a galarneau
TVWBB Member
Did runs Saturday and Sunday with a relatively full load of spares (20-25 lbs each day).
Using upper end Minion method (starting with 40 lit coals), the heat at dome hovered at 200-220 through most of the cook, 4 of first 5 hours, before moving up toward 250 at dome. Actually, just after they hit 250 dome (225 or so at rack) for the first time, I took them off, at around five hour mark.
Temp control: Great. Little or no tinkering, although I did add 25 more lit coals to first load because I started with 15 lit and it just wasn't enough. Why didn't I get this machine years ago?
Fuel use: Started with full ring, ended up with half. Holy cow.
Wood: Needed to bulk up on the hickory chips to smoke all the extra pig.
Quality: Rave reviews. Even though did most of the cook at lower temp than I expected, product was excellent. Very tender, tore easily between bones.
Cooked and foiled Saturday load. I was finishing on the grill to crisp them up and apply sauce, the best way to handle large parties IMHO.
If I was cooking for a sit-down I would have run the rubs another hour, to let the temp rise and hopefully get more crispyness.
All in all, the most painless path to spares for 80 in my experience.
Using upper end Minion method (starting with 40 lit coals), the heat at dome hovered at 200-220 through most of the cook, 4 of first 5 hours, before moving up toward 250 at dome. Actually, just after they hit 250 dome (225 or so at rack) for the first time, I took them off, at around five hour mark.
Temp control: Great. Little or no tinkering, although I did add 25 more lit coals to first load because I started with 15 lit and it just wasn't enough. Why didn't I get this machine years ago?
Fuel use: Started with full ring, ended up with half. Holy cow.
Wood: Needed to bulk up on the hickory chips to smoke all the extra pig.
Quality: Rave reviews. Even though did most of the cook at lower temp than I expected, product was excellent. Very tender, tore easily between bones.
Cooked and foiled Saturday load. I was finishing on the grill to crisp them up and apply sauce, the best way to handle large parties IMHO.
If I was cooking for a sit-down I would have run the rubs another hour, to let the temp rise and hopefully get more crispyness.
All in all, the most painless path to spares for 80 in my experience.