Hello everyone,
I am very new to smoking. A friend is lending me his OBS (he has 3 or 4 smokers) to see if I like it. I am getting it this weekend. My first attempt will be pulled pork. I would like to smoke for 4 hours in the OBS, and then finish in the oven. I have a few questions though. First, what temp should I set my oven at? I am thinking around 200-210F. Next, what should I put the butt in? A roasting pan and cover with foil? Also, should I put some liquid in the pan? Apple Juice? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks,
Dustin
Dustin,
First off welcome to the forum and you will enjoy it..
as for your project of butts 2 to 4 hours is more then plenty depending on how much smoke taste you like, for the oven at 200 210 that is fine as well .. length of time differs depending on how you want the pork to be..
if you want the pork to be pullapart it might take 18 hours and it will need IT of 180 to 190 at an oven temp of 210.
remember you need to break down the fat in the meat for it to become pullapart and it takes time and a fair amount of heat
200 to 210 is what i have found out to bet the best box temp and the meat ( pork ) starts to pull apart at about 170 meat temp.
just remember the LLS rule
Low ( oven / box temp )
Long ( length of cook time )
Slow (dont rush the smoker or oven let it break down the callogen in the meat )
if you follow the directions you should have a wonderfull meal
here is a few links of what i have done with some of my smokes and variaous meats take a look...
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=8212..15
ribs
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=8239.0
tri tip
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=8158.0
pork loin
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=8095.0
top surloin roast
hope these help and the surloin roast smoked for 2 hours and cooked for some 17 hours in the smoker at 210 to give you an idea...
good luck with your roast
Thanks for the reply, some good info there, and your pics look great. I can't wait to start! Can you or someone confirm that I should be putting the roast in a pan with liquid in the bottom and then cover it with foil? Is this correct? I really want the first smoke to go well!
I do not think it would hurt, but I doubt it will help. If you have a decent fat cap, it will have all the moisture it needs. I have always finished mine in the BS and simply sprayed apple juice whenever I opend the door. When it is done I would recommend wrapping in foil, sprayed liberally with apple juice and then either let it rest for a couple hours or FTC if it will be awhile till dinner.
I finish pork butts in the oven regularly. After 4 hours of smoke in the 200-210 degree range, I transfer them to the oven set in the same range. I place them on a rack in a roasting pan. I don't cover them nor add liquid to the pan. I just prefer it that way and when you think back to true pit BBQ, the ones I have witnessed never wrapped the butts in foil. As Beefmann said it will take several hours. The last time I did butts it took a total of 25 hours smoking and oven time. The length of time will be dependent on the weight of the butts. Worth noting, don't despair when the internal temp of the meat stalls at around 160 for several hours. That's quite normal. I also agree with Beefmann that you want to take the IT to around 190 to pull.
Have fun and let us know the results!
KyNola
I finish mine in the oven. Cast iron roasting pan, foil cover, 205F convection oven until an IT of 190F.
Then FTC for at least a couple of hours.
Pull and eat. Sauce optional.
Dust,
I have done roasts, beef and pork with and with out a tray with liquid and the one with liquid came out more tender and juicy,
the process you would want to do is smoke it with no tray or liquid .. once the smoking process has compleated transfer the meat into a tray and add your liquid of your choice ( anything other then water ) you only need a little bit and figure about 1 to 1 1/2 oz per pound for your first time and make adjustments acordingly..
Also if you are looking for a pulled pork try smoking the pork ...after the smoke move the pork to a tray and add orange soda at 1 1/2 oz per pound .. lightly cover with foil and once an hour turn the meat over in the orange soda and pork juices untill done..
when it gets done it will almost fall apart or fall apart when you turn the meat...
once done you can FTC....
wrap in Foil
Wrap in towel
place in Cooler
untill dinner time.. if you are planning this for a saturday dinner start the pork tonight.. if for sunday then start it saturday late afternoon or early evening... i have started a long cook at 6 pm with a 2 hour cold smoke.. then cooking process at 200 untill done.. finished at 2 pm the next afternoon after a 19 hour cook on a 15 lb roast just for your information
good luck on your smoke
Dustin,
welcome to the forum! I rarely post anything, but have lurked around for a long, long while and have learned a LOT from the folks here. I almost always finish my meats in the oven (or at least inside), as I feel it easier/ safer than keeping something flammable going out on the porch. I usually set my oven to 225f, and wrap the meat tightly with foil and set it on a sheet pan. I don't spritz or spray or anything else, and the meat is without fail very tender and juicy. Like everyone else, I take it to about 190f internal, then FTC and pull.
