Pork Pics

I promised pictures from last weekend's pork cook, so here they are.


Sauce on the side!

It was my first long cook on the Backwoods, and I learned a lot. I am still learning about the air flow and the amounts of charcoal to use, but I'm pretty confident that I will be ready to use it as my main competition cooker this year.

First Backwoods Smoke

Sunday, I christened our new Backwoods Party.

I originally had planned to do my first cook Saturday, but the weather was really bad here in Southeastern Connecticut, so I pushed it back to Sunday.

I decided to cook two racks of spare ribs. I didn't want to try to do too much for the first time out of the box.

I trimmed the two racks down to St. Louis style.

Then, they were rubbed with Q Haven rib rub.

First, I listened to the advice of other Backwoods smokers and sprayed the entire cooking area with Pam cooking spray. I decided to start with a half chimney of charcoal briquettes to see how long it would hold temperature with a small amount of charcoal. I used Rancher (thanks Brendan!).


The temperature slowly rose to 225, and with very little air flow adjustment it stayed there. I added three chunks of apple wood and one chunk of hickory.

The ribs went on, and cooked for two and a half hours at 225.

The needle never moved from 225 for that whole time.

Opened after two and a half hours and sprayed the ribs with apple juice.

Back in the smoker for another hour. The temprature only went up to just over 200 after I opened it and sprayed the ribs. So I added another half chimney of Rancher and it quickly went back up to 225.

After three and a half hours, the ribs went into foil for a little more than an hour with apple juice. Temperature remained steady at just over 225 throughout this period.

Out of the foil, then back into the smoker for another hour. Then I glazed with sauce a couple of times and they were done.

We had some friends over, and the ribs disappeared quickly. I forgot to take pictures of the sliced finished product. I thought they were pretty good, but could have used a little more time in foil. They were a little tough. I'm trying to learn to cook good spares, but am finding the process difficult. They are much harder for me than baby backs or loin backs, but that's a discussion for a later post.

Anyway, it was great to use the Backwoods for the first time. Next, I will do an overnight cook with it and really "stretch her legs"to see how long it can hold temperature. Probably pork butts, as I am working on a new pork recipe for next season.

New Smoker!!!

While many BBQ teams were returning home from the Jack Daniel's Invitational Sunday, I was on my way to pick up something we hope will help get us back to the Jack next year.

Finally, after months of planning, research, shopping, and pestering other teams to see their smokers, we have purchased a Backwoods Party with the fixed water pan and stainless steel doors. Here she is!

Ain't she a beauty!

We drove more than three hours Sunday morning up to New Hampshire, where Backwoods dealer Rick Surette of Seabrisket lives. We've been e-mailing on and off, back and forth for more than six-months as we shopped. Finally, after much deliberation, we settled on the Party instead of the Fatboy, which is the next larger size for those not familiar with their products. We settled on the Party (140 pounds) because is is much lighter than the Fatboy (270 pounds), and the party has almost as much cooking space as the Fatboy.

Also, the Party costs a grand less, which helped make the decision too.

Rick was awesome to deal with. I highly recommend him to anyone shopping for a Backwoods. His team Seabrisket has been very successful over the years, and last year they only cooked Memphis in May sanctioned contests. I hope to see them out on the KCBS circuit in 2008.

I can't wait to try it out. I would have cooked tonight but we got back pretty late and didn't have any meat. I immediately went to Home Depot and got some casters for it. They only had smaller ones that fit the smoker, but I got them anyway. The wheels will make it easier to roll it in and out of the garage during the winter as I practice on it. They will definitely need to be replaced, as these won't budge in the grass, which is where most of our competitions are held.

Since we have been competing, we have used Weber Smokey Mountain smokers exclusively. I will still continue to use them, as we will certainly need extra cooking space at certain competitions. They have served us well, and we are just one of many teams who have won competitions using WSM's. I highly recommend the WSM to anyone who is just getting started cooking real BBQ. Here are me and my WSM's.

But I am so excited to have this new smoker. I want the 2008 season to start tomorrow....