Hassouni

what's the difference between these and carbon steel or cast iron?

My take on the meat is that it doesn't matter whether the conventional stuff tastes great - I really just do not want to support industrial livestock raising, especially for pork and chicken, which it sounds like are the worst of the worst. I also like knowing that this butcher knows where the meat comes from, takes care that it's from responsible farms, etc. I like meat too much to be vegetarian, but I share a lot of their concerns, so I always try to get meat from animals who had a more dignified life. I also don't eat meat that often, so when I do, I go for the best I can get.

Totally depends. If it's a day I have the samovar or stacked kettle going, then I'm drinking stikans of chai (what's in my avatar-always ceylon tea, incidentally!) all day long, at half hour to hour intervals. If I'm feeling like busting out my Tokoname teapot, then typically 3-6 mugs of Japanese green tea, depending if I do 1 or 2 loads (3 mugs or so per dose of tea). And if I'm doing neither, then it can range from 0 cups per day, to a pot of Lapsang, to one or two mugs of Ahmad English Tea No. 1 tea bag with milk.

this might just be my desert island rum....

HELL YES!!!!

When you consider that I literally found the WSM for free being given away on the side of the street, anything I add to it is infinitely more expensive!

Neither crispy nor burnt, just very soft. I'm guessing this was for a few reasons: 1) I had a whole bunch in the roasting pan stacked on top of each other, not in a single layer, and 2) i put them in on bake until soft - had i switched to broil when they were still a bit firm, I'd probably have got it more crispy

Definitely too complicated (plus it'll eat into my dog budget and rum budget)! If it weren't for the water drip, I'd have had super steady temperatures for at least 16 hours. All it took was occasionally adjustment of the vents. I was amazed that the temperature only varied about 15 degrees from when I went to sleep to when I woke up

Yeah, the smoke ring was great! It was delicious, but it may be a very time consuming thing to be addicted to....so do you recommend not bothering with the pan? I thought that was part of what kept the heat on the meat low? Yeah, I am glad. I'm also VICIOUSLY hungover...... But those are indeed baked sweet potato "fries" - just tossed with olive oil, the dry rub, and some smoked paprika, and baked at 400º till done. hehehehehehehe Thank you and yes indeed!

Well well it turned out AWESOME! The butt: v I don't have much to compare it to, but it was bloody delicious and my guests loved it. It was just enough food and it turned out great! Thanks for all your tips! For the record, the butt was on for damn near 18 hours, maybe a bit less and the ribs for 8 or a bit less. That water drip really screwed things up, methinks. In any case, the butt pulled apart just by looking at it, and the ribs definitely met the tear test.

Mache, I have the thermometer alarm set for 195, so I'm going to take it off then, and let it rest foiled up for half an hour or so before pulling and serving. The behind the curve thing is from the water drip which really sapped my heat, forcing me to add a small batch of hot new coals for it to get back in the 225 range

well, serving time is T-3 hours, and the butt is at 182, and the ribs still need a while yet...

So, I foiled the inside of the pan, I'm not sure how the water ended up dripping down. I have a Thermapen and a Polder probe. It's going along at 240 right now, will be basting the ribs soon, so will insert the probe thermometer in the butt at that point

I will, once the stuff is done...or at the next peek. I put the ribs on 40 minutes ago and refilled the water pan...only to find it somehow dripping water down into the charcoal!!!! So I had to light about 20 more coals and add them in, now it's teetering along near 225º so let's hope it holds!

Hehe, yeah Mitch, I just ignored it. 9:30 - Cooker at 200º - opened vents all the way, added water to the pan, and turned and basted the butt. Boy it's looking good! Temps got right back up around 230-240, so I've partially closed the vents and will check back in a couple more hours

Wowee, this may be one of the best drinks I've made in a while: Lemon Hart 151 (old bottling) old fashioned quarter sized puddle of 2:1 simple (made with evap. cane juice sugar, so brown), 3 dashes Angostura, an ounce or so of the rum, and a bit less of filtered water, stirred with ice. The combination of everything has the intense, luxurious sweet spiciness of pimento dram or falernum, while having neither in it. Cracking drink! Will try it with my LH80 later and report back (both here and in my thread on the subject)

Well, around 1 am (an hour later than planned due to the fucking mess I found that my puppy made in her kennel....) the butt went on - the smoker started around 210º and is now at 240 or so, but sounds like anywhere between 200 and 250 is fine. Will stay up till 2 or so to make sure temp doesn't exceed 250 then will crash.....I'll turn the butt when I wake up, and put the ribs on at 11

Thanks for putting it more eloquently, Rafa

Mache, I was under the impression that ribs were best right off the smoker? Should they too be rested?

Thanks everyone! I think I'll put the butt on around midnight, then at about 1 pm put the ribs on, regardless of where the butt is. Dinner is at 7, so that should give everything plenty of time!

That's not far off from what I was thinking, though I was budgeting more time for the butt- it was 9 pounds untrimmed, and I didn't need to trim off much. I suppose my big question is, when I add those additional 4 chunks of wood, it won't ruin the butt in any way will it?

Rye makes a better cocktail than bourbon

I've been using the Virtual Weber Bullet site for guidance. The question is, if I start the butt at, say, midnight, is it better to put the ribs on right then, and wake up at, say 3, turn them, then wake up at 6 and take them off, or could I just bank on the butt being done around lunchtime, refuel the WSM and put the ribs on?

OK so I got two racks of spareribs (and it was cheaper than buying another butt) so that raises an interesting question - if I add the ribs towards the end of the butt smoke (*cue Sterling Archer* "Phrasing?") How do I actually get the wood smoke into the ribs, I understand that the wood burns off within the first few hours, so I can add more wood when I add the ribs, but then isn't more wood smoke on the butt undesirable after a point? As for pulling the pork off the smoker and then refueling and doing the ribs, do I need to wait till it cools down? Empty the hot ashes, etc?

Wegmans is a loooong drive. But also yeah I'm really paranoid about industrial-scale livestock raising, especially when it comes to pork.