Who's smoking meat this weekend?

Smoking a halved pig's head. Ill post pictures on smoking day with specifics. Haven't got it set in stone what I'm doing yet so suggestions would be great.
I can get them free from the meat market i work at so i figured I'd give it a try. Seen done good looking recipes on travel channel. Any one attempt this before?

Kswanny said:

Smoking a halved pig's head. Ill post pictures on smoking day with specifics. Haven't got it set in stone what I'm doing yet so suggestions would be great.
I can get them free from the meat market i work at so i figured I'd give it a try. Seen done good looking recipes on travel channel. Any one attempt this before?

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Why do you get them free???

Theres not much of a food culture in northern illinois so unless its steaks or skinless boneless chicken breasts people around here won't try it. They're all pretty boring so we'd have no chance selling a hogs head so my boss gave it to me

So heres my plan for the halved hogs head:

-Salt/Spice Brine for 24 hours(currently Brining)
-Dry rub and mop let sit till sunday when i have all day to cook
-Smoke (mopping occasionally) at low 200's till int. temp reaches high 100's maybe 200F?

Mop sauce:
1 qt Milk Stout Wort
1 clove garlic (chopped)
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup Bourbon Stout BBQ sauce (Homemade from stout wort and bourbon)

Hoping for some experienced smoking tips or suggestions before sunday haha

Venison summer sausage and jerkey from deer butchered last weekend and a ton of bacon feom the hog we butchered the week before that. Hopefully next weekend it'll be fresh elk

Went on at 8:30 at 230*
I've put nomex gasket around fire box and smoker to close up those gaps to help regulate temp, and I discovered that the thermometer that came with this thing is about 25* too low. Seriously? Come on people, can't be that hard to make a thermometer that gets within 5* for this application!
Ah well anyway.... Both are bone in from a small hog a buddy butchered a month or so ago. Two different rubs. One on left, salt free paprika/chili powder/garlic based. The one on the right is sugar/garlic/pepper base. We shall see what we shall see.



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beernbourbon said:

Went on at 8:30 at 230*
I've put nomex gasket around fire box and smoker to close up those gaps to help regulate temp, and I discovered that the thermometer that came with this thing is about 25* too low. Seriously? Come on people, can't be that hard to make a thermometer that gets within 5* for this application!
Ah well anyway.... Both are bone in from a small hog a buddy butchered a month or so ago. Two different rubs. One on left, salt free paprika/chili powder/garlic based. The one on the right is sugar/garlic/pepper base. We shall see what we shall see.
View attachment 231749


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Looks like the start of something good. Where did you find gaskets at?

onetoeddogbrewery said:

Looks like the start of something good. Where did you find gaskets at?

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rutland is a good brand to use. check with your local fireplace store or Amazon (where i got mine).

you can buy a kit that comes with the glue. what i used looks similar to this:

onetoeddogbrewery said:

Looks like the start of something good. Where did you find gaskets at?

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http://www.bbqgaskets.com/


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jammin said:

rutland is a good brand to use. check with your local fireplace store or Amazon (where i got mine).



you can buy a kit that comes with the glue. what i used looks similar to this:

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brewbama said:

http://www.bbqgaskets.com/


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Cool. Thanks. When I got my pit the guy sold it to me cheap because the door on the chamber was bend out of place and I've never been able to get it to seal right. I was planning on throwing a heavy canvas tarp over it but a gasket is a way better idea

brewbama said:

http://www.bbqgaskets.com/


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This is where I got mine. I used the self stick, as it was cheaper, less potential mess(I know myself all too well).
Completely changed my ability to regulate temp on this one today. Being charcoal start, then cherry chips/chunks, had to babysit more than electric, but never dropped more than 10-15 degrees, and admittedly most of that was my lack of attention at times. Went for 4 hours to IT of 190 on one and 195 on the other...... One was only 8oz, the other 13oz. (Hog was the runt at 200lbs hanging) Wrapped 'em in foil and set them back in there while temp was still stable at 115. Get some pics before I shred the bigger one.


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Smoked some Cajun seasoned beef jerky its tasty

Made some bacon wrapped chicken lollipops on Saturday that turned out excellent. Put them in the Akorn with 50/50 blend of peach and cherry wood at 325 for a few hours then added a bourbon maple glaze for the last 30 minutes. The prep work is pretty laborious, but worth it!

Smoked a whole bunch of pulled pork this weekend for chili and pulled pork sandwiches.

