Although I'm sure I'll get in some trouble with some of you folks for this (based on older posts), I'm going to share my first smoke story (comedy of errors) with you anyway. In my mind, it ain't about breakin' the rules - it's about a great recovery !!
SO ...... the UPS guy drops off my new pride and joy at ~~5PM or so this past Tuesday evening. I get everything out of the boxes and bolted together by like 5:30 maybe 6P. As mentioned in my prior post ( "New Best Friend") I didn't know when the unit was arriving and therefore my meat was not ready so I did the firsy break-in smoke like the "manual" recommends - couple pieces of wood and a tray of water - DONE.
Get up Wednesday morning and get out the PB, which has been percolating in my own homemade, spicy rub for about 36 hrs, spray down the rack, toss on the butt, poke it with the probe and discover I have a "technical" problem to deal with - got NOTHING on the receiver !!! A new battery does NOT fix ----- checking the connections does NOT fix ----- oh sh!t - I've got a problem. This, BTW, is 0700 on Wednesday.
Decide to run down the hill to my local big box home improvement store (read - HOME DEPOT) and they do not have even ONE digi therm. So .... instead head down to the "oldest continuously operating hardware store west of the Mississippi" and voila - there ya go.....got one !!!!!!
Unfortunately, it's now after 8:30A by the time I get home so the 5.7 lb butt does not get on the grill until shortly after 9AM......
The meat is 35 degrees (guess my fridge works) when I FINALLY toss it on the greased rack with two pieces of hickory and lock the dang door.
By 1P it's almost 140 and I'm thinkin we might be eating early and then ................. it hits that famous plateau that I've read so much about ........ I finally pull it off at 7:30
p (10 1/2 hrs) due to pressure from the wife and the reality of a 200 mile drive the nexy morning for turkey day dinner, blahblahblah ...
And it was ONLY at 160........
So ..... Today is Friday, day after T-Day - at 1P I take the dang thing out of the fridge to let it try to come to room temp.
at 3P I stick it in a convection oven after spraying it liberally (this IS California ya know) with water and re-wrapping in foil at 225 for 2 1/2 hrs ......
I take it out........
I fork shred
The wife gets the fixin's ready .........
we sit down to some of the most INCREDIBLE carnitas we've ever had .....
Thank you ALL for the amazing amount of information on this site.
I'know ......I Know......
I was not able to stick to the "it's done when it's done" credo .....
but hey ......we recovered nicely
Just thought you'd like to know ......Wineaux
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