BBQ Life: Smokin' the Night Away

11 days to go to the Hudson Valley Ribfest.

Since my WSM was so damn filthy and missing parts, I decided to cook yesterday's pork shoulder, lamb ribs and hamburgers on the Charbroil Double Door Smoker. I think I'm beginning to master this beast.

My first cook on the Double Door was very interesting. The cooker challenged all my learned wisdom about cooking over live fire. I'll go over all of that in another post, when I have some pictures to add, but lets say that this cook was much more successful.

On my first cook I used over 60 lbs of charcoal, lump and wood to cook one small brisket and some chicken wings. For this last cook, I used about 10 - 15 lbs of fuel and cooked for almost 15 hours. I controlled the temperature much better without falling below 210 or rising above 240 during the entire cook.

I'm really beginning to like this cooker. It has it's own quirks and could probably benefit from some modifications, but I'm enjoying using it as it is. I haven't cooked on it in inclement weather yet, but I think I could handle it. We're beginning to understand one another. I'm much more comfortable now about bringing this cooker to New Paltz.

The pork had it's own quirks as well. I took the pork off the cooker when they registered 165 degrees to wrap them in foil for the trip to 195. I discovered that I was out of foil, so I took a quick jaunt to the supermarket. When I returned, after about 15 minutes, the internal temperatures of the pork had dropped to132 and 147 degrees. WTF?

So how did the food turn out? Pretty damn good. The new pork injection is a keeper. The lamb ribs were interesting and different. I used traditional barbeque flavorings, which I think was a mistake. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but I think the lamb would have benefited from a more delicate seasoning profile. When I do lamb ribs again, I'm going to go more Mediterranean in seasoning. Or more Irish. I'll make that call in due time.