Hitman

Great minds must think alike! I came up with the same idea just as I went to read this. Thanks!

Here it is about 5 minutes later, no real elbow grease, just a light scrub.

Another tennis party this Saturday, so I agreed to do another shoulder, even though I have another dinner party to go to. So, off I went tonight to Costco to pick up the meat. Much to my annoyance, Costco didn't have any! Plan B was to go to H Mart, picked up two 10 pound bone-in shoulders. They also had a thick layer of fat on one side, and around the leg stump. I took it off, leaving a thin layer of fat (mostly). Both shoulders were $1.39 a pound, but the Costco meat was very carefully trimmed of connective tissue, so lots of the little muscle groups were loose. This made it difficult to tie up with twine, and as a result there were hunks of meat hanging a little loose, which cooked more quickly than the main hunk. The H Mart meat was all in one piece, as the bone holds it together. No need for twine at all. I applied lots of rub, put each shoulder in a trash bag, put them in a cooler with a bag of ice and several freezer packs. That should keep them cool until tomorrow night, and the fridge won't stink of garlic and mesquite, either.

I tried it earlier, tried it again after your post. Doesn't seem to do anything for me --- I must be missing something. Wait! I see it now. Let's try uploading a pic of my drip pan.

I got a set of lithium batteries for it, and I think I'm going to keep it. I can always use the Acurite probe, which is straight. We mostly use the Acurite head unit as an exercise/stretching timer anyway, so now I won't have to track it down every time I want to do some grilling or smoking.

Excellent points! Question: on the Maverick, is the probe that measures the pit temp the same style as the food probe? If so, how do you prevent measuring the hotter air rushing up the side of the dome, as opposed to the temp in the center? As I noted in an earlier post, when I stuck the probe into the dome through the center of the silicon blockoff, it registered quite a bit higher than the regular dome thermometer. Second question: does the Guru have two probes, or one?

Picked one up last weekend for just under $50. I figured it was worth it, just because I knew they would take it back if I didn't like it, without a fuss. Once I got it, looks like it is a repackaged Maverick unit, single probe. I doesn't have a probe to measure the pit temp, nor a warning for if the fire gets too cool --- just a warning when the desired cooking temp is reached. I am planning to take it back, as the probe will not fit through the little port on the side of the Kamado. The probe end is bent at a 90 degree angle, and the connector on the other end is set at a 90 degree angle. No way to feed it through the port. Just for grins, I stuck the temperature probe through the middle of the silicon plug while I was cooking some chicken thighs last night, to see if I could use it to measure temps in the dome. I had the heat deflector in, and the probe temp was about 40 degrees hotter than what was shown on the Tru-Temp (or whatever the dome thermometer is called). Just shows how much hotter the air is flowing around the heat deflector. Then I tried connecting the temperature probe from my old Acurite thermometer to the new unit, and to my suprise, it worked fine. My Acurite probe has a straight connector, so it will fit through the port OK. I think I'm still going to take it back, just get a Guru, & don't use the fan.

I am getting seriously pissed off at PostImage.org. I tried a dozen times to add another photo, keep getting a message "no input file specified"/

Here are a few more photos. Ready to go on the grill. Contrary to the tutorial, it did not lose much moisture during the 24 hours it was in the fridge, and I did not have to add much more rub. 11 PM Friday night. 11 AM next morning. I left it on too long, fire got too hot, meat was overcooked. Everyone still loved it. I'll do better next time. Ready to wrap in foil, then wrapped in towels, then into the cooler.

Bought some rub at Costco called "Sweet Mesquite" at a great price, seemed to work well on a pork shoulder. It's ground very coarsely, so I used it combined with some other rubs I had that were more finely ground. When I scanned the ingredients, they included "natural" smoke flavoring. Is there such a thing, or is this just Liquid Smoke in another form?

The shoulder was a big hit last night at our tennis party. Being so early in the indoor tennis season, we had a smaller group than normal with 48 players, plus a few guests. The pork got completely devoured. For future parties of 64-80, we will add other menu choices, such as meatballs, etc. Three other party leaders asked me to cook for their upcoming events. This will help me gain experience, sharpen my skills, and improve the product. Yesterday, after I took the pork off the grill in the early afternoon, I kept thinking --- hey, the grill's already hot, why not throw something else on? I was tempted to run down to the store, grab a couple of chickens, and put them on, or maybe get some ribs. But I didn't want to cook anything with a lot of bones, or that had a lot of prep time. Need to think of something that's relatively cheap, can be cooked in 3 hours or so at a low temp. Maybe a butterflied leg of lamb.....

Temps got a little higher than I wanted during the night, but not too bad. At first light I checked, temps were around 275. I tightened the top vent so it was just slightly open, went back to sleep. At 7:30 it was still at 270, but has since started to drift downwards. Smells GREAT!

