Wow - what a new concept. I remember my dad had a purple box-like metal thing that we used as a kid, that's my only experience with charcoal. While I do remember going outside to toast marshmallows over the still-hot coals for dessert, as well as making "banana boats" in that unit, I was WAY to young to figure out how it worked and it was a charcoal grill, not a smoker with an offset firebox...
I preloaded the firebox with about 60 pieces of lump charcoal (as opposed to briquettes) and then fired up my Weber chimney with another 30 or so. Once a grey ash formed on the coals in the chimney, the hot coals were placed on top of the fresh coals in the firebox - apparently this is called the "Minion Method." To me, that lets me add enough coals to get the smoker going for a good 4-5 hours without doing much else to it.
The first project? Carri brought home something she wanted to try for "beef on a bun" - a 3-pack of AAA Sirloin Tip roasts from Costco. Good stuff, but not the "already tender" kind of meat you'd normally have if you were to just cook it normally for a medium rare roast.
I wanted to get my hands on some apple wood to try that flavour for smoking the meat. Searching Google, I came across an ad on Kijiji for "free apple wood" - couldn't resist contacting them, and sure enough, they had just hired a company to cut down a 30 year old apple tree in their yard and figured they'd try to get rid of it themselves rather than paying the company to haul it away. I swung by on Thursday and grabbed as much as I could fit in the back of the Avalanche (ok, some in the cab as well...)
Carri sliced me up some chunks out of a smaller piece of the trunk - she made me 6 pieces that would be roughly 3 inches in diameter and about 3 inches long. I ended up using them all over the course of the 6 hour cook. The roast turned out VERY tender, but in all honesty - a bit "too smokey" for my liking. I think I'll try one or two chunks next time, but for my first attempt with the new rig, it turned out to be a success!
Pulled it off the smoker at 4pm and let it sit for 75 minutes wrapped in foil. Carving it showed me the most-amazing smoke rings I'd ever seen. A deep "purpley" ring went around the entire roast - almost a centimeter deep. We'll be trying this again, but with a little less smoke. I may go a little longer.
The average cook time at 225F is 1.5 hours per pound, so for 6 pounds of roast, that should have taken 9 hours. Due to the fact there is WAY more surface area and WAY less depth to 3 small roasts than 1 large one, I assumed it would take less time. I think it still could have gone a little longer - the internal temp got up to 150F, and it stayed there the entire time it sat foiled on the counter.
That would indicate the meat was still on the "plateau" -this is the temperature at which the meat remains while all the connective tissues are rendered and broken down. At this phase, even though heat is being added in the smoker, the temperature of the meat remains constant and all that energy goes to breaking down that connective tissue. I've heard meat can actually stay at that level for up to 4-5 hours!
Anyone that's ever had a pulled pork sandwich is familiar with the OH SO TENDER meat that results. Next time, I think we'll do a pork shoulder or maybe a pork "picnic" roast, a little more time and a little less wood. All in all, what a great way to spend a relaxing day off!!!
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