20 hour cook question


 
T

T Bounds

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Friends,

Thank you all for the excellent information here on the board. All my cooks have been improved because of what I've read here. Now the question:

Very soon I'll be cooking 4 or 5 butts for a meal at my church. I'm very comfortable with the WSM for any amount of ribs or chicken and also for 1 butt. I'm not worried at all about multiple butts, but I do have an issue.

My single butts have done well temp wise for as long as I've needed it, 12+ hours. I am prepared to do this feed for 20-24 hours, starting Tuesday afternoon for a Wednesday 6 pm feed. I don't like to do things ahead of time; I like food hot off the grill. That means I'll need to sustain 250 (with a pit minder) for up to 24 hours. I have the MM down pat, but what exactly do you do to keep that temp for 10 or 12 hours past the initial MM? Is it simply a matter of adding more lbs of unlit coals to the WSM? Should I take off the sections for a few minutes and stir things up and then add coals? Should any of them be lit or unlit? You get the picture: how do you push the MM out to outrageous lengths?

I'm the pastor, so it's important my Q be heavenly! Any and all suggestions will be appreciated, as always.
 
Hi T. I'm guessing you're not planning on resting the meat at all? Which is fine. Why do you feel it will be a 20 hr cook? Just curious.

So far as keeping the WSM going .... I would really load it up initially, MM start, using your pitminder you should get about 14+ hrs out of it. Once the coals get low (after say 10 hrs) just add more unlit through the access door. Not enough to smother what you have lit but enough to keep it going. Repeat as needed. Just toss a handful or two in through the door. That way they get spread out as you toss them in. (I actually prefer to use long handled tongs setting one or two briquettes in at a time until I get the amount I need) You might have to do this a couple of times but it's not a big deal. If you do put too many coals in at one time just leave the access door open for a bit and they'll ignite.

Also, once the coals go down and your heat start to lower you can tap the legs of the WSM to knock the ash off the coals and it'll pick the temp up for a little while, maybe an hour.

No need break down the cooker. Do everything from the access door.

Good luck!
 
Thanks, Rick.

I am trying to allow for resting time, given I've never cooked this long before. I'm hoping 20 hours will do the butts, allowing for a couple hours rest before pulling.

I'll load up the WSM with original Kingsford, a mountain of it, with four baseballs of hickory spaced throughout, go with an empty but foiled brinkman pan for all the drippings, and pray MM and the pit minder gets me until breakfast. That would be about 13 hours if I start at 6 pm. Perhaps I'll back it up to 5 just to be safe.

When I start adding you say "a handful" of coals. I would think that to get 7 or 8 more hours of 250 I would need a couple of lbs at least. Thinking in terms of chimneys I'd say half a chimney. Am I in the ballpark, or will it be trial and error, hopefully not too much of that!

Thanks again for the insight.
 
The main reason I suggest a couple of handfuls worth at a time is so you don't smother out the fire you have, nor do you alter your cooking temp much. Once the coals you've added start firing up, 10 mins or so, then throw in a couple more handfuls worth. Repeat until you get the amount in there you think will get you by. I'd say you were in the ballpark on coals. Maybe a little more.
 
Hi,

I'm confuse about your need for a 24 hour cook. The "cook" time for multiple butts is not very different than it is for 1. The only difference might be the time for the smoker to get up to temp.

Al
 
Al,

I'm simply going on what I've read in this forum. It seems that most persons cooking 4, 5 or 6 butts say it took 18, 20, or even 24 hours. Why I do not know. Also, some writers talk about single butts taking 12 and 14 hours, which has never happened to me. I understand that all cooking is a matter of time and temp, but when I cook brownies in the oven 13x9 pans take less time while 8x8 pans take almost twice the time. The same idea with steaks on the grill being adjusted by thickness.

Assuming all my butts are of the same size and thickness I could make the same assumptions, but adding in the mass and heat sink issues 42 lbs takes a lot longer to absorb heat than does 7 lbs. I'm no pro, just a pastor, and I've never cooked more than a single butt, although those single ones to perfection, but I'm guessing that the multiple suggestions of 20+ hours for 4 or 5 butts is a reasonable place to start.

I'm mentally prepared to make any and all adjustments "on the fly" to make the Q great, but given this virgin voyage on the WSM to crowd feeding I'm taking the advice I constantly give my children: do your best and try your hardest and that's all you can do. Wish me luck and I take all advice!
 
