July 4th 2000

Pork Loins, that's what's cooking, around 30 lbs. The bone in Loin roast is the piece of meat that is cut up in to pork Chops. Loins are lean and cook more evenly than the thicker, Ham's or Boston Butt's. Using loins you get more meat less fat, and spend less time cooking. With a large Ham or Boston Butt the time required is about the same amount as that of cooking a whole pig, due to the thickness of the meat.

You will see we used a Smokin-Pit Grill to cook our pork, using the indirect cooking method. This Pit/Grill is great for cooking BBQ, and makes cooking allot easier than ever before. Those who have ever cooked over an open or above ground pit could testify to that as well. Cooking in the pit /Grill using the indirect method, I turn the meat every two hour's, there are no flame up's and cooking area gets good and hot and filled with smoke that penetrates the meat. Giving it that good BBQ flavor.

This year I used Hickory Chips as the wood for giving the meat the smoky flavor. Last year I used a combination of Pecan, and Oak which was very good. It had been awhile since we've used hickory so that was the decision maker. You see in the picture here the chips ablaze, after taking the picture I closed all the doors on the grill. so the fire would go out and the smoke would start. When you BBQ like this, slow and long with smoke, you'll notice when you cut into the meat that it has a pinkish or reddish tinge. This is nothing to worry about, and means you've cooked the meat right. This coloration is caused by the smoke as it is drawn into the meat.

Since we are BBQ'ing we want to make sure that the temperature in the cooking chamber is right. I try to keep the temp between 220 degrees and 290 degrees. Due to the long cooking time required, means that you will need to add more coals to the fire box. The best thing for that job is a coal starter or chimney. This way you'll be adding hot coals to the fire instead of ones that have to heat up. You will also add more wood chunks or chips at this time.

Below you will see the effects of the smoke on the meat after just 4 hours, and I have just turned the meat for the second time.

Of course after all this work, and being around all that heat of the coals, wood and the good ole' Southern Sun. A person is going to get a little hungry and thirsty. This is where the cold beer and the Boiled Peanuts come in. I'm not promoting beer, it could be a nice big ole' glass of sweet tea or lemon-aide, a mint julep wouldn't be too bad either . Of course there is always the Coco, Pepsi or RC (Royal Crown) Cola's and you can put some dry roasted peanuts in the bottle.

We now let the meat continue cooking, another good eight hours or so. Remember you want Pork fully cooked, so use a meat thermometer, another good indication is that the bones will pull right out with out any meat sticking to them. On the right is my Brother -in-Law Dave chopping up the Meat after we pulled it off the Pit Cooker.

My family likes Chopped BBQ, so we chop the meat as soon as we get it off and add of our own Sauce and mix it up. After doing this we cover the meat and let it cool and then put it in the refrigerator until the next day. That may sound odd, but this allows the flavors from the juices from the meat, the smoked outer edges and BBQ sauce to mingle and the end result is better tasting BBQ.

If you like Sliced BBQ, You do not want to slice the meat right away. The reason being the meat is to hot and needs to rest and cool down first . There are two reasons you want to do this.

Basically what you are really doing, is allowing the juices in the meat to solidify so you don't lose any flavor.
After this resting period, about an hour, the meat will slice easier.

The end result is a great meal. As side dishes we had Hash, Rice, Potato Salad fresh Butter Beans, Sliced Tomatoes, Sweet Pickle chips, Brown & Serve Roll's, Creamed Style Corn and Deviled Eggs. For Desert there was Apple Pie, Ice Cream and I think someone brought a Cake as well, I didn't eat any desert, I was too full.