*Update: you’re too late–it was only a two day sale.*
If you’ve been thinking about getting a smoker, now’s the time.
Amazon has the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker on sale for just under $175. It’s what [Matt](http://kerner.net) and I use for smoking meats and fish and it’s fantastic. The $175 price is cheaper than what I paid for mine and a bargain for the quality.
Bottom line: If you already are a “griller”, buy a smoker. You won’t be sorry.
Today I ran 2500 meters (or about 1.5 miles) without stopping at a good pace. I was not significantly winded afterwards and my time was around 18 minutes based on my iPod clock. I really need to get a stopwatch!
Pros:
* The run itself was routine and that’s a good thing. It means that my body is starting to acclimate itself to the new exercise. I like that feeling.
Cons:
* I need an orthotic insert for my running shoes.
* I need my new shoes *right now*.
Wishes:
* I wish I had enough money for an iPod nano and the Nike kit. It sounds like a blast.
11 minutes. I was surprised to find that from a “cold start” I can easily run one mile (1600 meters) in only 11 minutes. The pace was easy on my body and breathing, a nice jog. That means I’d likely turn in a time for a 5K run around 34.5 minutes. Not bad, but I don’t think it would be competitive or even realistic. I should add 15 minutes in there for slowing down, freaking out during a race or even getting tired.
I’m talking about a 5K because I think I’m going to enter the Sunshine Run, a local 5K institution put on by the Sisters of Mercy affiliate [St. John’s](http://stjohns.com). It’s an easy race and this year, it will start and end at Hammons Field, home of the Springfield Cardinals.
I ordered new shoes from [Ridgerunner Sports](http://ridgerunnersports.com) — new Cumulus VIII to replace the pair I have now that’s nearly worn through. It’s tempting to save a few bucks and get last year’s pair from Shoe Carnival and I may do that yet. I haven’t heard from them for a few days and I can’t wait the two weeks that they thought it might take.
Matt’s a chef–don’t let him tell you otherwise–and earlier this month he posted about [summer tapas](http://www.kerner.net/archives/000553.html) that looked outstanding. Matt does a great job of posting with pictures and the middle tapas item (cerrano ham?) looks perfect for me.
Now, if we could only encourage him to post more, especially about the computer he bought for his smoker…
Tim Smith sent this my way….
It’s the morning after the smoke and I thought I’d share some things I learned, good and bad:
* I controlled the temp just fine. The Minion Method is perfect for using just the right amount of charcoal. This was a short cook (4 hours) and the Minion Method worked well since the internal temp of the cooker was over 110˚F before lighting. I could see a situation when the slow temp climb wouldn’t work in my favor, but it’s darn near foolproof for keeping the temp low and controlled.
* Large meat cuts need to sit out for an hour or more. I pulled the meat from the refrigerator and it sat on the counter for only 30 minutes before heading inside the smoker. The internal temp was 42˚F and that meant the smoker had to work harder to bring things up to serving temperature. At the four hour point, the temp had risen to 149˚F which I wouldn’t call idea for safety. Before serving, I reheated the 1/2 inch thick pieces I’d sliced in the microwave to 160˚F to ensure food safety. Oddly, this particular roast was very juicy but lacked flavor. That brings me to…
* Not enough barbecue/smoke flavor. I used maple wood from the yard (gasp!) and got a very small smoke ring. I think I’m a hickory person or even pecan like [Matt](http://kerner.net) uses.
* I’m ready to try the big three: ribs, brisket and pork shoulder.
* Always put the charcoal away in case it rains unexpectedly overnight.
ken-jennings.com: “Why is that single mom naively bringing her be-sweatered intellectual pre-teen to an R-rated movie? The Squid and the Whale might be educational, but probably not in the same way she’s thinking. The same couple who took their kid to Curious George in the first panel apparently gets a sitter when they go back the next night to spice up their marriage with some tasteful European softcore. But this time accompanied by that pervy loner in the ski jacket.”
