Found a NBBD on craigslist in really good condition. Two weekends have past with no time for me to break it in until now. Since it was used I didn't have to burn off the manufacturing oils, and I didn't have time to practice with controlling the temperatures I decided to make Pulled Pork. As we all know pork butts are very forgiving and relatively cheap. I injected the pork on Saturday with a mixture of apple juice, my rub, some honey, and some seasoning salt. Sunday I woke up at 6am, rubbed it up with my rub, and let it rest until I got the smoker hanging out between 225-250F.
I used Cowboy Lump (first time, was $10/ 20lb bag at my local True Value, and I needed propane for my gasser) to get a good base of coals going then added maple throughout the cook. If I started running low on the good base of coals I would throw a few more pieces of lump in there. Pork went on at 830a. It was easy was pretty easy to maintain the temperatures during the cook. At first I got it around 230 for a solid 3 hours, a few mini spikes to 255 when adding more wood (maple). At the 4 hour mark I increased the temperature to hang out around 250, with a few mini spikes of 285 when adding the wood. I added some chicken splits around 2p, at which point I brought the temperature more toward 240 again. I also wrapped the pork at the 6 hour mark and let it cook until it reached 201F internal, a little before 530p (~9 hours). I probed a few sections and it was 198-203 throughout. The money muscle was a little overdone, and fell apart when I tried to slice it. I wrapped the pork in a towel and put it in the microwave to stay warm until we were ready to pull it.
When I took the pork off I started saucing the chicken with Sweet Baby Ray's thinned out with some cider vinegar. When I pulled the pork off the pit, I let the temperature of the smoker back down to 225 for the chicken, then at 630 I let the fire start to die out allowing the chicken to finish and stay warm until dinner at 730.
Very tender, great flavor to the pork, with a good smoke ring and smoke flavor. Chicken was also good, not as juicy as the PBC, but still moist with a great smoke flavor. Very happy (and lucky to find) with NBBD and I hope this will last me for years to come!
NBBD!
I like my Butt rubbed!
I swear I was using it. Faint blue to no smoke for 95% of the cook.
4 hour mark
6 hours in right before I wrapped the butt
After resting
I like my pork pulled!
Chicken!
I did use a spray bottle of cider vinegar for both the pork and the chicken. Sprayed it down every 30 minutes or whenever I needed to add some wood. Thanks for read this, I hope you enjoyed!