[null, null, null, {"document_url": "https://lawver.net/tag/bbq/", "unformatted_src": "https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5064/5777468946_d3060fc7c7.jpg", "src": "https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5064/5777468946_d3060fc7c7.jpg", "formatted_filename": "d fc c", "alt_text": "Butts at 160", "rendered_width": 374, "rendered_height": 500}, null, {"document_url": "https://lawver.net/tag/bbq/", "unformatted_src": "https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3841/14611219499_2086e88d87.jpg", "src": "https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3841/14611219499_2086e88d87.jpg", "formatted_filename": "e d", "alt_text": "Pork Butt, off the grill.", "rendered_width": 500, "rendered_height": 500}, null]
When I moved to Savannah, I had only ever been a consumer of fine smoked meats (you know, BBQ). I didn’t know the difference between BBQ and “grilling”. I was a poor unfortunate Yankee who didn’t know what he was missing.

Thanks to my own personal BBQ Yoda (the one and only Murray Wilson), I got some education and now smoke my own meats regularly – usually pork shoulder (a “butt”) but I’ve also smoked brisket, chicken, turkey and rabbits.

One of the most daunting things when I was just starting out was that I thought it would be really expensive to get started. Thankfully, I was wrong. Assuming you have even a small gas grill, you can make some delicious BBQ with some experimentation and tweaking (all reversible, of course) of your current equipment!

If you’re going to buy anything, I’d highly recommend a Maverick thermometer. It has a grill temp probe and one for the meat, and it’s the easiest way to keep track of the fire and know when you meat is done that I’ve found (also the best balance between price and performance).

That’s really the only thing you’ll have to buy that’s more than $20. Here’s your parts list:

In order to BBQ and not grill your meat, we need the following:

In order to do that, we need to take your existing grill and create a hot side and a meat side. The wood chips and fire will be on the hot side, and the meat on the other.



You’ll definitely want to start as early as you can, because they’re not kidding about BBQ being “low and slow”.



Back in the kitchen, it’s time to get the pork ready for the fire! 
It’s not really done! After you take it off the grill, you’ll want to wrap it in aluminum foil, then old clean towels (that you’ll most likely ruin in this process, but they’ll smell great), and then put the shoulder in a cooler for at least an hour – two is better. I know, it’s hard to be patient.

Once it’s done resting, unwrap it, and then you should be able to “pull” it with two large forks, or with your hands.

Serve with white bread and anything else you want. You can serve it with sauce, but it won’t need it. The meat should be perfect on its own. Really.
 
I’m a big fan of Wiley’s BBQ on Whitemarsh Island, and attended his BBQ class in February and learned a lot. It’s a great way to get over the fear of smoking meat, and learn a lot of tricks without having to figure them out for yourself. It’s also where I figured out the recipe I use for my pork butts (which will be a future post)!

They’re doing another one in a few weeks, and if you’re not doing anything on the 17th of January, I highly recommend it!

More details and you can sign up here

(And this isn’t a paid advertisement of any kind – the class is truly fantastic and gave me the confidence to smoke all kinds of stuff this year: turkey, pork shoulder, pork tenderloin, rabbit, etc)






