Happy New Year

Contrary to what some people thought was possible, I got up at 7:30am after Jimmy's wedding (great time by the way) and New Year's festivities to start the day off right.  Cooked a 8lb Boston Butt and 5lb Brisket. 

I got them from a local butcher down the road from me.  Thanks to a little research from Urban found out they get all local, never frozen to animals and it looks like a pretty good find.  Here is their website:
http://mosleysmeatmarket.com/Mosleys_Meat_Market/Welcome.html

I will be back soon I am sure.

I decided to go with one round of charcoal first thing for some flavor then on to just smoke....used hickory this time.  One thing to note, if you are gonna use the charcoal with the electric smoker you need to rig a little stand above the heating element so it doesn't overheat and short out your outlet...I will be making one this winter for the spring...

On to the food, I just did a simple dry rub the day before of:

Salt
Sugar
Garlic Powder
Paprika
Fresh Ground Pepper
Cayenne
Chili Powder
Dry Mustard

I put the food on at 8:15am, let it get open smoke for about 5 hours then covered them in foil to lock in some moisture.  The Brisket got a total of 8 hours and the Boston Butt got 10 hours and I don't know if I would change much...it was pretty good.  5 hours was plenty of time to incorporate a good smoke flavor but not overwhelming and as you can see a great crust on the meat that locked in some moist tender pork. 






To top it all off Urban made a quick homemade BBQ sauce which was great. 

Pulled Pork Crock Pot Style

So it was way to cold to use the smoker with 6 inches of snow on the ground so I had to use the trusty crock pot again.  I used a dry rub with sliced onions and parsley, let it sit overnight and then added about 2-3 cups of water and some liquid smoke to give it some smokiness.  About 8 hours later it fell apart...


Ingredients:  Serves 6 (with some leftovers)

4 lbs of Boston Butt (pork shoulder)
1 red onion
Parsley
1 tablespoon of liquid smoke
garlic powder
cracked pepper
salt
ground mustard
cumin
paprika
cayenne pepper

Dry Rub:

Garlic powder
pepper
salt
ground mustard
cumin
paprika
cayenne pepper

Loose chop the onion and parsley and put on top of the pork.  Cook on low for 8-10 hours.  Shred the pork with two forks (should fall apart almost on its own).  Drain the liquid (great for other dishes later) and add the pulled pork back in the crock pot with a little juice and enjoy.