Ribs & Butts

So today I did 3 butts ... BUT, I forgot to take pictures. They turned out pretty good ... considering. I continue to play with Charlotte and my cooking method. The first cook, I used water in the pan and it made a mess ... I hated it. Since then, I have used a brick and no water. I have been much more pleased with the brick.

I have also been playing with using the "Minion Method" of burning fuel. This allows me to start Charlotte and go for 10-14 hours without having to add coals. it's quite amazing how well the thing holds the heat when I do this. Well, last night, I tried a new twist on the Minion Method. PHEW!!! it made the smoker hot. I couldn't get it down from about 300 degrees for the first 4 hours. Then, I dropped it to 215 for a few hours. Needless to say, they were on the smoker for about 10 hours (for the last few cooks, I have left them onfor over 12 hours). The bark was a little dark, but the butts turned out GREAT!! Very moist and delicious.

I made one for a good friend in the ward. He likes the stuff and buys a butt for me to cook whenever I am going a long cook. I also had an extra one that we were able to give to a family in our ward that is in school and definatly could use the assistance. It's a great feeling to serve others.

As for the sauce, I tweaked it once again. I am almost done with it. I wanted to make a sweeter tomato-based sauce. It turned out pretty good. About 1/2 of it was used on the butt for dinner (we had some company).

Since I forgot the butt pics, I have posted a few pictures from some ribs we did last week. They also turned out great. I am trying to get my rib cooking down. I also tried beef ribs. They were ok, not my favorite. Generally speaking, I am a pork fan.

Happy smoking ...