First BIG cook


 
Jeff R

Jeff R

TVWBB Pro
Well I've got my biggest cook underway. 4 butts, 28 lbs.

Taking them to a party tomorrow night at 6pm. Target temp is 250 and I hope to be able to pull them off by 3. That would be 17 hours. Also first time to use pecan wood. Just finished making two sauces as well.

Wish me luck
 
I started 4 butts (31 lbs) too, almost 4 hours ago. Smoker is coming up to temp slow, might need to run a little hotter to have them ready for lunch tomorrow. Using pecan as well, really the only way to go if you ask me.

Hope everything turns out well for you tomorrow!
 
I hear you on slow to come up. I run no water and temps have run high in the past. But not tonight
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the temp below the meat is likely much higher than your thermometer is reading due to the cold mass of meat between the fire & the therm.... NBD, if you wanna go higher/hotter have at it. My cooks like this often go 16-21 hrs. I like HH @ 10-14 hours just as well.

Almost time for me to make up a batch myself - pulled out the last 1# package of PP about a month ago.
 
Got up early for a run, and checked on things. My fuel (full ring in 18.5 WSM) was almost completely exhausted. Butts not tender yet, have a new load of charcoal firing up now.
 
Got things stabilized around 2 hours in. Held around 240 all night with bottom vents fully closed. I estimated another 2-3 hours. I do like the fire power the 22 has
 
New load of charcoal went well, pulled all butts after 15.5 hours and put them in timeout. How do you like that pecan smoke?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Clint:
the temp below the meat is likely much higher than your thermometer is reading due to the cold mass of meat between the fire & the therm. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

So true, and not said enough.

Patience is a virtue when you have a cooker full of cold meat. Couple of weeks ago, went to bed after putting four pork butts on the little wsm with the gauge only reading 180*. No problem, though. I left the vents wide open and let the Maverick alarm me as to when to shut the vents back. All of them were done in between 13 and 15 hours, and lunch wasn't waiting on the bbq.
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Another illustration of Clint's point is this. Cooked 2/3rds of two bags of leg quarters with a dry pan the other day, and cook took two hours. Smoked the rest, only one racks worth with water in the pan for pulled chicken yesterday afternoon. Cook only took 1.5hr. Vents were wide open both cooks, but on the dry pan two grate cook I couldn't cook as hot as cooking one grate with some water in the pan.
 
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