Once the smoker is up to temp (which will take longer with more butts) I believe that six butts should cook at the same rate as one. My only concerns would be 1) making sure that there is room for air to circulate freely around the meat and 2) rotating the bottom row of butts to the top row about half way through the cook so that everything is done at about the same time. Remember, the top row is going to cook faster than the bottom.
 
some folks define their start time on cooks as when they actually start getting things together others when the meat goes on and even more when cooking temp hits the mark.

i start my timer when the cooking temperature hits the mark. once the wsm is up to speed it doesnt matter how loaded or unloaded it is. the only variable like others have said is how long it takes to hit your cooking temp mark.

once the wsm settles in usually for me around 30-45 minutes from when i put the food on i can leave it. at that point i start checking based on experience and size of the smallest cut if i am doing multiples when i have to start checking for done.

maybe that helps.
 
Jon,

Thanks for that insight; it does help. I, too, think of time in terms of time at temp. If I read you carefully you're saying the time to cook multiples is individually based on the butts used, the smallest getting done quickest and the largest later, but all within the range of a single butt cook?

If that's the case I should be looking at about a 12 hour cook, as I get my pork from a large producer here in NC with a store where I have my choice of massive numbers of any part of the pig I want. I could buy ten butts all within 6 ozs. of each other if I choose.

Am I understanding your experience this way correctly? Thanks again for the insight.
 
You may see a longer time needed to get that mass of cold meat up to temp but, your cook time will be governed more by the size of the cuts, than the number of them. I would think that 12-14 hours will be more than enough time to accomplish this. I cook 150 lbs of brisket and 150 lbs of butts in that amount of time on my offset pit. It has NEVER taken me longer than 14 hours to cook anything!!! I think the 20-24 hour myth comes from some Tejans assertions that brisket tastes best if you cook it at 200 degrees for 24 hours. I say "poppycock"........oh, scuse me Reverend!
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by T Bounds:
Jon,

Thanks for that insight; it does help. I, too, think of time in terms of time at temp. If I read you carefully you're saying the time to cook multiples is individually based on the butts used, the smallest getting done quickest and the largest later, but all within the range of a single butt cook?

If that's the case I should be looking at about a 12 hour cook, as I get my pork from a large producer here in NC with a store where I have my choice of massive numbers of any part of the pig I want. I could buy ten butts all within 6 ozs. of each other if I choose.

Am I understanding your experience this way correctly? Thanks again for the insight. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

pretty much. your "cook time" is just an estimate on when to start checking for "tender" or "doneness" a lot of people use internal temps to gauge that and it is a decent measure to make sure the meat is done through and through and safe to eat. tender is more a term used for ribs and brisket than pork butts. al ot of folks use the loose bone test if they can easily wiggle the bone the butt is done type thing.

i always estimate my cook time based on the cut weight of the meat then start checking for tender.

and yeah im from texas. you dont need to cook any cut of meat for extremely long times it just turns to mush there is a window for tender that if you go under it is tough and unedible go over and the meat is stringy dry closer to jerky than anything.

the lower the temp the longer it takes. the rason for low and slow in BBQ is to let the connective tissue disolve and melt out leaving only nice tender brisket or pork butt WITHOUT burning and drying out the meat.

typically you do low and slow for two reasons let smoke enter the meat slowly over a long time so you get that nice smokey flavor in the whole cut and to soften the tough shoe leather cut of meat.

but once the cooker is "at temp" the amount of meat in the cooker is irrelevant. the amount your cooking only affects how long it takes to get to temp after loading the pit and how much fuel the pit is consuming to maintain that temp.

the size of the cut is relavent only by thickness weight dictates time because certain cuts get mor thick as the weight increases. this means it takes a longer time for the center to heat up and start rendering that nasty connective tissue.

a lot of us avoid really large cuts because you end up even with low and slow having to cook for really long times leaving the a good portion of the cut either burned or dried out so much its inedible. for example a 20lb brisket or hunk-a-pig would take around 20-24 hours to cook but it leaves a good portion useless.

a lot of bbq joints down south in texas will leave brisket on their pits for 24 hours in a warming state that may be where the 24 hour thing to do a brisket comes from.

hope that helps
 
I have cooked up to 35 lbs in the wsm in 12-14 hours.

Normal 2 but cooks also take 12-14 hours.

I can also cook butts for 18-19 hours like when I first started with the wsm. I see no need to anymore.

It all depends on your approach and temp.

Me, typically I put the butts on a 6 pm with no water in the pan. The cooker reaches temps much faster this way.

I'll add water to the pan just before I go to bed that night (usually around 11-12 pm) just to keep the butts from finishing too early.

By 6 am, the butts may be done and if not, I'll ramp up the temps and finish as needed.
 
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