Since I finished my drum smoker, I've made so many fatties that Diana's been gettin' pretty tired of them and I knew that if I wanted to keep her interested in smoked meats, I better come up with something different to feed her. So I thought, "Why not give her a variety?" Over the weekend I found a pork loin for $1.36 lb so I swooped it up and I also bought a couple large packages of split chicken breasts to package and freeze. I packaged one to freeze and kept one to smoke. I already had a big chuck arm roast in the fridge that I planned to smoke and to round things out and fill the smoker, I thawed a rack of babyback ribs that I'd been saving to smoke.
Monday afternoon, I cut the pork loin in half, put it in a small cooler, covered it with a salt and sugar brine and threw a cooler pack in with it. I planned on smoking the two chunks of pork, partially cooking them to 140º, then removing them from the smoke and slicing them into chops to be frozen and finished being cooked later.
Once the pork was in the brine I rubbed the ribs with Rich’s General Purpose Meat Rub, the chicken with Plowboys Yardbird rub, the roast with Plowboys Bovine Bold rub, then wrapped them all in plastic wrap to go in the fridge overnight.
About 7:00 the next morning, I took the meat from the fridge and let it sit on the counter to start coming up to room temperature, then went out and filled my charcoal basket with Kingsford briquettes and topped it with 3 fist sized chunks of hickory. At 10:00 I lit a chimney of charcoal and when it was all lit, dumped it on the basket and set it in the drum smoker. When the smoker came up to 220º, I loaded the bottom rack with the chicken so it wouldn't drip on the other meats and put the ribs, roast and pork loin on the top rack. The chicken. roast and pork all got their own thermometers.
At the 2 hour point, I took the ribs out, pouring about 3/4 cup of an apple cider, apple cider vinegar and brown sugar mix over them in a foil packet and popped them back into the smoker for another 2 hours. Just before the second 2 hours were up, 4 hours total, the pork loin hit 140º so I left it in until the 2 hour mark when I removed the pork loin to cool for slicing and put the ribs back in the smoker minus the foil. When the ribs had been back in for 75 minutes, the beef roast hit 175º, so I pulled the ribs out and foiled them to wait for dinner and took the roast out, put it into a foil packet and poured a cup of beef broth laced with garlic powder and Worchestershire sauce over it, sealed the foil up and popped it back in to wait for the 195º mark. 2 more hours later, the chicken hit the 180º to safely remove it and the roast had just hit the 200º temp, so my long day's smoke was done.
The ribs were the tenderest, juiciest that I've ever cooked. Not fall of the bone, but with just a little pull to them the way I like them. I've heard of chicken skin getting rubbery in the smoker, but this didn't, it was nice and crispy and the smoke penetrated all the way to the bone and the roast was almost as good as a brisket and very flavorful in it's garlicky/worchy broth.
I've used Rich's rub on pork butts and it's really good, but on ribs it really shows it's stuff and I think I'm going to have a hard time either making or finding anything better to put on ribs. The plowboys rubswere also good and gave distinctive flavors to their own specialty meats.
Everything must've been good to Diana because she stole a bag of samples of everything to take to work with her and tease her co-workers with.
The pork loin chops went into the fridge and will be vacuum sealed in packs of 4 to be pan fried or grilled for some super dinners at a later date.
Ready for the brine
Chuck arm roast
Roast rubbed
Ribs rubbed
Monday afternoon, I cut the pork loin in half, put it in a small cooler, covered it with a salt and sugar brine and threw a cooler pack in with it. I planned on smoking the two chunks of pork, partially cooking them to 140º, then removing them from the smoke and slicing them into chops to be frozen and finished being cooked later.
Once the pork was in the brine I rubbed the ribs with Rich’s General Purpose Meat Rub, the chicken with Plowboys Yardbird rub, the roast with Plowboys Bovine Bold rub, then wrapped them all in plastic wrap to go in the fridge overnight.
About 7:00 the next morning, I took the meat from the fridge and let it sit on the counter to start coming up to room temperature, then went out and filled my charcoal basket with Kingsford briquettes and topped it with 3 fist sized chunks of hickory. At 10:00 I lit a chimney of charcoal and when it was all lit, dumped it on the basket and set it in the drum smoker. When the smoker came up to 220º, I loaded the bottom rack with the chicken so it wouldn't drip on the other meats and put the ribs, roast and pork loin on the top rack. The chicken. roast and pork all got their own thermometers.
At the 2 hour point, I took the ribs out, pouring about 3/4 cup of an apple cider, apple cider vinegar and brown sugar mix over them in a foil packet and popped them back into the smoker for another 2 hours. Just before the second 2 hours were up, 4 hours total, the pork loin hit 140º so I left it in until the 2 hour mark when I removed the pork loin to cool for slicing and put the ribs back in the smoker minus the foil. When the ribs had been back in for 75 minutes, the beef roast hit 175º, so I pulled the ribs out and foiled them to wait for dinner and took the roast out, put it into a foil packet and poured a cup of beef broth laced with garlic powder and Worchestershire sauce over it, sealed the foil up and popped it back in to wait for the 195º mark. 2 more hours later, the chicken hit the 180º to safely remove it and the roast had just hit the 200º temp, so my long day's smoke was done.
The ribs were the tenderest, juiciest that I've ever cooked. Not fall of the bone, but with just a little pull to them the way I like them. I've heard of chicken skin getting rubbery in the smoker, but this didn't, it was nice and crispy and the smoke penetrated all the way to the bone and the roast was almost as good as a brisket and very flavorful in it's garlicky/worchy broth.
I've used Rich's rub on pork butts and it's really good, but on ribs it really shows it's stuff and I think I'm going to have a hard time either making or finding anything better to put on ribs. The plowboys rubswere also good and gave distinctive flavors to their own specialty meats.
Everything must've been good to Diana because she stole a bag of samples of everything to take to work with her and tease her co-workers with.
The pork loin chops went into the fridge and will be vacuum sealed in packs of 4 to be pan fried or grilled for some super dinners at a later date.
Ready for the brine
Chuck arm roast
Roast rubbed
Ribs rubbed
