FIrst Over Night

[Paul H]

My first over nighter actually went pretty smooth. The day before I trimmed two butts one approximately 9.5 LBs and the other 7.5. Trimmed down to about 16 lbs. Slathered with mustard (which is actually kind of fun) and put on Jakes" bosses Rub which I got from Smoke an Spice book. The butts sat in the frig for 24 hrs. Put them on Saturday night about 8PM using the MM with the coffee can.Temps got up to 230 at the lid and 210 to 215 at the grate. Checked at around 9:30 pm and it was looking good. Went o bed got up around 4:45 and the lid was 228 but the grate was reading around 220. I decided to check the position of the et73 probe and look at the water level. Probe wasn't touching anything and added hot water. What was confusing through this smoke was that the lid and grate temp seemed pretty close. It didn't start out that way though.Added more lit charcoals around 11:00. The temps started dropping evenwith the vents all open. Around 2:30 PM with the butt temp reading around 180 I decided to check them out. They were falling apart so I pulled them off ,wrapped with foil and put in a cooler with towels. They sat for about 1 1/2 hours. They pulled apart just great. One of the butts tasted kind of mushy though. My wife said they tasted like a pork roast with crust. Will try again. Every smoke is a learning experience. Tonight I'm going to go home and test out my thermometers and my ET73. Any ideas on the mushy meat.Will use a different finishing sauce next time usedapple juice,cider vinegar, and black pepper. Thanks to everyone for the encouragement to try this.

 

[adam clyde]

about the temp differential of the lid and grate... that isn't to surprising. Once the smoker has been going a while, it seems that all the temperature kind of settles down and everything gets relatively close to the same temperature. Also, depending how deep your thermometer's probe was sticking down through the lid, that can get it much closer to the top grate.

 

[Jim Babek]

The lid temp will always be higher than the grate temp...remember heat rises. Your best bet is to monitor both for a few cooks to see the difference between the two or you can guestimate that the lid temp will be approximately 10-15 degrees higher.

I would just make sure your ET-73 probe is not touching the meat and is over the waterpan on the grate and all your worries will be over. Last cook I was having temp issues only to lift the lid and see the ribs shifted and the cold rib was touching the temp probe.