First Cook with the Billows


 
Dan C. FL

Dan C. FL

TVWBB Pro
One or two of you might remember that when I moved up North, cooking pulled pork was way more of a hassle than I experienced in Florida. Down there, I could set up the WSM 18” close the vents down and let it ride until the pork was done 13 hours later. It was like clockwork and so much fun. My attempts at pulled pork here were so frustrating that I didn’t enjoy cooking.

I tried a couple of things to varying degrees of success. For Christmas, my wife got me the RFX and a couple of Meats. Earlier this summer I saw Billows on sale and decided to bite. It was sort of a last ditch effort to be able to do pulled pork again.

Being a holiday weekend, I decided to give it a shot. IMG_5649.jpeg

Setting it up was pretty easy. My only complaint is that the clip thing you insert into the vent didn’t hold the Billows as flush as I would have expected. Guessing it’s a YMMV thing.

Despite that, it held to the 250* target temp really well. I didn’t worry about it from about 8 pm last night when I put the pork on the smoker until about 5 am.

The puppy got me up to go out and I noticed the temp was running a little cool. Gave the legs a couple gentle taps and it was back to 250* in a flash. It kept running well until about 10 a.m. even then, I was still at like 235*.

I fought it for a while until I realized that I had too much ash accumulating. I opened up the vents some, shut off the Billows and let it ride. Luckily, it was a nice, calm day and it cruised between 235* and 250* for the remainder of the cook.

All totaled, cooking time was 17.5 hours. Still stupid long, but the Billows made it way less frustrating. Oh, and this was the first long cook with the Meat. I set it for the long cook setting and still has about 60% of the battery remaining.

The pork? It tasted great. Best one in a long, long time.

IMG_5650.jpeg
IMG_5651.jpegIMG_5652.jpeg

Ok, since you stuck around this long. Here’s your reward. Puppy Pic!!!!
IMG_5627.jpeg
 
Dan C. FL said:
All totaled, cooking time was 17.5 hours. Still stupid long,
Click to expand...
Yep, I did a 10# at 225 in my auto kamado last Friday. Took 19 hrs to get probe tender.
I rarely do overnighters but I wanted to try it. I have a Sous vide/slow cooker setting on my oven.
I wrapped in pink BP and held it for 5hrs at 150.
Came out excellent.
 
I haven’t tried that yet. My smoker has generally been reluctant to go above 280* Now that I have the Billows, I may try that though.
 
timothy said:
Yep, I did a 10# at 225 in my auto kamado last Friday. Took 19 hrs to get probe tender.
I rarely do overnighters but I wanted to try it. I have a Sous vide/slow cooker setting on my oven.
I wrapped in pink BP and held it for 5hrs at 150.
Came out excellent.
Click to expand...
After being used to 13 hours, going to 16-17.5 hours is infuriating. I couldn’t imagine 19. At least this time I wasn’t trying to feed other people. I just wanted it done by dinner time.
 
Normally I go 275-300 and get it done in 9 hrs.
I started this one like 5pm knowing it would take roughly 2 hrs per lb.
After it felt tender I did the hot hold in the oven at 150.
I was done in plenty of time for supper.
 
That is one hell of a looooong cook! I cheat. 4-6 hours of smoke then into the instant pot for about 90 minutes. Works for me.

Have you tried going to 300-325 to speed it along? For pulled pork, the higher temps are ok.

17.5 hours on the smoker is crazy long. You can do it that way, but not really necessary.

For brisket and pork butts, I just do 8-10 hours of smoke. Whatever happens to synch up with the daytime or overnight cooking schedule. After that I shut the smoker down, wrap, and then into a 300+ kitchen oven to finish the cook.

Once you wrap, you are just applying BTUs from a heat source. The meat does not know or care if those BTUs are coming from the smoker vs. kitchen oven vs. gas grill vs. something else.

I find it much easier to get those post-wrap BTUs from the kitchen oven. Which then conveniently rolls over into a long hot hold (also in the kitchen oven) for 4-24 hours.
 
Dan C. FL said:
The pork? It tasted great. Best one in a long, long time.
Click to expand...
That's all that really matters!
Some things take time and are worth it.
I was a big fan of bumping up the temps or foiling to get thru a stall.
I still do on HH butts, but this L&S approach is well worth it as long as you plan accordingly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top