This weekend we held a full practice cook. We prepared brisket, butt, ribs and chicken. It went well. We made some very good Q and some very poor Q. The bottom line is, what we learned from this practice is invaluable. Here is what we learned:
1. We have learned through many previous smokings how to control the temperature on the Lang to within +/- 7* throughout the whole 14 hour smoke. There was no magic here, it was pure trial and error and learning the smoker.
2. Our first smoke with the Lang used almost 150 lbs of wood. This weekend we smoked with a shade over 80 lbs. Again there is no magic here, it was trial and error and learning the smoker. We are happy also because this was accomplished during a night that hit a mean outdoor temp of 35* from 11PM to 7AM.
3. Our brisket was very, very tasty and was very tender. It was however, very dry. We discovered that using the warmer in the lang, dried out the meat. It would we better just to let the brisket rest in a dry cooler. We will try again without the warmer. We are happy with our rub, and injection recipes for brisket and they will not change unless our scores tell us to. Consistentcy is our goal here.
4. The pork butt was unbelievable! The best I have ever tasted. We tweaked our rub recipe a little and I think we hit paydirt. Only a competition will tell if the judges agree with our taste buds. Like our brisket recipe this this recipe is cast in concrete unless our scores tell us we need to tweek it.
5. The spare ribs are another story. They were tasty but much to hot and spicy. I think we went ape chit with the pepper and our fresh 3 chile grind. As I said, the flavor was what we were looking for but only the most bold of us could stand to put it in our mouth for more than a second. We were also not happy with the cooking time. They were juicy but they were a little tuff. We may need more cooking time. We need to readjust our rub and try again.
6. Everyone except me felt we hit a home run with the chicken. I was not happy with the color and felt the chicken was not flavorful enough. Maybe that was because my tastebuds were burned off by the ribs. I must say that brining really made the chicken juicy but I just felt that the only flavor I tasted was the sauce. We will work on this one also.
All in all, I have to say things are getting a little clearer. We have a long way to go but I think we are on the right path. We still have hundreds of questions but there is still time to get them answered. Everything we did was recorded down to the minute. Our next practice is in two weeks. If we learn as much as we learned this smoke, we will all have smiles on our face.
1. We have learned through many previous smokings how to control the temperature on the Lang to within +/- 7* throughout the whole 14 hour smoke. There was no magic here, it was pure trial and error and learning the smoker.
2. Our first smoke with the Lang used almost 150 lbs of wood. This weekend we smoked with a shade over 80 lbs. Again there is no magic here, it was trial and error and learning the smoker. We are happy also because this was accomplished during a night that hit a mean outdoor temp of 35* from 11PM to 7AM.
3. Our brisket was very, very tasty and was very tender. It was however, very dry. We discovered that using the warmer in the lang, dried out the meat. It would we better just to let the brisket rest in a dry cooler. We will try again without the warmer. We are happy with our rub, and injection recipes for brisket and they will not change unless our scores tell us to. Consistentcy is our goal here.
4. The pork butt was unbelievable! The best I have ever tasted. We tweaked our rub recipe a little and I think we hit paydirt. Only a competition will tell if the judges agree with our taste buds. Like our brisket recipe this this recipe is cast in concrete unless our scores tell us we need to tweek it.
5. The spare ribs are another story. They were tasty but much to hot and spicy. I think we went ape chit with the pepper and our fresh 3 chile grind. As I said, the flavor was what we were looking for but only the most bold of us could stand to put it in our mouth for more than a second. We were also not happy with the cooking time. They were juicy but they were a little tuff. We may need more cooking time. We need to readjust our rub and try again.
6. Everyone except me felt we hit a home run with the chicken. I was not happy with the color and felt the chicken was not flavorful enough. Maybe that was because my tastebuds were burned off by the ribs. I must say that brining really made the chicken juicy but I just felt that the only flavor I tasted was the sauce. We will work on this one also.
All in all, I have to say things are getting a little clearer. We have a long way to go but I think we are on the right path. We still have hundreds of questions but there is still time to get them answered. Everything we did was recorded down to the minute. Our next practice is in two weeks. If we learn as much as we learned this smoke, we will all have smiles on our face.
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