MikeUSMC: "Bury Me in Smoke"

That is seriously awesome, Mike! That bad boy will enhance your already expert Q capabilities, to better serve your fam and community with quality BBQ

MikeUSMC said:

Same thread, same cooks still here, but Pookie was kind enough to change the title of this thread for me Thanks, Boss!

Let's get right to it..... Mike got a new toy today

IMG_8397.JPG

IMG_8398.JPG

IMG_8401.JPG

IMG_8400.JPG

IMG_8402.JPG

IMG_8408.JPG

My little BBQ sidekick approves

IMG_8409.JPG

If this freakin rain ever stops, I plan on cleaning it out and seasoning it this week, then cooking in it this Friday. Gotta get a few "practice" cooks in because "Mrs. USMC" is turning 40 in a couple of weeks, so I'm throwing her a huge party at our house, Memorial Day weekend, and we're expecting over 100 people!

More to follow, but my phone's breaking my balls right now

Click to expand...

awesome as usual for you Mike. i always enjoy all your posts. good luck with everything!!!!!

Gone Pro, eh. [emoji106]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That is AWESOME, as is the grill!

That is serious next level Mike.  Congrats and can't wait to see what comes off of it.

That bad boy looks way better in your garage than on that trailer with its brethren!

But wait, you must not have liked the way it looked in there, cause you built it its own house. Which also looks great.

And you can cook whole kids on there? Icing on the cake. But baby really is the other, other white meat. That adolescent might be a little tough

Thanks, everyone! I can't even put into words how excited I am to start cooking on this thing. Weather was pretty nice yesterday afternoon, so I had time to really clean out the inside, from all the welding and grinding dust left over in there:


Busy after work today and tomorrow, so it's looking like I should be able to season it on Thursday this week, provided it's not raining out. The guy who delivered told me that the paint they used on the outside of this thing has to be "heat cured," and the smoker has to be bone dry on the outside, because any water droplets could cause the paint to bubble and peel if it's not ‍ Cross your fingers for good weather for me, so I can season it Thursday and cook on Friday

While I was pacing around my garage the other day, waiting for the smoker to be delivered, I fired up the whiskey barrel and smoked some ribs and a 5lb slab of pork belly

Shorerider, when are you gonna start selling this rub, man?! I'll take a 55 gallon drum of it, please and thank you Literally one of the very best BBQ rubs I've ever had, mate. This stuff is absolutely fantastic







My first time making pork belly, and I just cubed it, tossed it into a bowl with some yellow mustard for a binder, then tossed it in some more of Shorerider's BBQ rub. I swear, if these things aren't the most delicious nuggets of goodness I've ever tasted, I don't know what is! Holy shit.... I must've eaten 2 pounds of these things, just tossing them back like popcorn!
They literally melted in your mouth




Thanks for watching, folks!


(Sorry for the sideways pics )

I need to get a pork belly! At least the Ol' barrel smoker got one more run in before you toss her to side too.

Nice addition to the smoker family Mike! There's a KCBS Rep down this way who wears a shirt embroidered with something like "Do Not Piss Off a Pitmaster Who Has a Smoker Big Enough to Cook You On". I think yours qualifies. Maybe we'll see a whole hog cook in your future.
 
Who made that beast anyway? Have you named it yet?
 
And about its new home....That looks like WOOD. I thought you were an iron worker. Where's all the steel beams and girders and shit? lol.
 
Smoke on my friend.

So how do you season the beast,eh.
Smoke up a few hundred burgers for the neighborhood? [emoji2957]
Charcoal or wood?
You definitely bumped up your game [emoji16][emoji106]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

All that pork looks amazeballs, mate.  I could just imagine chowing down with a nice beverage in hand.
 
Glad you're enjoying the rub, happy to hook you up if/when you'd like more. 
 
 

DownRiver said:

Nice addition to the smoker family Mike!

Click to expand...

Thanks, Rick! I love it when you stop in this thread, man! I'm forever indebted to you for all the tips and advice you've given me along this journey! You and John (Midwest Chilehead) have always been so helpful! So, are you gonna make it up to Mohegan Sun again this year for the BBQ fest? I've honestly been too busy lately to even look it up, but maybe I can talk NECM into going again, and we can all meet up for some beers and some great BBQ

DownRiver said:

Who made that beast anyway? Have you named it yet?

Click to expand...

Got it from "Northern Smokers," out of Downingtown, Pennsylvania, but I think they're just a "dealer." The delivery guy said that they have to go pick them up from some place in Alabama, I think. I want to say it's called "HBT" or something. The guy I was dealing with at Northern couldn't have been any nicer. Very, very helpful, and would respond to a text/call/email almost immediately. Told me I could contact him any time I need to with any questions I may have.

Haven't named her yet
Gonna wait and see what kind of attitude she gives me after I start cooking on it

PtMD989 said:

So how do you season the beast,eh.

Click to expand...

From what the guy told me, I have to spray the crap out of the inside with vegetable oil in a spray bottle until it's "sloppy" in there, lol. Didn't really have to do much to my whiskey barrel because it won't rust, so I just sprayed a bunch of cooking spray inside and then ran it. My understanding is that "seasoning" it basically means trying to get a "base layer" of grease built up in there, to add a little flavor and prevent it from rusting, basically like a cast iron skillet. Coat the whole inside, then light the fire and let it burn for a few hours (with no food). The goal is to get a nice brown "hue" on the stainless cooking grates

If the forecast doesn't change, I should be seasoning it tomorrow night

Shorerider said:

Glad you're enjoying the rub, happy to hook you up if/when you'd like more.   

