Countdown to Pork Butt Birthday

My birthday is on Friday, the 24th of June. It is my plan to take the day off of work, and spend the day drinking beer and smoking a pork butt, a la Alton Brown's terra cotta smoker. I don't know anyone who has tried this apparatus, but I'll do my best to describe it, and report the results in this blog for the sake of posterity. This will not only be my first experience creating real barbecue, but it will also be my first experience eating real barbecue. My hopes are high.

The aim is to take a tough, cheap piece of meat and hold it over a low amount of heat for a very long time, so as to dissolve the tough connective tissue and keep the delicious juices inside. And, if I plan on keeping a piece of meat warm long enough to do this, I might as well also be imbuing it with flavor - letting smoke pass over it, since I've got the heat going anyway.

There are expensive ways of doing this.

I don't plan on doing this the expensive way. Alton Brown, in his infinite wisdom, has shown me the way to barbecue.

I am currently in the stage of equipment collection. The items needed include

1. Large terra cotta pot
2. Shallow terra cotta dish or bowl, with a circumference the same size as the pot
3. Electric hot plate
4. Barbecue grill sized to fit a few inches below the rim of the terra cotta pot
5. Cake pan
6. Thermometer
7. Hardwood (type and amount yet to be determined)

Stay tuned for a diagram, and further explanation of the process.