butt in the mini


 
The mini is an amazing little cooker, I have done a few cooks since doing mine in July and the way it holds the temp consistently is the most impressive thing to me.
 
yea, it stayed right at near 250 for 8 hours. but i did have to add some more briq twice. had a breeze that made this necessary. pulled it off at the 8 hour mark and an int temp of 196. it came out between slice and shred as i expected. taste is great so its all good.
 
George, Glad it went smooth for you! These little smokers are a blast to use, and remarkably easy to dial in! My last smoke was a 7# butt, I placed the Stubbs briquettes in the bowl with care hoping to get a 10+ hour smoke out of my mini. Alas, at the 9.5 hr mark, it was still holding at 245*, but when I checked the bowl, it was really in need of some more briquettes. I would like to try to cook 2 butts on the little fella, to see how it would handle that much meat! Anyway, I have no fears when I level the temp between 225-245 and turn on the Maverick, to go to sleep and not even think about checking my mini until the morning!
Like I said, these little things are AMAZING!!
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Tim
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Now thats what I'm talking about !!!!!!
I did 2 about that size a couple of weeks ago...sorry no pics.....these mini smokers are great !!!!
 
I did my first two briskets on my mini. I got 6-7 lb flats and cut in half, they were a perfect fit.

I find it easy to add charcoal since the middle section has handles and is easy to lift. But if I ever get 'round to it, I'm going to make a charcoal basket that goes the full diameter of the charcoal grate.

I've also found that the mini works great as a small indirect cooker. The distance between the charcoal and top grate make this more or less indirect. Plus the entire grate is usable. (When I do this - for example when making ABTs - I do so w/out the water pan.
 
last week i did some fatties and spam. i noticed one thing using the sjg. it seemed to like hanging around 225 deg no matter how open i made the side vents. top is always open. this applies also to the butt pictured above. not bad but if i'm in a hurry or want higher temps i may have to use the sjs. interesting.
 
George, interesting. My SJG is as adjustable as my WSM. I wonder if it has to do with the way the bottom of your steamer pot is cut out.? I have the bottom of mine cut out and use my steamer tray (foiled) as my heat shield. (pics on page 24 of the SJG mimi smoker thread) on a couple of different occasions, I needed to speed up a butt, and did so by adding 10/12 fresh lit coals to the charcoal grate and the temp rose (and stayed) at 290/300 until the butt was finished.

Just a thought,

Tim

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the whole bottom is cut out. i use the tray with all the holes as the diffuser. i then have a rack on that that sits more than an inch off the tray. on top of the rack i put a foiled 12 in tray to catch the grease. i have a charcoal ring that is the same size as the charcoal grate and i fill that up. works fine on the silver.
 
Hmmmm, you've got me on this one. Seems like we are both using similar set ups excludind the charcoal ring. (but I don't see that making a diff in the temps you achieve.) I do have a question; How long will the mini (SJG OR SJS) run using a charcoal ring? I have always liked the way they look, but fear they restrict the amount of coal you can use? I just finished my longest smoke on a full load of Stubbs briquettes Friday night. I was able to keep the mini up to temp (225-245) for about 10.5 hours, but I think that is about all I can ask out of this little fella!!

Tim
 
if yer filling the whole bowl then the ring would contain less coals. so far i have had left over coals in my ring though the cooks were not that long. i will try it both ways eventually.
 
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