Smoked River Rock

[kingstar]

I took forever to get them tender, but it was worth it.



As an engineer it drives me crazy that the temperature drops so much when adding meat or opening the door. I had this thought about adding something with a lot of mass into the chamber to help stabilize the temperature swings. With that I walked across the street and stole some river rocks from the drainage ditch. Don't worry I did some thorough cleaning on them.

To test it out I had some pork shoulder we got from Costco. I prefer the bone-in type, but it was a good deal for boneless. Here it is rubbed with Memphis Dust and coated with Molasses.



Here it is after 13 hours of cooking. 5 hours of smoke with Jim Beam pucks. Internal temperature was 192F.



Here we go before wrapping for some FTC.



All wrapped up in two layers of foil and four layers of towels and into the cooler left in the 105F sun.



Here it just came out of about 4.5 hours of FTC. It was still too hot to handle. Those first pieces while your pulling where the collagen is still liquid and the meat feels like jelly are heaven.



I forgot to get some pics before I started eating, but here it is after a few bites. I had a few sauces on the side, but I prefer the taste of the pork by itself.



About the river rocks. They worked amazingly well. I preheated to 230F and tested out opening and closing the door a few times to simulate putting in the meat. The temperature only dropped a few degrees. After putting in the meat the temperature only dropped 10-15 degrees, which lined up with my cooking temperature of 220F. Normally I would see around 30-40 degree drops when putting in cold meat, so I was quite pleased. Also, because of the small drops when opening the door I was able to take a few peeks without worry. Overall, it worked great and I will definitely be doing it again.

kingstar

[mikecorn.1]

Killer money shot. Looks great. Nice info on the rocks. :)


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[FLBentRider]

If you put your rocks in a 500F oven for 30 minutes you can kick start your warm-up.

[SiFumar]

You "rocked" that smoke! ;D  Awesome money shot too!

[GusRobin]

great looking food.  A number of folks use foil wrapped bricks. I have never tried with either since as soon as I did my initial seasoning of the unit and made sure it worked, I installed the second element and temps have never been a problem. I also keep my vent wide open all the time.

[Smoker John]

That shoulder looks great, nice meal. Good info about the rocks, I have a brick covered with foil which seems to help a bit, I also add hot water to my water bowl.

[muebe]

You could always put the rocks back when you are done although they might be a little off color now ;)

Great job on the butt :)

[SouthernSmoked]

You "rocked" that smoke! ;D  Awesome money shot too!

Ditto!!

[WideGlideMike00]

Thermal inertia rules!

[hutcho]

I "borrowed" some fire bricks from work.  got one wrapped in foil and it seems to help some, may bump it up and try 2....

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[OU812]

Now thats a damn fine lookin hunk of pork and that money shot of your plate of grub looks great

I got some bricks in my smoker under the V tray,,,,,,,they stay pretty clean under there  ;D

[mikecorn.1]

I "borrowed" some fire bricks from work.  got one wrapped in foil and it seems to help some, may bump it up and try 2....

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I kept 2 in mine for 2 years.


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[pokermeister]

I have a foil wrapped brick in mine, and works great. What was the IT on the river rocks when you were done? :o