Sean Strugnell
New member
After 20+ years of grilling with gas, I finally cowboy'd up and got a Weber Performer a couple of weeks ago. After a bit of a learning curve managing temps while grilling, I have been enjoying it immensely. I have made steaks, beer can chicken, sausages, hamburgers, etc. The usual grilling fare - nothing crazy.
After finding this board and seeing all the posts about being able to smoke at low heat on a kettle, I decided to try it out. I have always enjoyed pulled pork, and after finding out it is hard to screw up, that was going to be my first shot at smoking.
I ordered a pork butt from the local butcher. Picked it up yeasterday (8.8lbs) bone-in. Last night at about 11pm, I trimmed at least 1 lbs of fat off one side of the roast and sprinkled it with salt. After waiting for the salt to bring some moisture out of the meat (about 20 minutes), I applied a generous amount of "rub for Jane" from the recipe section of this forum and put the butt in fridge at midnight.
Then I went out to the back yard and prepped the kettle. I used 2 Fire bricks on their sides to cordon off 1/3 of the bottom grate for charcoal. Then I foiled the remaining 2/3 of the grate and used 2 more bricks (laying them flat) as heat sink and to help temps rebound quickly if I peek too much. I then placed a foil drip pan on top of the fire bricks below where the meat was going to go and placed the top grill on the kettle.
I filled up the charcoal resevoir with lump to the point where the charcoal was over the height of the bricks (I kept one of the hinged openings of the top grate open) mixing in 6 chunks of white oak from Smokilicious throughout the charcoal load.
Then I went to bed.
06:11:12 start - man that wa sa short night. I should have done the prep work earlier.
Anways, I used my brand new Maverick ET-73 thermometer and probed the butt in its thickest section and clamped the grate thermometer next to the butt.
I lit 8 pieces of lump in chimney with redneck starter (weed burner fueled by my now underutilized propane tank), dumped the lit on top of the pile of unlit and slapped the butt on the grill.
06:24:54 grate thermometer read 114 but the built in lid thermometer read 350.
Closed bottom vent to just under 1/2.
06:31:27 grate 173 lid 350. Closed bottom vent to under 1/4.
06:38:19 grate 206 lid 320.
06:41:29 grate 220 lid 325.
Closed bot vent to a sliver.
06:57:42 grate 250 lid 350.
07:07:09 grate 262 lid 350.
07:19:44 grate 273 lid 350.
07:38:27 grate 285 lid 360. Closed bottom vent completely.
07:55:53 grate 274 lid 340.
08:06:40 grate 273 lid 340. Closed lid vent to 50%.
08:37:51 grate 276 lid 320
OK - so something doesnt seem right with my grate temps. I think maybe it was too close to the meat and wasn't giving me a proper reading. I removed the smoker probe from grate clip and dangled it through the lid vent so that the probe was reading the temp just an inch or so above the meat. Smoker probe immediately spiked up to 298. This was close to the lid temps that I had been seeing, and that seemed a bit too hot.
Closed top vent to 1/4 open. Bottom vent still copmpletely closed.
08:59:50 smoker probe 264 lid 275 Meat 135.
09:29:30 smoker probe 253 lid 270 Meat 146.
10:29:00 smoker probe 254 lid 270 meat 158.
10:53:29 smoker probe 293 lid 290 Meat 160.
Still too hot and the meat is cooking way to fast (company coming for dinner, not lunch). I didn't want to close the lid vent any further than 1/4 open because the smoke needs to escape somehow, so I remembered some folks had used a small foil pan filled with water on top of coals to act as a heat sink. I found a small pan and loaded it up with hot water and placed it above the coals (The coals had burned down enough so that I could close the hinged grate)
11:08:03 smoker probe 237 lid 275 Meat 161.
11:26:19 smoker probe 242 lid 265 Meat 163
11:49:17 smoker probe 241 lid 260 Meat 166
12:07:28 smoker probe 240 lid 255 Meat 167
Ok - the tems seem much more in control now, so I stopped babysitting the kettle.
12:40:23 smoker probe 246 lid 250 Meat 170
13:10:12 smoker probe 248 lid 250 Meat 171
13:36:25 smoker probe 242 lid 255 Meat 171
14:07:08 smoker probe 225 lid 240 Meat 170
OK - because I read up on "the plateau" I am not panicking that the meat temp has not moved in almost an hour and a half. The kettle has now been firing for almost 8 hours and it finally occured to me to check my fuel. I popped the lid open and saw that the lump had burned down to about 1/4 of its original capacity. I stirred the coals to dislodge some ash and mix some of the lit coals with a section that was not burning at all, and threw in three handfuls of unlit lump. The probe and lid temps spiked a fair bit right away probably because I stirred the coals and had the lid open for a few minutes, but they both settled down within ten minutes or so.