I have finished a few pork butts in the crockpot as well. I started doing it as a test one day, wanting to be able to take food to work for friends. I didn't wrap with foil or spritz/spray, just set it in there and set it on low. Now it does seem after a while to get more of a braise technically, with the amount of liquid that builds up in the crockpot, but it never seems to lose the little crusty bits that formed from the smoker (I like those), and actually seems to cook a little faster (I'm not sure what temperature low really achieves, but it can't be too far off of 225f). On occasion I've drained off quite a bit of the liquid (and melted fat) as it cooked out of the meat, then chilled it to solidify the fat and added the non-solid part back to the crockpot. I'm not sure that skimming the fat off really did anything helpful, but it didn't affect the taste, and it made me feel better that my food wasn't swimming in grease. With the crockpot, I take it to 190f, then set the crock to "keep warm" and just left it inside until we were ready to pull and eat. Now all that may be really getting quite a bit away from true "que", but it is a portable enough approach, and easy to do. My friends at work are all addicted now...
Hope this helps,
Laura
Hi Laura;
Welcome to the forum.
Thanks for providing your tips.
Hi Dustin, welcome to the forum. Alot of great help offered to you, now all you have to do is tweek the advice to your liking. Enjoy
Laura, welcome to the forum. Don't stay hidden, you have alot of tips to offer. I for one am going to try the crockpot method this time around. I have a butt in the fridge just waiting for me to make a move. ;) :D
I think I read somewhere that you can use a PID to control the Crock pot...
Quote from: FLBentRider on November 18, 2008, 02:06:34 PM
I think I read somewhere that you can use a PID to control the Crock pot...
I know that you can control a crock pot with the DigiQ; and I've even controlled my George Foreman Indoor/Outdoor grill with it.
Thanks to everyone for the kind welcome and for the great advice. My friend dropped off his OBS for me to try out. I appled a rub to my 2 pork picnic roasts and put them in the fridge for the night. Here is a picture right before they went into the smoker:
(http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee307/dustinm23/BBQ/PorkRub.jpg)
I used a Hickory/Special Blend mix at 2 to 1 for the bisquittes (This is all I had available at the time) I will be buying some more bisquettes this weekend. I preheated the OBS to 200, and put the pork in. I smoked for 3 hours, as this was my first attempt and I wanted to err on the side of less smoke to be safe. 2 additional hours in the smoker, and then I brought them into the house. This was about midnight. I wrapped them in foil, preheated my oven to 210 on convection roast, and put the foiled roasts in the oven on a baking sheet. My oven also has a probe that I have never used, so I plugged it in, stuck it into one of the roasts, and set the desired probe temp to 190. Once the meat hit 190, the oven would shut itself off. This is a nice feature that I never knew I had.
I woke up in the morning and the probe was reading about 175, so we were getting close. After 10 hours in the oven, the probe hit 190, and the oven turned off. I unwrapped the roasts to take a look, and here is what I saw:
(http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee307/dustinm23/BBQ/PorkCooked.jpg)
It looked amazing, and was falling apart. I wrapped in some new foil and FTC'd for 2 hours (thanks to the forum for this advice). I couldn't wait any longer, so then I unwrapped them and pulled. I barely needed the forks, it was falling apart so easily. I just had to try it out, so I added some bbq sauce, and toasted a bun:
(http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee307/dustinm23/BBQ/PulledPorkSandwich.jpg)
Best pulled pork sandwich I have had, if I do say so myself. My wife agreed, and it was a good lunch. Guess what we had for dinner too! Thanks again for all the help and advice, I think I am now hooked on smoking! I hope my friend never wants his OBS back!
Hi Dustin and welcome to the forum.
Your off to a hell of a start! Looks great! ;)
I can clearly see your hooked! :D
Mike
Dustin, Welcome
Try bribing him with some great food, Which it looks like you have. Maybe he will let you keep it longer. Or slip a note to Santa to bring you one.
