Dan Gilson
TVWBB Fan
We had a potluck lunch at work today and everyone requested that I bring pulled pork. It was a big success!! There were some folks visiting from North Carolina and they said it was outstanding. I even had a couple soldiers tell me it was better than the local BBQ Joint. Needless to say, I was pleased!!
We have been having a bit of a cold spell with temps hanging between -20 and -30f. The forecast was calling for temps between 5 below and 5 above on Sunday so I decided I would wait until Sunday to cook. Because I was teaching college classes this weekend I decided I would cook the pork butts (2) overnight and pull them off this morning. Well the temps were hanging around 25 below when I got home Sunday evening but I had to cook anyway.
I had prepped the butts on Saturday night with a mustard slather and a healthy dose of rub. I got my WSM set up with my stoker and filled the fire ring with Royal Oak briquets (the only lump I can get around here in the winter is cowboy and I didn't think that would last all night). I filled a chimney with Hickory chunks and lit it. When the chunks were burned down pretty good I poured them on top of the briquets and closed up the WSM. I finally got the meat on and everything closed up about 6:00pm. Because I knew I was short on time I set the stoker to keep the temps at 250 and then I wrapped the WSM with Reflectix insulation (basically an aluminum foil clad bubble wrap) to help retain heat.
To my surprise the temps in the WSM shot up to 275. The Stoker seemed to be working properly and I couldn't find any air leaks so I took the reflectix jacket off and the temps stabilized. I was worried that the fuel would burn out without the jacket so I put it back on and the temps shot up again. I took the jacket off and put it back on several times to experiment and found that when I put the jacket on the temps would climb about 10 degrees in about 15 minutes and it would take about 15 minutes for the temps to drop without the jacket. About 11:30pm I decided to leave the jacket off and add more charcoal and a couple chunks of hickory. I dropped the temp 240 and went to bed about midnight. The outside temps were around 25 below. I woke up and checked the WSM at 01:30am and everthing was going fine. The meat temp was about 170.
I got up at 04:00am to pull the meat. The WSM was still running about 240 but the meat had only reached 180. I put the jacket back on and the temps shot up to around 280. I left it there and pulled the meat at 04:45. The meat temp was 185. The outdoor temp was 25 below. I wrapped the meat in foil and placed it a cooler. By 05:30am I had both butts pulled and ready to go to work. I wish I had more time to let them rest but "thems the breaks"!!
In retrospect, I think everything would have worked fine if I had put the insulation on first and then used the stoker to bring the temps up but I brought the temp up first then insulated. Good lesson to remember for the next time I cook in the cold!!
We have been having a bit of a cold spell with temps hanging between -20 and -30f. The forecast was calling for temps between 5 below and 5 above on Sunday so I decided I would wait until Sunday to cook. Because I was teaching college classes this weekend I decided I would cook the pork butts (2) overnight and pull them off this morning. Well the temps were hanging around 25 below when I got home Sunday evening but I had to cook anyway.
I had prepped the butts on Saturday night with a mustard slather and a healthy dose of rub. I got my WSM set up with my stoker and filled the fire ring with Royal Oak briquets (the only lump I can get around here in the winter is cowboy and I didn't think that would last all night). I filled a chimney with Hickory chunks and lit it. When the chunks were burned down pretty good I poured them on top of the briquets and closed up the WSM. I finally got the meat on and everything closed up about 6:00pm. Because I knew I was short on time I set the stoker to keep the temps at 250 and then I wrapped the WSM with Reflectix insulation (basically an aluminum foil clad bubble wrap) to help retain heat.
To my surprise the temps in the WSM shot up to 275. The Stoker seemed to be working properly and I couldn't find any air leaks so I took the reflectix jacket off and the temps stabilized. I was worried that the fuel would burn out without the jacket so I put it back on and the temps shot up again. I took the jacket off and put it back on several times to experiment and found that when I put the jacket on the temps would climb about 10 degrees in about 15 minutes and it would take about 15 minutes for the temps to drop without the jacket. About 11:30pm I decided to leave the jacket off and add more charcoal and a couple chunks of hickory. I dropped the temp 240 and went to bed about midnight. The outside temps were around 25 below. I woke up and checked the WSM at 01:30am and everthing was going fine. The meat temp was about 170.
I got up at 04:00am to pull the meat. The WSM was still running about 240 but the meat had only reached 180. I put the jacket back on and the temps shot up to around 280. I left it there and pulled the meat at 04:45. The meat temp was 185. The outdoor temp was 25 below. I wrapped the meat in foil and placed it a cooler. By 05:30am I had both butts pulled and ready to go to work. I wish I had more time to let them rest but "thems the breaks"!!
In retrospect, I think everything would have worked fine if I had put the insulation on first and then used the stoker to bring the temps up but I brought the temp up first then insulated. Good lesson to remember for the next time I cook in the cold!!