On 9/14/2013 8:34 AM, George Leppla wrote:
> Today is "Meat Smoking day at George and Becca's" It takes all day and
> is a pain in the ass to do it, so when we get the smoker out, we load it
> up. I have a 14 pound brisket, a 10 pound pork shoulder and 2 big slabs
> of ribs in it..... about 40 pounds of meat. It will run all day and
> tomorrow we will slice, portion and freeze everything. When we do it
> like this, we only have to smoke twice a year at most.

So this afternoon we sliced and portioned the brisket and pork shoulder
for the freezer.

We ended up with 15 pounds of usable meat (brisket and pork shoulder). I
thought the waste factor was pretty high, but I did closely trim both
pieces. The saving grace was that the meat was cheap... so the bottom
line is that the finished product cost $2.21 a pound... plus the time
and electricity.

The meat came out well. The ribs... not so much. I smoked them for 5
hours then wrapped them tightly and finished them in the oven. Time
must have gotten away from me because they were way too tender for me.
The bones just slide out. Becca likes them like this but I like a
little more "bite" on my ribs. They taste really good, though. The 2
racks will give us 4 meals for 2 people at around $4 a meal (ribs were
on sale for 99 cents a pound... as was the shoulder)

George L