Click to expand...

PMing me the recipe would save you a shitload of money on shipping, man!
Just sayin' ‍

Good luck with the seasoning burn. I look forwards to seeing what delectable treats you are gonna turn out on that bad boy!

MikeUSMC said:

... So, are you gonna make it up to Mohegan Sun again this year for the BBQ fest?...

Click to expand...

 
Haha. We were just talking about that event last week. It's on Sat/Sun, June 1 & 2 this year. Public Rib and Wing challenges are on Sat, the KCBS competition is Sunday. We might have some business to take care of up in Boston on Saturday, so thinking about judging the KCBS contest Sunday on the way home. Not solid yet, but if it looks like we're going I'll let you know.

Congratz on the smoker and outdoor kitchen/mancave!!!!!
 
I see a lean-to in your future once you fill that shed up.
 
Did you get it seasoned yet? I'd put aluminum pans on the reverse flow plate and cook bacon in them to get that grease cooked on the inside. I assume it's a reverse flow considering where the exhaust is but can't tell from the pics. I'd also get a fire basket and use charcoal along with splits to make it easy to control temps.
 
I know you'll figure it out after playing with it a few times.
 
Good Luck with it and I'll be waiting for the grub pics!

Got it seasoned last night. The guy said that a good way to start it up was to put a base layer of "cold" charcoal down, then dump a full chimney of hot charcoal on top to get a huge bed of coals going. Then, throw some logs on top of that, so that's what I did:


^ Fire started up really nice, but after about 2 hours, I noticed that the smoke coming out was thick and white, which is the exact opposite of what you're aiming for, lol. Even after opening all of the vents fully, it was still pumping out thick, white smoke. It was like the fire was getting "choked" out. Hmmmm.... started scratching my head, then finally realized that the charcoal ash wasn't dropping down into the ash pan, and was completely blocking the gaps between the pieces of angle iron that hold up the fire.

Because of the height of the intake vents (they're down as low as the ash pan), not enough oxygen was making its way up to the fire:
At least, I hope that what the problem was, hahaha ‍

Once I cleaned that out with a steel rod, and emptied the ash pan, everything burned a lot "cleaner," by the time I was burning straight wood.


Also wanted to see where any hot or cool spots were on the cooking grates, and I remembered an easy "pro tip" from one of Jess Pryles' videos....
Grab a few packages of some biscuits and spread them out all over the grates and cook them. Observe the rate that they're cooking at, and boom! Now you know how evenly your rig is heating everything



Don't mind if I do!


I've gotta say, I'm pretty impressed with how evenly this thing cooks! Top rack cooks just a little warmer than the bottom, with the warmest spot being on the top, by the exhaust.
(Top plate was from the top rack, with the biscuits on top of the pile being closest to the exhaust. Bottom plate was on the bottom rack)


Everything got seasoned nicely, and there's a nice base coat of built up grease on everything


I'm definitely gonna need a lot of practice on this thing to figure out maintaining steady temps, how much wood to add and when, etc., but for my first go at it, I'm pretty satisfied. Just gonna have to keep playing with it, that's all

Oh yeah, I kinda knew that the thermometer that came on this was probably just gonna be "for decoration," and I was right

^ This thing was WAY off, haha

Thanks for looking! This is gonna be one hell of a ride!

Looks good Mike, you'll figure it out.
 
I think you should wait to add a split till all of the coals are ashed over. Remember this isn't like a drum so a 50* temp swing is normal. If you want 250 then add a split at 225 and it should creep up to 275 before going back down. You might want to experiment with different size splits too. I think once it's warm you won't need to fill up the grate with charcoal and use 1/2 the firebox to warm your next split.
 
Have fun playing, I know you'll be cranking out some serious eats soon!!

MAIDEN COOK!

Well, I think I'm a lot closer to figuring this new rig out than I was for the seasoning burn. Pretty sure I was right about that thick, billowing white smoke issue too. Starting out with 2 layers of charcoal in the firebox results in too much ash buildup, and it won't fall down into the ash pan, choking off the fire. This time, I started with a full chimney of hot charcoal (as a bed), and started throwing splits on top of that. Seemed to work out great!

Anybody who's followed this thread knows that I've made Malcom Reed's pulled pork carñitas recipe more than a handful of times This might've been the first meal I made on my whiskey barrel too. So damn good!

Started with a 10lb bone-in Boston Butt, seasoned it, then threw it in a 2.5 gallon bag with onions, oranges, limes, garlic, and a can of chipotles in adobo sauce. Topped off with orange juice to marinate overnight in the fridge



Took it out the next morning, hit it with some "A.P." seasoning (salt, pepper, granulated garlic), BBQ rub, ground cumin, Ancho powder, and ground cinnamon


And, we're off! Tried staying as close as I could to 275*F. Rajun Gardener, you were right about the temp swings, man. I was letting it get down to 250ish, then add a few splits, and it'd get close to 300* then settle back down. Thanks for the tip very much!


Look at the color on that! And look at that delicious fat, sizzling away! Mmmmm.....



About 5 hours in, and I put it in a pan with the braising liquid (50/50 OJ/tomato juice) and some more citrus and onion and garlic. Covered in foil to braise


Few hours later, internal temp to 198*. Smelling good in the 'hood!


Pulled

Nice bark and smoke ring!!!!  Can't wait to see a brisket come off that thing. 
 
 
Did you go out and smell the smoker this morning? I bet it's seasoned nicely with all that pork fat sizzling.