No wind here. Temps jumped up to 260, so I shut it back down to my previous settings, lower vent just open less than a dime width, upper vent 1/3 turn. Hopefully, this will stabilize things. I am not so concerned about a specific temp, just want it to settle down so I can go to bed. On the other hand, I have a nice ginger beer & Limon Rum drink in my hand, and the night is young!

Very slow coming back up to temp, currently right at 200. Good amount of smoke, seems like there is a good draw. I opened up the top vent a bit, but don't want to overdo it, keep chasing the temp gauge all night.

Yup. Temps stabilized at around 260, before I put the meat on just a few minutes ago. Lower opening is tiny, less than a dime width. Upper vent is about 1/3 of a turn. It's still coming back up to temps, so I will keep watching it until it stabilizes. I bought a wireless thermometer at Williams Sonoma, just because I knew I could take it back. However, after reading through the user manual, I think I will take it back unused. It only has one probe, can't provide a low temp warning. I will wait until the morning, then hook up my Accurite digital thermometer, check the meat internal temp, take it off around 190 - 195.

The oil consumption is a known problem with all the LSx engines, but can very easily be remedied with a catch can. Just takes a few minutes to hook it up. I have never taken my Vette's to a dealer. I have my own mechanic, have a custom tune, with a few aftermarket goodies (LG Pro headers, CAI). A dealer would take one look, void my warranty immediately. Only warranty claim I ever made was for the roof delamination, not for any engine issues. There are TONS of Z06's for sale right now at giveaway prices! Seems like just yesterday they were commanding a $10K premium over sticker. Those days are gone forever.

I didn't make it this year, just tooooooooo busy. I am on the Corvette Forum a lot, so I enjoy going up. I was up a few years ago and it was unbelievably hot & humid. Had to duck into the vendor tents just to cool down.

Here's my plan of attack: I have the charcoal basket full of lump, with 3 large chunks of hickory mixed in. I also have a metal smoker box full of soaked maple chips, which I will place right on top of of the charcoal basket, just before I put the heat deflector in place. I am not using the lower grill, just the main grill with the drip pan on it, with the shoulder on the upper grill directly above. I wrapped the drip pan in foil for easier cleanup.

Picked up a 15 pound pork shoulder from Costco, along with some of their "Sweet Mesquite" rub, and some "Sweet Baby Ray's" BBQ sauce. As I gain experience, I can start making my own rubs and sauces, but for now I'll stick to the commercial stuff. The shoulder was $1.39/lb, nicely trimmed, but it did somewhat fall apart when I took it out of its shrink wrap. I used some cotton twin to truss it up, but I should have doubled or tripled the twine together, as it is too thin as is. I checked at H Mart, which also had smaller bone-in pork shoulders, but they were much smaller, and still had the skin on the leg portion. They were also $1.39/lb. I might try one or two of those later on. The Sweet Mesquite rub is quite coarse, also has some brown sugar in it. I mixed it with the remainder of my Grill Mates, Stubb's, and Charcoal Companion rubs, put it in the fridge around 3 PM yesterday afternoon, inside a tall kitchen trash bag. It sure did stink up the fridge! Next time I will put it in a picnic cooler with a bag of ice. Here's a pic of the shoulder, before & after it went into the fridge. Here it is as it came out of the fridge about 30 minutes ago. I applied a little more rub, but it didn't need much more. I was surprised that it didn't lose much moisture at all --- the bottom of the bag was dry. I will let it come up to room temp for a few hours, plan to put it on the grill around 10 PM.

This is the HitMobile2. I now have HitMobile3, a metallic red C6. Still haven't gotten a cool looking pic like this one though.

At our tennis parties many people bring side dishes and desserts, so there is always plenty to eat. Plus, the food is not intended to serve as a full dinner, although some of our chow hounds seem to think otherwise! Thanks for the advice though!

Tried some Saranac ginger beer this weekend. It's on the mild side, slightly sweet, very foamy. Had it with some Captain Morgan's Parrot Bay brand Key Lime rum. Very nice mix. In fact, I may have to go make myself one right now!

Hey! I've posted my share! Plus, when you're the congenial host, you're busy flirting with the gals, and lying to the guys. I just didn't have time to snap any pics. Everyone has seen what a tenderloin looks like anyway. I will take copious photos this weekend of my first low & slow adventure.

Excellent suggestion --- there is an H Mart in our neighborhood within walking distance. Might be a bit more pricey than Costco though. I have three types of pork rub --- Stubb's, Charcoal Companion, and Grill Mates. Just don't have that much of any of them. How many ounces of rub should I need for a 15 pound shoulder?

As soon as I saw the photo, I knew it was Hawaii (used to live there many moons ago). Nice shot!