Midnight Smoker
I do not own a Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker, but I decided to be part of Smoke Day 2008 (two days late), and smoke two pork butts for Memorial Day. Since we were planning on having people over at around noon I decided to start smoking them at 12:00 a.m. Jackson and I went into the back yard and fired up my chimney starter. I filled the water pan and placed the two 6 lb butts onto the rack above it. Both the butts had been sitting in the fridge for 12 hours after I had applied a dry rub to them.
When the coals in the chimney were white hot I poured them into the fire pan and watched the temperature gauge. Instead of slowing rising it shot up to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and kept going. The hot coals were getting too much air and burning too hot. Since my Brinkman has no way to slow down the air flow I was presented with two options, wait for the temperature to naturally fall and then get up hourly to stoke the fire with new coals or two, start over with less hot coals and plug up some of the air holes.
I opted for #2 and hosed down the coals. They hissed loudly and were still warm to the touch as I dumped them into Steve’s low country boil pot. In about 20 minutes I had repeated the process of filling the fire pan and watched the temperature gauge. This time it hovered at 275 degrees Fahrenheit. I decided this was good enough and went to sleep on the couch.
I woke up at 5:00 a.m. to check on my smoker and it was sitting at 225 degrees Fahrenheit. I tossed in about 1 pound of charcoal, shut the door and went back to the couch. I was planning to sleep another 2 hours and then check again. Instead I woke up at 9:00 a.m. and by then the smoker was almost cold.
Fortunately I was able to fire it back up and get both butts to 190 degrees Fahrenheit internally by 12:00 p.m. This was my first attempt to do a long smoke with my Brinkman and it showed me its limitations. Without dampers on the bottom it is very difficult to control the temperature of the smoker. Instead of a consistent temperature you get more peaks and valleys. I think I will stick to chicken and other quicker cooking items in the future until I can upgrade my smoker.
Despite the smokers limitation the butts came out well. They both had a a nice bit of “Mr. Brown” on their outsides, a good pink smoke ring, and tasted very good. My effort would not win me any prizes at Memphis in May, but I was still pleased with the outcome.
Hmmmm?
Is there a hole in the bottom of your coal pan?
It’s always been a chore for me to keep the temps up in my brinkman. Some of the brinkmans I have seen have a hole in the bottom of the coal pan.
Mine does not, But I have used one that did. On that one, I wrapped the coal pan with aluminum foil to keep the air from sucking in.
also helps to keep coals below the top of the pan. This keeps the airflow to the coals disturbed and the temps low too.
What kind of rub did you put on?
My firepan does have a hole in it. I noticed that the replacement one they sell on Brinkman does not have one. I will patch it up with some sheetmetal. If I put foil in it, it will cover the slits that feed the fire. I think that would be bad.
My rub consisted of paprika, cayenne pepper, black pepper, salt and turbinado sugar. I then mopped it with a mix of vinegar, the extra rub and garlic powder. It was tasty.
If your brinkman is like mine. The bowl sits at the very bottom that holds the coals.
I don’t understand why some have holes at the bottom and some do not.
I have noticed that the ones that have a hole at the bottom burn hotter.
My bowl has no slits except the gaps between the bowl and the side wall of the smoker.
Without the hole, the fire tends to chuff and stay low. The fact that there is no hole means the air has to go down into the fire.
I will have to plug up the hole! I will give this a try and then see how things work out.
I’m sure I’m becoming chronic here.
I did a butt today. My first ever. Went very well.
I did not have time to let the rub set, but I did cook it for about 7 hours and it was incredible.
If you do get tired of the brinkman, try a gas smoker. I got one for my birthday last year and I’ve been meaning to try it out.
It’s a Cabelas stainless steel upright that is similar to the brinkman.
Instead of goofing with coals, you turn a knob and push the igniter button.
Thanks for the rub ingredients. For lay people like me, the Turbinado sugar is also known as Sugar in the Raw. I bought a bag and then found out we already had it…
Glad to hear your pork butt turned out well! I had no idea what Turbinado sugar was until I googled it and I should have written Sugar in the Raw.
I’m not necessarily Obscessive/compulsive, but the side benefit of lining the charcoal bowl is that it’s a little easier to clean up afterwards.
What I hate is smoking something like a pork butt and forgetting to clean out the water bowl. A few days later, you’ve got mold rafts floating.
I forgot to clean my smoker after I did the butts for Memorial Day. Although I did not have any mold rafts (yuck) the water pan was still gross.
Turkey Fat + 2 weeks = 10X BARF!!!
Formula 88 is great for this.
Any suggestions for Pork Tenderloin? I don’t really like tenderloin, but my wife bought one so now I gotta cook it….
We’re having guests and that is the meat she chose.
I have never smoked a pork tenderloin. If you did, I don’t think it would take that long since there usually pretty small. If I were cooking it I would rub it down with some olive oil, then coat with salt, pepper and some fresh rosemary. Bake it at 350 degrees until the internal temp is 190 (I think, I’d need to look at my meat thermometer to be sure) and it’ll be very tasty.