14:36:20 smoker probe 261 lid 250 Meat 169. Still waiting for the meat to get through this plateau, but my timing seems good. I plan to cook to 195(ish) and if it gets there soon, I am ok because I have a cooler and some foil & towels on stand-by.
I will update the thread in a while.
After finding this board and seeing all the posts about being able to smoke at low heat on a kettle, I decided to try it out. I have always enjoyed pulled pork, and after finding out it is hard to screw up, that was going to be my first shot at smoking.
I ordered a pork butt from the local butcher. Picked it up yeasterday (8.8lbs) bone-in. Last night at about 11pm, I trimmed at least 1 lbs of fat off one side of the roast and sprinkled it with salt. After waiting for the salt to bring some moisture out of the meat (about 20 minutes), I applied a generous amount of "rub for Jane" from the recipe section of this forum and put the butt in fridge at midnight.
Then I went out to the back yard and prepped the kettle. I used 2 Fire bricks on their sides to cordon off 1/3 of the bottom grate for charcoal. Then I foiled the remaining 2/3 of the grate and used 2 more bricks (laying them flat) as heat sink and to help temps rebound quickly if I peek too much. I then placed a foil drip pan on top of the fire bricks below where the meat was going to go and placed the top grill on the kettle.
I filled up the charcoal resevoir with lump to the point where the charcoal was over the height of the bricks (I kept one of the hinged openings of the top grate open) mixing in 6 chunks of white oak from Smokilicious throughout the charcoal load.
Then I went to bed.
06:11:12 start - man that wa sa short night. I should have done the prep work earlier.
Anways, I used my brand new Maverick ET-73 thermometer and probed the butt in its thickest section and clamped the grate thermometer next to the butt.
I lit 8 pieces of lump in chimney with redneck starter (weed burner fueled by my now underutilized propane tank), dumped the lit on top of the pile of unlit and slapped the butt on the grill.
06:24:54 grate thermometer read 114 but the built in lid thermometer read 350.
Closed bottom vent to just under 1/2.
06:31:27 grate 173 lid 350. Closed bottom vent to under 1/4.
06:38:19 grate 206 lid 320.
06:41:29 grate 220 lid 325.
Closed bot vent to a sliver.
06:57:42 grate 250 lid 350.
07:07:09 grate 262 lid 350.
07:19:44 grate 273 lid 350.
07:38:27 grate 285 lid 360. Closed bottom vent completely.
07:55:53 grate 274 lid 340.
08:06:40 grate 273 lid 340. Closed lid vent to 50%.
08:37:51 grate 276 lid 320
OK - so something doesnt seem right with my grate temps. I think maybe it was too close to the meat and wasn't giving me a proper reading. I removed the smoker probe from grate clip and dangled it through the lid vent so that the probe was reading the temp just an inch or so above the meat. Smoker probe immediately spiked up to 298. This was close to the lid temps that I had been seeing, and that seemed a bit too hot.
Closed top vent to 1/4 open. Bottom vent still copmpletely closed.
08:59:50 smoker probe 264 lid 275 Meat 135.
09:29:30 smoker probe 253 lid 270 Meat 146.
10:29:00 smoker probe 254 lid 270 meat 158.
10:53:29 smoker probe 293 lid 290 Meat 160.
Still too hot and the meat is cooking way to fast (company coming for dinner, not lunch). I didn't want to close the lid vent any further than 1/4 open because the smoke needs to escape somehow, so I remembered some folks had used a small foil pan filled with water on top of coals to act as a heat sink. I found a small pan and loaded it up with hot water and placed it above the coals (The coals had burned down enough so that I could close the hinged grate)
11:08:03 smoker probe 237 lid 275 Meat 161.
11:26:19 smoker probe 242 lid 265 Meat 163
11:49:17 smoker probe 241 lid 260 Meat 166
12:07:28 smoker probe 240 lid 255 Meat 167
Ok - the tems seem much more in control now, so I stopped babysitting the kettle.
12:40:23 smoker probe 246 lid 250 Meat 170
13:10:12 smoker probe 248 lid 250 Meat 171
13:36:25 smoker probe 242 lid 255 Meat 171
14:07:08 smoker probe 225 lid 240 Meat 170
OK - because I read up on "the plateau" I am not panicking that the meat temp has not moved in almost an hour and a half. The kettle has now been firing for almost 8 hours and it finally occured to me to check my fuel. I popped the lid open and saw that the lump had burned down to about 1/4 of its original capacity. I stirred the coals to dislodge some ash and mix some of the lit coals with a section that was not burning at all, and threw in three handfuls of unlit lump. The probe and lid temps spiked a fair bit right away probably because I stirred the coals and had the lid open for a few minutes, but they both settled down within ten minutes or so.
14:36:20 smoker probe 261 lid 250 Meat 169. Still waiting for the meat to get through this plateau, but my timing seems good. I plan to cook to 195(ish) and if it gets there soon, I am ok because I have a cooler and some foil & towels on stand-by.
I will update the thread in a while.
