Mountain of Flavor

Although I am trying not to get back into cooking and gluttony, I have to confess that I am making some improvements in my barbecue technology.

I bought a Smokin-It electric smoker back in 2020. I had read great things about them. Very small quantities of ash to deal with. No charcoal. No smoker-tending; just turn it on and watch the meat thermometer. People said they made barbecue as well as any smokers.

Lately, I haven’t been as happy with my smokes as I used to be. I have gotten some overly-dark meat that didn’t taste as good as earlier cooks.

I started researching, and I learned some new things. Evidently, there is a hierarchy of types of smokers, from those considered best to those considered worst. The best is a brick smoker. After that, an offset made from heavy steel. Then there are vertical smokers that run on charcoal. After this, there are lighter offsets that don’t keep a temperature as steadily. Farther down, there are pellet grills and electrics.

The big knock on electrics is the flavor. Supposedly, they don’t give you as much smoke flavor, and you can’t fix it by adding wood. It just makes the meat dark.

I don’t know how true all this is. People are biased.

Since learning all these things, I found out that one of the world’s top barbecue chefs, a guy named Harry Soo, only uses a certain type of smoker: the Weber Smokey Mountain. He wins tons of prizes, so how bad can his work be?

I don’t want an offset. They are a lot of trouble, and a decent one would fill my patio. That means that if I want to go past electric, I have to look at masonry and vertical smokers.

I would love to have a brick smoker, and I have room for it. I could put it in the yard near the patio. One great thing about brick smokers is that they don’t make messes close to your house. I could pull the tractor up to a brick smoker and sweep the ashes into the bucket. No grease or soot on the patio or porch.

I may build one eventually, if I can get help.

The most popular vertical smokers are the UDS (Ugly Drum Smoker) and the Weber Smokey Mountain (“WSM”). You can make a UDS for a few hundred bucks if you like cutting up oil drums and welding, or you can buy a nice one already made for around $1600. Seems like a ton of money for a simple product. Also, they are hard to clean, and they are painted. Paint does not last on smokers. A WSM costs way less than a factory UDS, and they are porcelain-coated.

I decided to get a WSM. I was concerned about the hassle of charcoal, but life is too short to die without a really good smoker.

While I was going through the choices, and after I bought a WSM, I looked back at electric smokes I did a long time ago, and I saw that I had gotten better results back then. I intend to go back to what I did then. Mainly, I used less wood, and I put a charcoal briquette in the smoke box with it. Some say they have gotten more flavor by adding a smoke tube, which is a perforated stainless steel tube you fill with wood pellets and place in the smoker. I’m going to try that, too.

In addition to Harry Soo, I learned about another chef who gets tremendous respect: Malcom Reed. That is the correct spelling. He put an interesting recipe on Youtube. Most people think barbecue always has to be low and slow, but he smokes pork butts at 300 degrees. The results, he says, are just as good as low and slow, but the time is way shorter.

He uses a drum smoker made by a company called Gateway. Very expensive. He smokes directly over the coals, about 22″ up. He says the fat from the butt hits the hot coals, burns, and adds extra flavor.

A WSM ordinarily has a big pan of water between the coals and meat. This lowers the temperature and adds humidity, which is supposed to make smoke stick better. To make a WSM work like a UDS, you just remove the pan.

I’m giving this a shot today.

I made a butt a couple of days back in the Smokin-It. I was waiting for the WSM, and I wanted to see if I could do something like Reed does using electricity. I cranked the heat up as much as I could. I believe that got me to something like 260. When the smoke was finished and I was somewhere near 160, I wrapped the butt in foil and kept going until I hit 205. I was supposed to go for 195-200, but I missed it. Then I put the wrapped butt in towels in a cooler and waited until it sank to 165. The purpose is to let the fat cool and settle to prevent it from shooting out when the meat is pulled.

I was not very happy with the result. For one thing, the batch of chipotle powder I got for my rub is too strong. For another, when I opened the foil, I saw a lonely little butt half-submerged in juice.

I made a perfect butt in ’23, and I did not wrap it. I don’t like the results from wrapping. I don’t want the outside of the meat to be soggy. It should have a nice bark on it.

Today I put a 4.7-pound butt in the WSM. I made a new rub and halved the chipotle. I chose hardwood briquettes and hickory chunks I dried in my oven.

I have learned one thing: you don’t need 8 pounds of charcoal to hit 300° in this smoker. I got up close to 400° and had to remove a lot. I couldn’t put the meat in until I fixed this. I thought this meant I needed to go easy on charcoal, but about an hour later, the new briquettes were almost gone, and I was at 220. Threw some more in, and I am trying to manage the vents to get me back to 300. I guess this smoker eats a lot.