Nice job! Pulled pork is one of my favorites and most of my smokes are butts.
Dustin...
Congrats
Congrats Dustin! Looks yummy!
Sounds like you need to tell you friend it need more "TESTING"
:D ;D ;D
Congrats on the Q!
Dustin;
The pork looks good.
When you are cooking it at that low of a temperature, the next time it hits 175°F, use the fork test, because the butt is probably finished at that point. The fork test is just what it sounds like. You take a two tine fork, insert it into the meat and twist. If it easily breaks apart it is ready.
I'm also drooling over the ics of the pulled pork- yum!
I'm a big fan of the "bark" that forms on the outside of the pork shoulder after a long smoke-- but if you cover the butts in the oven, with liquid in the pan, does the "bark" still form-- or do you have to put the pork back in the oven at a higher temp to form it?
I have plenty of bark produced from the original 4 hours in the smoker. Never felt the need to create additional.
great job on the pork...great pics as well
Quote from: Habanero Smoker on November 23, 2008, 01:33:10 AM
Dustin;
The pork looks good.
When you are cooking it at that low of a temperature, the next time it hits 175°F, use the fork test, because the butt is probably finished at that point. The fork test is just what it sounds like. You take a two tine fork, insert it into the meat and twist. If it easily breaks apart it is ready.
Habs,
The last two rounds of butts I have smoked have never been pullable at 175. They were certainly moist, but not pullable. Do you believe the amount of fatcap plays a role in this? Unfortunately, the last two rounds have been with butts with very little fat cap (the downside of buying meat on Death Row). I assume it's the fat cap, because a lot of it wasn't pullable at the 182-184 mark either.
Thanks!
SD
Quote from: Smoked on November 25, 2008, 07:11:41 PM
I'm also drooling over the ics of the pulled pork- yum!
I'm a big fan of the "bark" that forms on the outside of the pork shoulder after a long smoke-- but if you cover the butts in the oven, with liquid in the pan, does the "bark" still form-- or do you have to put the pork back in the oven at a higher temp to form it?
I smoked for 4 hours, and a nice bark had already formed. I then wrapped in foil (no liquid) and placed on a baking sheet in the oven. There were juices in the foil once the cook was done, but the bark was still there. This was my first attempt, so I can't really comment of the difference in bark between cooking it the way I did or leaving it in the smoker the whole time. Personally there seemed to be enough bark with the method I used
I have done both ways. The only real diff is with the oven finish wrapped, you get much softer bark that some like.
Quote from: Smoking Duck on November 26, 2008, 03:35:37 PM
Quote from: Habanero Smoker on November 23, 2008, 01:33:10 AM
Dustin;
The pork looks good.
When you are cooking it at that low of a temperature, the next time it hits 175°F, use the fork test, because the butt is probably finished at that point. The fork test is just what it sounds like. You take a two tine fork, insert it into the meat and twist. If it easily breaks apart it is ready.
Habs,
The last two rounds of butts I have smoked have never been pullable at 175. They were certainly moist, but not pullable. Do you believe the amount of fatcap plays a role in this? Unfortunately, the last two rounds have been with butts with very little fat cap (the downside of buying meat on Death Row). I assume it's the fat cap, because a lot of it wasn't pullable at the 182-184 mark either.
Thanks!
SD
Mine always come out perfect. I believe Tiny Tim now only takes his to 170°F, and he reported that they pull easily at that temperature. Try trimming the fat. I trim my butts down to about 1/4 inch to 1/8 inch, but now the butts I get from Sam's are already trimmed like that, or require very little trimming. What fat is left over after the smoke (if any) I discard. As far as ease for pulling the meat, has very little to do with the fat cap, it all about the connective tissue breaking down and the collagen converting into gelatin. The cabinet temperature has to be around 200°F, and your probe placement has to be correct. The best way to test to see if it is done is the fork test.
That's right Habs...170-175 is where I stop to FTC. The earlier ones had gone to 185+ and I thought they were awfully mushy...no real meat texture at all.
By the way, I use 200* as my setpoint on the PID for this product. Don't know if a higher cook temp would change the texture at any given IT along the way.
(http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s62/Gitster59/tla.gif)
LilSmoker......(http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s62/Gitster59/Tip-Hat.gif)