Kswanny said:

So heres my plan for the halved hogs head:

-Salt/Spice Brine for 24 hours(currently Brining)
-Dry rub and mop let sit till sunday when i have all day to cook
-Smoke (mopping occasionally) at low 200's till int. temp reaches high 100's maybe 200F?

Mop sauce:
1 qt Milk Stout Wort
1 clove garlic (chopped)
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup Bourbon Stout BBQ sauce (Homemade from stout wort and bourbon)

Hoping for some experienced smoking tips or suggestions before sunday haha

Click to expand...

Was waiting all day yesterday to see how smoked pig heads was going to turn out... What happened??

Im glad you were curious because its a cut of meat that i was incredibly surprised by. It turned out incredible the day of as a "family style pick pieces off and eat it" dish. But where it shines is the day after. I took it to work to show my boss, threw it in the oven till it was hot and it pulled apart exactly like pork butt and makes excellent pulled pork. Besides the brain which is easily removed the only thing on the head was bacon-like jowl meat and dark cheek meat.

Heres a picture halfway through the cook and one of it when finished(sorry forgot to take one immediately after it was done, we already dug into this.) I smoked it for 8-9 hours fluctuating 200-225 on a barrel grill using wet hickory staves from my woodpile. cooked till internal temp was 190-200.

That looks delicious

Sage sausage, Apple, and Cheddar

It was! I do that a couple times a year... Last Thursday happened to be one of them.

A few pork bellies.

Very nice! Cold or hot? I do much smaller chunks and like to do it cold. I have about 40 lbs of assorted cheese in the fridge. When it cools off in the next few days I'll smoke it, and vacuum bag for Christmas gifts for my family. I do Canadian bacon, and peameal too... Gotta get busy!

Cold smoked. I didn't get to smoke any cheese this time but I did smoke some castelvetrano olives. They were incredible.

I'll be doing a 14+ lb packer brisket for a buddy's retirement from the Army party.


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Ok so, I was going to smoke what I thought was a large loin that was donated to my wife's church. However, when I unwrapped it. This is what I found..... I'm not sure what the correct name is, but it's what appears to be I guess a rib roast? It's obviously ribeye but not cut into steaks... So, do I smoke it as ribs, do I cut it as ribeye steaks? I'm just kinda at an impasse at the moment. It's almost thawed, so......... ?


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As an update, looking at it this morning it's definitely pork..... (So I mighta had my homebrew glasses on last night... Jus sayin).
Think I'll cut the loin and have some ribs as well, and smoke 'em up


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I'm doing a rack of St. Louis style ribs today. Simply Marvelous rub, Blues Hog sauce.

Pics to follow...

So, went well, considering what I started with.


4.5lbs loin, 2.75lbs ribs, 3.5.hours @ 220-230, wrapped in foil for another hour, pulled it off at 145 for the ribs, 165 for the loin. Let them rest for about 2 hours, finaled out at 165 for the ribs and 195 for the loin.



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since I discovered that store bought smoked cheese is just sprayed with liquid smoke I started smoking my own.


Does gravity affect gravity? Would all beer be lite on the moon?

I have buckboard bacon in my smoker roaster oven right now. Have taken a few pictures and will post when the finished product is done. It started with a whole boneless pork loin roast. Hope it's good!

OK, so two hours is what it took to smoke this stuff to 160*. Will take more pics tomorrow of the cooled/sliced finished product!

Here is the sliced yumminess - 5 pounds of it! That's a full-sized dinner plate it's on. We packed it up in 8 oz. portions in sandwich baggies, then put those in a vacuum sealed bag and froze. I'd say it tastes a cross between Canadian bacon and regular ham. It's fully cooked as-is and will make great sandwiches, but I think panfrying it a bit couldn't hurt anything and would be great with eggs!

Today is bacon day. 12 pounds in the smoker for a cold smoke.

As if you need any other reasons for smoking/making bacon, one other benefit is making cracklins from the skin.

Medicbrewer said:

Today is bacon day. 12 pounds in the smoker for a cold smoke.

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OMG! Love this.

Update! Close up pics and pics of it sliced and vac-packed!

Today is sausage day! 25# of link sausage and 10# of summer sausage!

And the rest in the gas smoker ....

Getting ready to toss a couple dozen wings on the smoker.

AZ_IPA said:

Getting ready to toss a couple dozen wings on the smoker.

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Sounds like game day fare.