It don't come easy, you know it don't come easy
I never did get an answer to my call for a gadget that makes great barbecue better. Not easier, better. I’m still not sure whether to chalk up the echoing silence to the fact that there aren’t any such gadgets, or that no one reads this blog.
If a barbecuer could admit that some pits do produce a better tasting product, it might happen. But no one dare stray from the mantra, “It’s the cooker, not the cook,” for fear of retribution from…well, I don’t know who. From what I’ve seen, the barbecue thought police are hardly a force to be feared. They’re loud, especially if you challenge some long-standing stupidity, like, say, “barbecue sauce just hides mistakes,” but they’re harmless. So someone speak up.
Until then, I’m looking at methods to make it easier. That’s why I tried this:
The bus tub rub.
It didn’t work.
I cooked those six butts for the Lake Waukomis Women’s Club volunteer appreciation day at the Kansas City T-Bones game. That’s a really long title. And about three times the pork we needed, but I needed some practice and to restock my poor, barren freezer, so what the hell.
Anyway, I figured it’d be a lot easier to rub and tightly pack the meat in this bus tub than it would be to wrap them all individually, like I usually do. I figured the tight fit would work as well as the tight plastic wrap.
I was wrong. Stupid lazy bastard that I am, I was wrong. The pork was barely even edible. I tossed most of it in the lake, along with several bottles of KC Masterpiece and an apology to the grass carp that would no doubt dine on the vile stuff.
That’s a lie. It wasn’t bad at all. We ate the crap out of it, in fact, even though it was close to 150 degrees in the T-Bones parking lot.
The flavor just didn’t get as deep into the meat as it does when I wrap them. The meat was smoky enough, and with some post-pull manipulation (add some sauce, some rub, some something I’m not saying) it was damned good. But not as good as I wanted it. Not as good as it could have been. Not as good as it should have been. Well, not that bad.
I’ll probably still use the tub when I’m doing quantities like that, but I’ll go back to wrapping. Experiment complete – method judged substandard.
Just keep rapping, punk.
It was also my first load-it-to-the-brim smoke on the WSM. In spite of the exceptional and enthusiastic help I had, it didn’t go as planned.
Go watch the ball game, I'll take care of the pork. Trust me. Nice dirt lawn, by the way.
That much meat (six eight-pound butts on two levels) took forever to come to temperature. In fact, it took well over 16 hours, the final four in the oven. It was my fault, though. I think with more practice, I can get that much meat to cook as planned, even if I have to change the plan. Experiment complete – results judged inconclusive.
It’s Excelsior Springs week, by the way.