Another thing: When the ground hardens up back there, I need to get to the woods and pull out some fallen, dry maple and oak boughs for smashing up and smoking. Grapevines too. Maple and grapevines are supposed to be particularly nice for smoking and my God do we have a shitload of that everywhere.
Update: OK, so I made these today. Homemade rub kicked butt. I didn’t use any pellets or chunks. Just lump charcoal, so I could get the feel for this creature. I used the deflector plate so that they cooked more like a smoky convection oven, instead of straight grilling over fire. Worked quite well, the food still got a nice roasty-toasted color and little crispy edges.
However, I was too afraid of leaving the ribs on too long. Instead of cooking at a higher heat and then taking them off so soon, I should have left them on a longer time at a lower temperature and then popped the heat up higher at the end so more of the fat would turn to candy.
They were still pretty good though. A surprising thing about the Egg is how stable the heat is. The porcelain it is made out of is very thick and porous. And even though the food roasts evenly, it seems to be fairly steamy inside the dome, instead of the normal dry heat you get from a grill. Very strange to open the top of a charcoal grill and have steam hit my glasses, just like with my indoor oven.
It stayed so hot for so long after shutting it off, I could have made some baked goods in there without adding fuel. I think next time out of sheer economy I will slide a cheesecake or some muffin tins in, right after I take the meat off.
Have you ever had cheesecake cooked over wood? I have. Boy howdy. Good stuff.
You can see they are done, but not crispy-brown-pork-cracklin’s-done.
Next time!
Today Scott smoked a couple of chuck shoulders. I’ve got one in the crockpot with veggies and spices for shredded beef burritos again. The other will be cubed into little beef pot pies. Tomorrow Scott is also doing a couple of chickens to test out a rub for the Thanksgiving turkey. I also made a big chicken stew today with leftovers, homemade stock, and some of my homemade linguica.
The freezer is going to be working hard in the next couple days. After this weekend I won’t need to cook anything but side dishes for quite a while.
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The Connecticut Brisket Research Center 
Update on chuck shoulder: crockpot it for pot roast or burritos. Or grind it up for hamburger.
This is the second time he smoked this cut and frankly it’s not a good candidate for much else. The first time was better, because he crutched it and kept it very moist in broth and we ate it in succulent slices topped with melted cheese.
But even so, brisket is superior for that purpose. Scott sliced up the second chuck shoulder he cooked yesterday, and I froze it in small batches this morning.
That will get used up in little handfuls, in pasta sauce and quiches and soups, just to add a little smoky beef flavor.
Meh. Oh well, live and learn.
Is brisket more expensive than chuck shoulder there? It’s the opposite here, as long as you buy in a warehouse store (Sams or Costco).
It’s about the same or a little less, usually. This chuck shoulder was on special for 2.57/ lb though.
What’s your experience with bottom round? Should we bother?
These are all cuts I used to just plop in the crockpot with carrots and potatoes. Never tried roasting them until now, so this is new to us.
Ooops, sorry I missed this reply.
Bottom round is good for pot roasts, because there isn’t a lot of connective tissue to break down. It also slices better. The chuck shoulder is better for the long smoke, because of the collagen breaking down, and giving it that thick type of flavor, like brisket. I like brisket the best, but chuck is more forgiving on a shorter cook time.