I was thinking of stuffing with a garlic butter or something. Every time I have cooked one its either underdone or overdone and dry as a fish turd in a sandstorm.
That could be good. If you cook it the way above it should be nice and moist.
I ended up doing a rub with something similar to the one you posted here.
Pan Seared the Two tenderloins and placed in oven at 275 until insides were 170 degrees.
Pulled out of the oven and rested for about 15 minutes with foil over the pan.
I went out and bought an instant read thermometer.
What an excellent investment!
Best Tenderloin I’ve ever eaten!
I think I’ll stick to roasting tenderloin in oven from now on. BBQ for steaks and Hamburgers. Skirt Steaks mostly though
Thanks for your encouragement.
I’ll be up in monticello next week (south monticello that is!)
I am glad that they came out well! I really want to roast another pork tenderloin. When will you be in Monticello for good?
That’s the million dollar question!
wanna buy a house in Miami ?
http://www.realtor.com/search/listingdetail.aspx?zp=33157&ml=3&typ=7&ofbm=2&sid=1bd8abbab4ec47eea61d5996e94776a5&lid=1099677681&lsn=2&srcnt=1072#Detail
Business too?
Yeah the tenderloin has a new place in my cooking repetioure.
Nice house, but there is no way I would move to South Florida!
I concur.
Miami is not the town I grew up in.
My father was born here in the ’30s and I don;t understand why he’s still here.
My grandmother was born in Key West in the 1890’s
If there is such a thing as a native Miamian, I’m it.
The house is nice, but I’ve given up on the grass!
It’s kind of out of place with the Mcmansions.
10 months without any good rain….
Got my trailer loaded and headed north tomorrow.
I hope things are not too much in disarray. It’s been two months since I was up last.
Hope everything in your Monticello place was in order! We’re had some rain/wind lately (badly needed) so hopefully everything was okay.
Everything was way cool!
Celebrated my Daughter’s 8th birthday with a Big Boston Butt & Some skirt steaks.
The Butt Smoked ( in my brinkman) for 10 hours!
I did some mowing while I was cooking.
Mowed a clear strip all the way to the creek and stirred up a 5′ rattlesnake in the process.
Ended up getting my mower stuck in the very spot I saw the rattlesnake. Spent a worried few minutes with my Leatherman cutting a tree down that had gotten wedged between the deck & back wheel!
Came back to the smoker & found the water pan had dried out and the grease was burning.
All in all, the butt was great. It didn’t survive the night.
The rain did screw up the pool. Our pool was looking like pea soup before we arrived.
My Brinkman now lives in Monticello!
Glad your butt came out well and you avoided the rattlesnake (scary!). Did you get a chance to take in Jefferson County’s World Famous Watermelon Festival?
Yeah I especially liked the Confederate guys handing out Confederate flags to the Black children!
I was expecting a fight, but I suspect the folks of Monticello have done this more times than I can imagine.
Oh the irony!
It was refreshing.
I’m thinking my new career is going to be in Jefferson County politics…. Much money being spent on campaigns for jobs that don’t seem to pay a lot of money?
I also attended the Tomato festival at Turkey Hill Farms. Sampled the Organic goodness all around!
You may have moved north, but now you are in the South jm! Head to Thomasville, GA during their Victorian Christmas and you can seen an encampment of Confederate soliders on Broad Street.
Regarding your new job in politics, the constitutional offices (Clerk, Tax Collector, Supervisor of Elections ect.) make about $90k which is really good money for Jefferson County! The Judges make a little over $100k (I think).
Hmmmm.
What level of education is required for Public Office in Jefferson County?
I never finished college….
Hey, are you going to give scallop season a try?
I’m going to try to come up for scallop season this year.
I do not think all of our elected officials have college degrees and there is no education requirement to hold one of the offices. Run jm, run!
I have never gone scallopping. Sounds like it would be fun though!
This is JM. I started my own blog. you can see my Monticello shack now!
Cheers!
Cool JM! What is the address for your blog?
shadythicket.wordpress.com
Excellent, I now have a new blog to add to my blogroll!
sorry. I didn’t mean to copy your format. I just couldn’t get kubrick to do what I wanted.
No big deal, I think that this format is the best one WordPress offers.
Help !! I am looking for the “Dillard House” smoked pork tenderloin recipe. We ate there this past weekend and now I am hooked.
Thanks.
The Dillard House is a really good place to eat! I am sorry though as I have no idea how they smoke their pork tenderloin. If I run across a recipe for it I will try it and post it.
Just reading about your concerns with the hole in the bottom of the coal pan… The hole is actually a GOOD thing. It’s allows the ash to fall out and air to come in. Brinkmann did away with the hole a few years ago after a string of lawsuits from knuckleheads who were smoking on a wood deck … Hot coals fell out and – voila – no more deck. I actually drilled holes in mine to increase airflow and it’s a breeze. Also, you can add a grate inside the pan to elevate the coals out of the ash which helps as well.
Thanks for the suggestion about the grate! I will have to give that a try!