I started smoking yesterday; You should start too.

I've wanted to start smoking for a long time, but I never got around to it. Mostly because I didn't have the money for the smoker I wanted. However, I was poking around on Kijiji a few days ago and found a brand new low end smoker for $40. It usually costs around $125 so I jumped on the opportunity. When I have the money I still want to buy something like a Big Green Egg, but at $40 the Brinkmann gourmet will hold me over.

I decided my first smoke would be pulled pork. It's simple, low maintenance, and relatively cheap. I went to the butcher and got a nice piece of bone in pork shoulder(Called 'butt' in bbq lingo, which is odd because it's pretty far on the body from the pig's ass).



I've heard people say that you should remove the layer of fat on the top, but I left it on. I figured it would keep the meat moist and it would be easy to remove at the end.


I wanted this pork to be sweet and spicy, so I bought a brown sugar based rub and a jalapeno mustard. To be fancy I decided to mix some apple juice and apple cider vinegar together(75% juice to 25% cider) and inject it into the pork.


We need 50cc's of flavour, stat!


I put a layer of mustard on, not only to add some heat, but mostly to hold the rub on well.




On goes the rub. After this I covered it with plastic wrap and left it in the fridge overnight.




Yesterday I woke up bright and early(8am, early by gaming community standards). I soaked some apple wood chips for about 30 minutes and got my coals going.




I won't go into much detail about the cooking process because every smoker is different and a quick google search will tell you everything you need to know. I will also spare you the details of my struggles throughout the day, particularly with temperature control. Needless to say, I learned a lot my first time out. Basically, all you need to know is that for pulled pork you want to aim for 225F at about 1-1.5hrs per pound of pork.



After about 3 hours.



Around the 6 hour mark. I was pretty damn excited to see a good bark has formed.


My smoker is a liquid smoker, which means there is a pan with a bit of water in it that sits between the meat and the heat. It helps regulate the temperature and keep the meat moist. The meat drips into the water as it cooks, and it looked fucking delicious so I decided to use it. I let it cool, skimmed the fat, and ran it through a coffee filter to remove any bits or ash.



Pork is safe to eat around 165F, but it doesn't shred well until it gets up to 190-200F. Once the meat reached 190F, I took it off, wrapped it in plastic wrap, wrapped that in a towel, and let it sit for 40 minutes to let the juices settle. In the meantime I made some coleslaw. I just did 2 parts mayo to 1 part yellow mustard, and then white vinegar and pepper to taste.

Once the meat settled it was time to take a peek at my handy work,


Dat smoke ring


I Shredded it up and added the concentrated awesome sauce.




Pulled pork sandwich with potato chips and a hefeweizen.




I love summer, and I love smoking. Hopefully this will inspire some of you to start smoking as well!