After a restless few hours of sleep I awoke at 5:30am to fire up the smoker. I got the oak logs started around 6:15 and snuck in a quick cat nap while they burned down to coals. Today we are working with a 12lb bone-in chunk of pork and a 7lb fatty brisket. I coated the two in some yellow mustard and my soon-to-be-famous rub last night after trimming the brisket a bit and removing the thick skin from the pork. In past cooks I haven’t removed the skin from the pork, I hope this new method creates some tasty bark on the outside. Both slabs went on the smoker at 7:30am at a temp around 225. I am keeping the brisket in a pan to catch the drippings while the pork is directly on the grate. I also have a water pan in there on the firebox side to balance the temperature and keep it humid.

Sauce for the pulled pork below. This was a home run!

1/2 cupapple cider vinegar
1 tbsp dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp ‘344 rub’
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup ketchup

Seasoned Pork and Beef:

12 Noon update: