What to put in the smoker this weekend?

[DenverGP]

I took this week off from smoker duty. These pics are actually from last weekends smoke. We did 16 lbs of pork butt last weekend for a get-together with a couple neighbors, then smoked some steaks on wednesday, and smoked some pork chops on friday.

I've finally got the hang of fire management in the new offset smoker. Smoked with some Oak, Hickory and Cherry. Started this smoke at 11pm last saturday, smoked around 250F or so until 6am when they got wrapped in foil with a little hard apple cider. Lowered the smoker temps (about 215F or so) until the butts reached 203F at around noon. Kept in the foil in a warm oven until we pulled them at 1pm.







The sliced pieces at the end of the pan are the "money muscle" part of the butt which is served sliced during bbq competitions. All the neighbors agreed it was my best pork butts so far.

We ended up with the neighbors taking home a bunch of leftovers, and we food-savered 2 bags of pulled pork for a quick dinner at some point this week (thinking pulled pork mac and cheese) We used a little of the leftovers for some pork carnitas as well. Glad those prisons decided to stop serving pork, just that much more for the smoker.

[Aloha_Shooter]

Took my first stab at making bacon a couple weeks ago:


Tried it out today:


It had a nice sweet smoky flavor. More like maple syrup or molasses than I'd expected -- hadn't used either as a flavor so I was pleasantly surprised. Not all of it was as lean as shown in the slices but the fatty pieces chop up nice for rendered fat and bits to flavor my home fries.

[TFOGGER]

Took my first stab at making bacon a couple weeks ago:


Tried it out today:


It had a nice sweet smoky flavor. More like maple syrup or molasses than I'd expected -- hadn't used either as a flavor so I was pleasantly surprised. Not all of it was as lean as shown in the slices but the fatty pieces chop up nice for rendered fat and bits to flavor my home fries.

Bacon is my next big plunge. Are you using the recipe off Amazing Ribs?

[Aloha_Shooter]

Bacon is my next big plunge. Are you using the recipe off Amazing Ribs?

Honestly, I don't remember. Most of the recipes I've seen are pretty similar. The one big difference I've seen was that one source recommended "massaging" the juices coming off the meat back into the belly daily while another source said to drain it off. I think I like the idea of draining it off better. If I go that route, I need to get a plastic container with a raised draining rack instead of just putting the bellies in a zipper plastic bag and tossing it in the meat drawer.

The thing I like best about this is that the price is competitive with commercial bacon but I get to see the whole belly and I know which parts become rashers and which parts will be rendered bits for my scrambled eggs, home fries, etc. I'm thinking I may do several pounds for Christmas presents -- something nice and homemade that my family will enjoy almost universally and that won't collect dust.

[Dave]

I just finished off my first 3lb bacon that I used the Amazing Ribs simple bacon recipe. I went with hickory chips on that one. I just put another 3 lbs into the bag with their maple recipe and now I need to get some maple wood chips to smoke them with. I did pull back on the pepper for this one as i'm going for a sweeter style.

[hghclsswhitetrsh]

Where do you guys get your pork bellies from?

[Ah Pook]

My local grocery store sells them in 70lb boxes. It's about time to restock.

Oh Gilpin Guy?.?.

[hghclsswhitetrsh]

Ok. I'll do some calling around tomorrow.

[DenverGP]

Costco sells them, I think the last ones I got were around 5 pounds each.

[Aloha_Shooter]

I get mine from either the commissary or local Asian grocery.