flat. It's shaping up to be a big smoking weekend.
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Oh yeah, Walmart is only anecdotally $hi++y....they always have packer briskets lying around.

I am smoking more bacon tonight for a co-worker, and then I might also throw some spares on the barbie
this weekend. My freezer is full to the top, but I might use fresh for a few months til the event I have all this
frozen stuff on hand for is over. Lot's of meat on sale this weekend.
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Couldn't find a multi pack of spares. Just not gonna pay ten bucks a cryo when there's only ONE RACK in the cryo.
Derh. FU Kroooger. Got a single rack of BBRs, a dozen drumsticks and I have a ton of Ground Round in the freezer
from my last trip to the Former Piggly Wiggly, now a freaking gener-o Cash Saver store. I have to give em credit,
this new store gives UP the reduced meat, and on schedule. I took home 4 2-pound packs of the most beautiful
ground round last weekend, just perfect meat. 1.25 inch thick T-bone marked down to 2.65!! Not some brown piece
of old shoe, a perfect T-Bone, just out of date. I was like..."Am I on some kind of "punked" show?" I loaded up my buggy.
I miss my Piggly Wiggly, but suddenly I no longer care.
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That's why you should have got them on sale for $1.47/lb last week. (assuming it was only locally on sale for that price). Are the baby backs on sale in your area?
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2.97 a lb is LOWER but not something I am happy to pay by any means. I picked up 1 rack only. But I have a freezer full...I bought
these to use fresh since there was a weekend party time-type thing coming up. I am not necessarily partying, but anytime you
have a fridge loaded with craft beer, and a glut of havana cigars, WHY NOT?? :-) I try to shop onsale, but I do not keep a chest
freezer, cause I try to stay semi-mobile until I find a place to stay for good. My current city is not to my liking, and I am
invariably thinking I am leaving, lol.....OH WAIT, you mean spares??? Yes, roughly 1.50 a lb....I got a rack of BBRs. I currently have no
spares in the freezer. I like what's called "Small Bone Spareribs" which come 3racks in a pack. They come up for sale infrequently.
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Well, there is something to be said for being early, especially on a holiday weekend. BUT it is not good for the food in this case.
I smoked some bacon this evening, and on the bad side, I needed this ready for a friend tomorrow, so I pulled it a day or even
two early from the salting container, and I even pulled it early off the smoker. I smoked my last batch for 6 hours+ and it was
phenomenal. This won't be terrible, but it is a little flabby in terms of shrinkage that you like to see. It was cured with only
kosher salt and brown sugar for 2 days. It looked great when I cut it, and smelled as good, but again, flabby. Couple that with
the fact that the way I get this belly meat for now is cut into these sections you see here. NOT a full belly, which will tend to
make it a bit salty, since there are so many sides in contact with the salt...I DO like how it makes up in the pan, though, the half
slices or even third-slice size, makes it very easy to cook well.

BLABLABLA, and I also cooked a dozen chicken legs that I needed to finish in the oven, as the bacon needs to cook just below
actual cooking temps to smoke and not cook. AND NOW, pics............
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I did beef ribs on the rotiss last night...

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