First Q of the Year, Part 1

A few weeks ago, I opened grilling season on the deck with a couple ribeyes from the side of beef we've had in the freezer a while. It was a wonderful experience, one I've been dreaming of while shoveling snow the last few months.  But winter's not really over until the first round of BBQ comes out of the smoker.  That glorious moment is now upon us.   

This beautiful piece of meat is an eight pound picnic shoulder (that is, the lower half of the pig's front leg) from a local farm run by some friends of ours. Some other friends of ours bought a whole pig, and asked me to turn this portion into pulled pork.  My pleasure. 

Since it's the season's first Q, I had to make up a new batch of rub.  If you think I'm giving you my rub recipe, you must not know much about BBQ.  (But you could probably find it somewhere else on the Internet like I did.)

Rub ready.

Meat rubbed. (Over the sink to minimize clean up.)

Into a well-seasoned smoker.  Results tomorrow.

P.S.  This post is not part of the planned Good Eats chronicle, but there is an episode on pulled pork that I will get to eventually, including an attempt at the homemade flower pot smoker.