Doing a big cook this weekend


 
M

Michael Stella

TVWBB Member
I'm going to be cooking 4 if not 5 (assuming I can fit them in the WSM for a catering gig on Monday. I need to deliver the food around 11:00 to get everything setup for lunch party. I've read everything I could find on this board for large volume cooks. Does anyone have any pointers for me? I'm going to use water, and I want to pull the meat off the cooker around 7:00 - 8:00 AM, so I was going to put the meat on around 1:00 - 2:00 PM the afternoon before.

Thanks,
Michael
 
Leave pleanty of time to pull the meat. Seems like it takes me at least a half an hour to pull a butt.

I just pulled 8 butts about 3pm. Foiled and rested for 3 hours. Pulled 2 and seperated the muscles and seperated the fat from the other 6 and just got done around 9. I still have to chop/pull them tomorrow. I pulled the chuck roll off right after that. I am about to start pulling it now. I thought I would see what was going on before I started.
 
Jeff,

The butts are all about 7.5-8 lbs. Do you think I hope to be able to smoke 5 if not 6, but I think 5 will max out the WSM. With that amount of meat I was thinking that I would be looking at about a 16-18 hour cook. Do you think that I am in the ballpark?

Thanks,
Michael
 
I've been having a hard time with temps all day. I've pretty much been rock solid at 240 all day, minion method with the coals. I'd like to be at around 260 at the lid. because I'm using the lower grate for the first time and I assume the temps are lower above the waterpan. Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,
Michael
 
Probably tough to do at this point, but go with an empty pan. You have enough mass of meat on there that I think you could go with an empty pan. Couple of crumpled sheets of foil, then one layer to wrap it and catch the grease. Might even bring your lower grate temp up just a touch, which wouldn't be a bad thing at this point.
 
It only takes me a few minutes to rip through a pork butt after letting them rest. I let them rest for at least an hour though.

Then I tear into them with a couple of forks and it takes a couple of minutes to shred them. Then discarding all of the fat and junk takes up my time.

But probably 10 minutes at most to pull and clean?
 
Shredding the pork wasn't the problem, the problem I was having was heat. Around 11:00 last night (after adding more fuel) I was at about 205-210 at the lid. At this point I had to throw in the towel because my event was at 12:00 today. I brought in all the butts, and loosely covered them in foil and threw them in the oven at 250 degrees. All the butts but the ones that were on the lower rack in the WSM was at about 195 this morning at 8:00, the two smaller ones that I had on the lower rack was at 170 and 177. I have no idea why, so three pulled very nicely, and the two was more like shredded pork.

Everything still had a nice smoke ring from the 9 hours on the WSM, and everything had a great flavor. The party was a success and the guests all enjoyed the meal. Now I have a kitchen that needs a good cleaning and an irritated wife.
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35 lbs of meat is just too much for the WSM I'm thinking, at least with water in the pan anyway. As soon as I pulled off the butts, and put the lid back on, the temp went up to 270. I never hit that high a temp all day prior to that point.

Thanks,
Michael
 
I smoked 4 butts totaling 30 lbs., last weekend. Started with a full water pan and let it dry out. The dry pan seemed to help keep temps up but was a son-of-a-gun to clean. Total cooking time was 15.5 hours.
 
Guys, use an empty pan covered with foil. Gets the heat up quickly and once regulated it'll hold great. Did a smoke last Wednesday night . 30 lbs of P.B. They went on at 10:00 PM. When I woke around 6:30AM the lid was around 250-260. Pulled the first two -12 hours later when they hit around 195 and the third two hours after that. This was a fairly fast cook for me. I tried to keep the lid temp at 260-270.
 
Michael,
I did 35 pounds of butt and a 12 pound packer all in the same smoker 2 weekends ago. No water in the pan, and 230 grate. Put the brisket on the bottom rack, then 2 butts on top rack, and a BGE grid extender on top with 2 more butts. All came out fine at about 18 hours. Again, with that much mass in there, I really don't think the water is necessary.
 
Michael,
We are in Columbus. The best place to get meat is at the North Market-Bluecreek Farm. All organic and free range. They can do about anything with a little notice.
2 weeks ago we smoked 34 lbs of Brisket and it was really good, very little left overs.
Shoot me an email! mdb51@earthlink.net
 
Originally posted by M D Baldwin:
Michael,
We are in Columbus. The best place to get meat is at the North Market-Bluecreek Farm. All organic and free range. They can do about anything with a little notice.
2 weeks ago we smoked 34 lbs of Brisket and it was really good, very little left overs.
Shoot me an email! mdb51@earthlink.net
Click to expand...

I've been there before. Since I was a small boy, my family always bought meat from either Rifes on 5th, or Carfagnas.

Michael
 
Originally posted by Todd D.:
Michael,
I did 35 pounds of butt and a 12 pound packer all in the same smoker 2 weekends ago. No water in the pan, and 230 grate. Put the brisket on the bottom rack, then 2 butts on top rack, and a BGE grid extender on top with 2 more butts. All came out fine at about 18 hours. Again, with that much mass in there, I really don't think the water is necessary.
Click to expand...

I think in the future I'm going to put on no more than four butts.

Michael
 
Michael, don't limit yourself. I did five one time on the WSM. It takes a little longer to get to temp but once there it goes just like a regular cook. I think I'm going to try to do six sometime in the month or so.This little machine is capable of doing a lotof things . Just got to be creative and learn it's ideosyncracies(?)
 
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