Here’s a quick update before I hit the shower and get ready for people to show up. The smoker was running a little hot, so I shut two of the lower vents and left the one facing the wind open 50%. The vent change was around 4:45PM and now 45 minutes later, the lid temp is down to 220˚F and the pork roast has been stable at 132˚F. I think that’s an ideal temp for rendering the existing fat in the two cuts and we should get some juicy results.
Also, I’m sticking with maple this time and not mixing in any hickory like before. I think that will give us an honest flavor and not cloud the salmon like previous smoke attempts.
Side note: Watch your favorite grocery stores every other day for meat bargains. When an item gets within 48 hours of it’s “sell by” date, it usually gets reduced 50% in price. That makes it easy to pick up high-end meat for a bargain price. If you freeze it right away, you’re OK, but why not “smoke’m if you got ’em”?
Tammy and I are having people over tonight and that means it’s time to fire up the smoker. Last weekend, while Tammy was out of town, I spent about 5 hours with [Matt Kerner](http://kerner.net) going over some of the nuances of running the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker. Combined with the wisdom of the [Virtual Weber Bullet](http://virtualweberbullet.com), I’m running a successful smoke right now.
The meat of choice is pork roast from Sam’s about 4 pounds in size. It’s two end pieces of the sirloin (I think) that are tied together with butcher’s twine in to a neat bundle that makes for even cooking. I rolled it in some [Galena Street Rub](http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/p-penzeysgalena.html) from Penzey’s and let it sit uncovered in the refrigerator while I prepped the smoker.
I used a half full ring of charcoal that was left over from the last smoke, knocking the ash off of the briquets and dumping the excess. I then took five small pieces of maple and arranged them to form a rough square with one piece of the wood in the middle. Next, I lit 20 briquets in a chimney starter then pulled the cooking grates and water pan out of the center cooking section. I cleaned the two grates and pan, reassembled them in the center cooking section and filled the pan with water. Back inside, Tammy had already pulled the pork out of the fridge to give it a chance to come close to room temperature. I inserted a probe thermometer, taking care to avoid air gaps where the two pieces of meat are tied together.
It takes about 20 minutes for the charcoal to get done in the starter, so when it was mostly grey, I pulled the briquets out one by one and place them on top of the charcoal in the ring inside the “square” of wood I constructed before. My guess was that I would get good smoke from the center piece of wood initially and more smoke from the rest of the pieces as the other charcoal became lit.
At this point, it was time to assemble the cooker with the goodies. On the bottom rack went the pork roast and the top rack I put five ears of corn (stripped of all husk but the last layer). I assembled the cooker and put a standard thermometer in the top vent to monitor smoker temperature. I know that the smoker tends to run hot at the lid, so I’m shooting for 250˚F. At 3:00PM CST time of assembly, the thermometer read 180˚F. Only 15 minutes later, the temps creeping past 200˚F which is a good sign and also time to shut the bottom vents to the 25% open mark. Previous smokes of mine started too hot and cooked the food too fast but this looks like it’s “on track”. A check at 3:45PM shows a temp of 228˚F which means a solid increase in temp and good fire control even with the vents nearly closed at the bottom. Finally, a 4:00PM check shows a steady 245˚F–perfect for barbecue.
Next stops: check the corn at 5:00PM (2 hour point), add the salmon at 6:30PM (1 hour before dinner time).
For fun, I’m restoring [the new Mac](http://houseofwarwick.com/?p=61) using the Software Restore discs and that means MacOS X 10.0.4. It’s been several years since I used a pre-Jaguar MacOS and I’m wondering if it’s as bad as I remember. This machine would have been a mid-range Mac at the time and should run it well especially taking in to account the gigabyte of RAM on board.
I’ll post some screenshots when I get things running. After this, I’ll go to Jaguar (10.2) and Panther (10.3) and finally Tiger (10.4).
PS: If you’re a MacOS developer reading this, what’s a good way to set up the machine to boot multiple MacOS versions? This machine will boot all MacOS versions from 9 to 10.4 so I’m thinking it’s *perfect* for dev work.
Steve Kirks 