TLW got me a birthday present that has been on the wish list for years. A smoker. I chose Weber’s Smokey Mountain Cooker (aka The Weber Bullet) because it’s only a smoker (I don’t need two grills), it’s a Weber product, it’s fairly compact and it’s tried and true with a big following of Internet devotees.
Finally found the time to try out the The Weber smoker. I got a pork blade shoulder from Safeway, marinated it with some hot Carolina vinegar in a vacuum bag for a day and started up the bullet for a ten hour smoke. Lighting the charcoal and placing in some hickory wood and adjusting the resultant heat to 225F and keeping it was there was straightforward. We brushed the roast with barbecue sauce at the start and again mid-way through.
So here we have:
A 7 pound pork butt yielded only 2.25 pounds of shredded pork ready for tacos or pulled pork sandwiches. But I have a problem with this meat. It’s fat. I didn’t pull the roast apart until the following morning when the meat was cold, so the fat was more clearly apparent than if the roast was pulled hot and served a la minute.
I am beginning to gain insight as to why every smoker chef to publish a cookbook and put his picture on it appears, shall we say, well rounded. First, one needs fortification during the arduous ten hour smoking process–perhaps a beer an hour. Second, the product has a high fat content.
Honestly, We’re not sure we’re going to eat this stuff . . .