The charcoal mess isn’t really that bad. The smoker’s base holds the ashes, and it’s small and light enough to tilt into a trash bag.

MORE

I got the smoker under control, more or less, and I took the butt up to about 160 degrees. It looks great.

Not positive it got enough smoke. It looks darker in person, so maybe I’m just letting the photo rattle me.

The WSM comes in three diameters: 14″, 18″, and 22″. I went for the 22″. I saw people saying it was possible to feed an enormous crowd with an 18″, but then I thought about all the times I had bought things that were too small and then been bitten in the rear end, so I bought 22″. I’m glad I did, because it turns out it’s big enough to hold a broiler pan.

Malcom Reed takes his butts out at 160°-170°, drizzles barbecue sauce on them, wraps them in foil, and bakes them until they hit 200°. At least, that’s what he did in the video I saw. I’m not wrapping this one because I don’t like the “butt soup” presentation with a soggy bottom. I put today’s butt on the broiler pan, wet the top with a vinegar sauce I made a long time ago, covered it with foil, and put it in the oven. Any liquid that comes out will fall into the pan instead of soaking the butt and ruining the bark, and the steam will help keep the meat from drying out.

Yes, I said I was glad the WSM could hold a broiler pan, but the oven is so convenient, and if the smoker is idle, I can start cleaning.

The meat is covered in foil. It can’t tell whether it’s in a smoker or an oven.

I know Malcom Reed is a barbecue genius, and I’m a dabbler who has made a lot of bad barbecue, but I can’t help myself. I just can’t make myself wrap that butt.

It’s funny how cooking works. These days, I really try not to let pride prevent me from trying other people’s respected, seemingly-proven ideas. On the other hand, when I do, I often find out they are wrong and I’m right. So sometimes the price of humility is bad food.

I’m not doing anything interesting for sides. This is just an ordinary weekday lunch. I’m going to open a can of baked beans and doctor them slightly with barbecue sauce and maybe some onions, and I’ll roast several ears of corn. Done.

I heard that some people smoke corn on the cob, so I tried it last time. Buttered some ears and put them in the Smokin-It. They tasted like creosote, so I think I’ll give up on that idea.

Reed says to put a finished butt in a cooler to bring it down to pulling temperature. I think that’s wrong. Pardon the hubris. Far as I know, the meat will be tender as soon as I get it to 200°, so I don’t think cooling it slowly is helpful for the texture. I think it will be fine if I let it cool on the counter.

I am checking A.I., and it says coolers are for situations when you need to hold the pork for a while before serving it. I guess that’s what the pros have to do in competitions. I don’t have any reason to wait. I’m not going to be submitting this butt to a panel.

I’m going to skip the cooler. This worked before. It works for pork roasts in the oven. It will work now. I’m confident enough to roll the dice, anyway.

MORE

The pork has been served.

All I can say is, this is a pivotal day in my personal barbecue history.

I have eaten at highly-regarded restaurants. I have made my own barbecue at home, and it was better. I have even eaten weird, expensive Chinese barbecued pork in Singapore. None of it is even on the same planet as the pulled pork I just smoked.

Tender, juicy, nice smoke ring, gentle smoke flavor that seems to go all through the meat, chewy, delicious candy-like bark, aroma straight from heaven…I didn’t know what pulled pork could be until today.

If it’s this good when I screwed up so badly, what is it going to be like when I actually know how to use the smoker? What must a competition-winning butt be like? What are people making that I don’t even know about?

The fat is the best part. Like Malcom Reed, I scored the fat cap into little squares, and when the bark settled on them, they were tiny black cubes of concentrated ecstasy.

I thought I liked the barbecue sauces in my pantry, but I was afraid to let them get too close to this pork. Buc-Ee’s, which seemed good until today, seemed to overpower the pork with the smell of liquid smoke. Sweet Baby Ray’s was too thick and sweet. Sonny’s Smokin’ sauce somehow didn’t make it. I squirted sauce on my plate and barely dabbed the pork in it.

If it’s this good now, it will be incredible once I get the hang of this.

It could have been slightly juicier. I think I should have salted it the day before, to get more salt into the meat. Maybe I should brine the next one.

It stalled at 199 degrees, so I let it sit in the oven for a very long time. I think that was a mistake. Also, I think I should put it in the oven earlier, soon after the smoke thins out. I think I should remove it at maybe 150 instead of 160.

Other than that, I can’t think of any way to make it better.

That’s it, then. The WSM is a winner. Next time, spare ribs.