First Over Nighter-When I actually slept.


 
Lew Newby

Lew Newby

R.I.P. 1/26/2024
My wife had asked for pulled Pork for New Years dinner and I was happy to oblige. I used 2 Publix 7 Lb. Boston Butts, bought fresh. I left the fat cap intact.Saturday, at 8:15 AM I injected the butt and rubbed it with Chris Lilly's rub and inject. I used 15 KB Briquettes to start a full charcoal basket with 4 small chunks of Oak and one of Hickory. I put the Butts on, fat side down, at 11:45 PM 2011 and tried using the Auber but it died about the time the clock struck 12. Time for plan B.

At 1:30 AM I was totally confused by the temp differential between my Maverick grate temp and my Weber lid temp. I had way more than a normal spread so, wanting to get some peaceful sleep, I pulled the probe off the grate and stuck it in the vent hole. At 2:45 AM the vent temp was stabilized at 260° and I went to bed. 7 hours later I awakened and headed for the patio. The temp was down to 205° and the meat temp was 145°. 20 minutes later I had the temp back up. Once the meat internal temp hit 180° I started probing for tenderness and pulled them when they were ready. I was aiming for a 3:00PM pull and the first came off at 3:25 PM. That's 15 hrs. and 40 min. on one load of charcoal and I used the remainder in my kettle for the Baked Beans. I wrapped the Butts in foil, put them in a cooler full of towels, and pulled them 2 hours later. The pictures tell the story.

After using my WSM for 8 months I've change how I read cooker temp. Thank you Kevin and all who recommend the vent method. I agree that it removes variables that I get at the grate and I slept better Sunday morning. I used the Kevin Kruger finishing sauce and while following the instructions I took a step towards learning how to balance tastes. Even with my Navy food trained Palate
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I could taste the changes as I added Honey and water. I made Posole for the first time but I'll discuss that on a more appropriate forum.

All in all it was a good way to bring in the New Year.
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Lew,

Wow, that spread looks great! I have a quick question for you. In the pictures it looks like you foiled over the water pan. Did you have anything in there?

Thanks,
Mark
 
15+ hours! ****! Is that the average cook time for BB's? I really need to try again. My last cook was 4 butts and I pulled them after 9 hours. They were undercooked a bit, but I'm not sure I would have expected them to take 15 hours.

Tell me, what was the consistency of the meat when you pulled them? Were they falling apart on the grill?

I need to cook my BBs longer.
 
After many sleepless nights trying to smoke meats on my Weber kettle, I love sleeping while the WSM does the work.

The smoke ring and bark look great!
 
Jeff, my normal cook time for BBs of that size is about 11 hrs. but the temp dropped way down while I was sleeping. I looked back at previous cooks in my log and the time to reach 145° in the meat was about 4 hours for similar sized butts. Because of the cooker temp dropping I was 5 to 6 hrs behind when I woke up. When I cook at low temps the meat takes a lot longer to get done and I had plenty of time to hit my target of 3:00 PM. The meat pulled easily and had good texture. One was trying to fall apart when I took it off the cooker. I take them off when my therm probe slides in without resistance. I start probing at 180° internal and ride them till their done.

Mark, I use a foiled clay saucer and I foil the water pan as well to save on clean up.
 
I had the same experience with the kettle. It's a fantastic device, but low-n-slow is not its strength. Tonight I made grilled salmon and it was fantastic. I made a glaze out of honey and balsamic vinegar. I don't bother pre-smoking the board or anything like that. I just get the grill screeching hot and slap the salmon and the board on there all at once. I pulled it after ~15 minutes and did some asparagus. Really great.

I did eventually get the low-n-slow thing to work on the kettle. I put tinfoil across about 2/3 of the bottom grate, put in a couple of tinfoiled fire bricks where the tinfoil ended, then piled up unlit charcoal and wood on the non-foiled side topped with a dozen or so lit coals. I found that if I put a disposable bread pan full of water above the coals I could keep the temps to 250 or lower. Forget the water and the temps will hit 400 pretty quickly. Don't get the vents adjusted correctly and the temps will hit 400 pretty quickly. Look at it wrong and the temps will hit 400 pretty quickly.

I cannot believe I waited so long to get a real smoker.
 
Hi Lew,

I have been temping at the grate with a bbq guru probe tree for my maverick and partyQ atc.

Id like to try the vent method again to free up room at the grate.

Im confused at how low down the dome the probes should go? Once I have it figured out. Ill mark the cable or something.

I know the dome temp is a bit higher so I figure I set the atc at 225.

btw my pulled pork on nye came out great. 8 pounder took a full 15 hours plus 1 hour rest time. I had the ATC set for 225 since I had no water in the pan it leveled out at about 250-260 at the grate.
 
Kevin - I've found over the years that I can get a fairly long cook (4 - 5 hours) out of my One Touch's by using my charcoal baskets, usually about 1/2 chimney of briquettes (I like and buy Rancher, at Trader Joe's under the Trader Joe brand), a couple chunks of whatever wood I'm going to use, and usually a disposable pie pan as a water pan. I've heard of but don't use the foil and/or fire brick. Anything longer than 4 - 5 hours and I use the WSM. I got 4 1/2 hours at 260 on my 26 3/4 One Touch on New Year's Eve with 1 temp spike over 300 and 1 temp drop - I did add 10 briquettes and another chunk of hickory when I pulled my ham off and put on my ABT's but I was holding a steady 260 when I pulled the ABT's and shut down the grill. I did adjust my vents when the temp spiked an dropped.
 
If you've got two butts on the same rack as the probe the probe is going read a LOT lower next to that cold meat until late in the cook. If you drop your temp probe in the vent too far down then it will be next to the meat again and same problem.

I'm surprised how little charcoal you can use to get up to 225. I have to light at least half a chimney or a little more (at 5K feet).
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Chris E:
If you've got two butts on the same rack as the probe the probe is going read a LOT lower next to that cold meat until late in the cook. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

True. That's why I clip or hang my 90* probe between the pork butts with the tip two or three inches BELOW the grate. Heat rises, so it's less affected by the meat temp and in my experience I get more predictable cooks this way than measuring at the vent.
 
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