Smoking and Timing of Meals


 
B

BLGreenway

New member
Hey all,

I've been considering the purchase of a smoker for some time, and like many I'm now down to either a WSM or a PBC. But that is not my question. Either way I decide, how do you coordinate meals with a smoker? Seems to me a brisket can be smoked and completed and sit in a cooler until meal time...there's flexibility there. But how do you do other pieces of meat. Chicken or Turkey. Let's say I'm smoking a turkey and my wife is preparing the sides, and we have guests coming at a certain time...how do you plan it all when you don't always know how long a piece of meat will take to finish? How does my wife know when to start cooking sides so that nothing is sitting and waiting and drying out?

Can any of you walk me through how you make this work?
 
There is the 64 dollar question!
The common thing is to start early and be able to hold thing with a fairly short window, I agree but, only practice will give you those answers, not much help from me but, you will see how things end up timing out for you with practice.
My home ec teacher taught the “Make a time schedule!” method, I still use it. Start with the finish time and work backwards, it is a good tool, not always perfect but, it does help.
 
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As Timothy stated, the timing is something learned with practice and experience. Myself, I started wit the basic recipes this website provided and I went from there. Once you get your smoker and get the feel for how it operates, you will begin to feel more comfortable predicting "finished" times. The good thing is, as you already mentioned, the is usually a window of forgiveness where you can wrap the meat in a cooler and hold it for a period of time. Also, if you see you're running behind, you can always bump the heat up and speed the cook up as well. Most of all, don't worry. If you fall a little behind, people are very forgiving when your finished product is some awesome BBQ!!
Good luck,
Tim
 
Good question, BL. As you mentioned about brisket, I’ve also held pork shoulders in a cooler. I’ve been smoking for a couple years, so it will be interesting hearing from others whom are more experienced.

In my smoking experience there is no exact formula on cook times, so I pad it. And in my opinion I can have two similar-sized cuts of meat and find that one coasts along beautifully until completion while the other is much more stubborn. Those with generally longer smoke times can have a larger time delta than those with shorter times (i.e. a 10 lb shoulder can vary in time by a larger margin than a rack of baby back ribs). Maintaining a cook log can prove very helpful for a variety of reasons—and can help plan your times—but will not prove completely accurate because of variables that can impact total cook times.

Since you mentioned poultry I will say that when I first started I did poultry in the 250f range and while I’m not saying that is wrong I will say that I enjoy the skin and many people smoke—say—whole chickens at high heat such as 325f-350f, which can yield a better skin. So in the sense of high-heat smokes I maintain their times are similar to what your kitchen oven yields (but it may take a little practice to get your smoker to the high temp that you desire).

I’d be inclined to begin entertaining guests that will not be upset if dinner is not served at a specific time. For me, even after a couple years, it is not the norm that a piece of meat comes off the smoker just as all our guests made their way to the kitchen for a beverage so that I can wow them with the aroma and presentation.

As time goes on, keep in mind that it is common for people to vacuum seal certain meats and they can be reheated directly in those bags. I often smoke a pork shoulder only to divide it and freeze in Foodsaver bags for later use. Later, I drop the package in boiling water and it is ready for a meal in a few minutes.

I have several WSM’s and a PBC. Good luck!
 
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Cooking high heat can make the times more predictable. That said I like to cook in the 275 medium range and occasionally more around 225. Turkeys can be kind of unpredictable in that turkeys the same weigh can have different shapes and that will effect cook time. I've sweated over trying to get a brisket done in a certain time. Usually once it's wrapped you can crank the heat some if you have to.
 
Most meats are fairly forgiving when it comes to being 'held in a cooler' till meal time. Remember letting the meat rest is an important part of the process. I have put warmed 'fire bricks' in a cooler with ribs and successfully held them for 3 hours. I would suggest learning to cook the meat till it is done, foil it, and let it rest till meal time. As mentioned earlier, fire bricks in the cooler or having the oven set low, can give you plenty of flexibility.
 
Don’t worry too much if you can help it. Before you do something for an important group, get some practice in. Chickens are cheap, pork butts are cheap, practice with those you will start to see what is going on and it will begin to all fall into place.
Dustin and Mike make very good points about the forgiveness of smoked projects.
Have some fun nd just get started, worrying about timing simply takes away from the joy of the process.
 
Smoking is an art, not a science. With experience comes wisdom. After a few cooks, you will be able to predict your finishing times better.
Russell
 
Timothy F. Lewis said:
My home ec teacher taught the “Make a time schedule!” method, I still use it. Start with the finish time and work backwards, it is a good tool, not always perfect but, it does help.
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While I didn't have a home ec teacher, I do definitely use a time schedule and work backwards when making it, just like Timothy said. I also try to pad the schedule, allowing more time than I think things will actually take. If we're talking a very long prep schedule I also work in rest breaks. They're usually helpful and allow for scheduling errors.

My family laughed the first time I had a detailed schedule of everything that needed to be done, but they weren't laughing when everything was hot and ready at the appointed time.

I would also add that most larger pieces of meat will hold for a lot longer than you'd expect. I mistimed the holiday roast this year and had it done hours ahead of time. It held quite nicely just sitting on top of the stove covered with foil and a dish towel. I popped it back on the grill to brown for just a few minutes before serving and it was fine when it hit the plates.
 
Good stuff guys! Thanks for being willing to share your expertise. Now if I can just stop being like a ball in a tennis match and make a final decision on which smoker to get! Haha. Thanks again.
 
"Now if I can just stop being like a ball in a tennis match and make a final decision on which smoker to get!"

That's a whole different topic. I've had an 18" wsm for few years now with a BBQ Guru. At times I wish it was larger (BDS or 22" WSM).
 
Not a cooking tip, per se, but a "relationship" tip: When the wife says "when are you going to start the <insert meat here>?" the only correct response is "when I need to". This assumes that you know what time the meal will be served and can do the math to know what time to start it. As others have said, everything you cook can be held for some amount of time (the exact time varies on what it is). Also there are ways to extend that time (for example, brined poultry is hard to dry out), so it's a matter of experience and planning.
 
I use the hell out of a Coleman cooler i picked up specifically for holding BBQ. Its one of those 5 or 7 day coolers. I plan the meat to be done a few hours before i want to server it. I fill the cooler with hot water in the tub and shut the lid for 15 minutes. Drain and towel dry then shut it again. Pull the meats, wrap in Foil then a Towel and put in the Cooler (FTC method). You'll be amazed, if you keep the lid closed, just how long meat will stay hot in there. The more meat the longer it will stay hot. I've taken briskets out 5 hours later that were still too hot to handle bare hands.
 
James A said:
I use the hell out of a Coleman cooler i picked up specifically for holding BBQ. Its one of those 5 or 7 day coolers. I plan the meat to be done a few hours before i want to server it. I fill the cooler with hot water in the tub and shut the lid for 15 minutes. Drain and towel dry then shut it again. Pull the meats, wrap in Foil then a Towel and put in the Cooler (FTC method). You'll be amazed, if you keep the lid closed, just how long meat will stay hot in there. The more meat the longer it will stay hot. I've taken briskets out 5 hours later that were still too hot to handle bare hands.
Click to expand...

The cooler is your friend and a really good cooler can be your best friend. Best result is to allow the meat to cool to around 170 internal -- so it stops cooking -- before you wrap it and put it in the cooler. If you go straight from cooker to cooler, you run the risk of an overdone result. Even with a cool-down, briskets can keep in a good cooler for 5 hours without much worry.

Jeff
 
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