A New Pit

Thus far I have been smoking on a Master Forge propane smoker and have spent many hours researching a charcoal and wood smoker. I finally decided to go with a the Open Range from the folks at The Good One.

As you can see this is not the biggest pit in the world, however for my first charcoal/wood smoker it is perfect. My biggest concern was lighting charcoal and as you will see in a future blog, this was not an issue at all. My other concern was maintaining a constant temperature, however with the solid construction and one chimney of charcoal I can maintain 255 + for over four hours. Using this pit when you have a smoker box temp of 250 you can hold your hand over both the smoker and fire boxes and you have to be 2 inches or closer to feel any heat leaving.An excellent purchase and I am having great luck with this pit.

The one caution is that given the tight seal and the ability to use wood chunks you have to be very careful not to over smoke.

I smoked some chicken wings and legs and they were a little bitter than I would have liked

Randy

Something Different

As of now  I have really been concentrating on the competition types of meat. (Brisket, Pork Shoulder, Ribs and Chicken) I have my rub, sauce and marinade recipes down. My timing is another story as while I can cook some great BBQ, I know that I have to be able to turn in at a specific time in order to compete.

That being said I decided to take a break and try something different. I was in my local butcher shop (yea, shop local and support the small business man when  you can.) and he was telling be about his Duroc Pork Bone-In Loin Chops. Well he had my attention at Pork, however I was intrigued about the rest. You can do a Google search on Duroc Pork and here is a couple of links to get you started:

Lobel's of New York
Compart

Basically Duroc Pork is the prime cut of pork.

So I said I would love to give it a try. The cut I chose had both the Chop and the Loin in one cut of meat.

I injected with simply Apple Juice and let rest about four hours.

I used this rub recipe:

1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
2 Tablespoons Chili Powder
2 Tablespoons Dry Mustard
2 Tablespoons Onion Powder
2 Tablespoons Garlic Powder
2 Tablespoons Cayenne Pepper
2 Tablespoons Kosher Salt
2 Tablespoons Coarse Ground Black Pepper

You can adjust quantities as needed. I did not rub as I would with other types of meat, but simple sprinkled a generous portion on the Pork.

I smoked at 225 - 250 for 2 hours and then wrapped for three hours. I then let set in the smoker for an additional hour wrapped turning off the heat (you can also use your oven) essentially adding no more smoke or heat. I then let rest for about 30 minutes and sliced into Loin/Chops. As you can see the result looked great, but this is one of the best tasting cuts of meat I have every smoked and will probably smoke another one for Thanksgiving.

Randy