High Temp Method

[Brian Trommater]

Have not seen any post on the high temp method recently. Is anybody still using it or have you gone back to the low and slow? I have only tried it on a chuck roast and it worked great on that. Would it work on ribs?

 

[Bob T.]

Well, I watched Bobby flay do B-Backs in the oven in a roasting pan rack over water for an hour @ 500 degrees, then sauced and gave them a try. They had to pull pretty hard to get them off the bone, butt they "loved" them. I'll stick with the 250-275 range for ribs.
I haven't tried the high heat brisket yet.

 

[Craig Castille]

I would be afraid of the ribs being too dry on a high temp. I can get lazy and don't always pay close attention.

But I wouldn't be afraid of cooking closer to 300 though.

Frequently I'll ramp temps up to 275-280 lid anyway (for convenience if nothing else).

I've done a few briskets high temp and will continue to do so. Same for lots of stuff.

 

[K Kruger]

I use high heat for brisket exclusively. For butts, a cook temp of 265-280 or so (I don't like cooking them higher and I do not like foiling butts) but if more time works better for me schedule-wise then I will cook them lower for longer. Spares I cook at the same temp as butts but do include a foiling stage near the end. Babybacks I rarely cook but when I do it's ~325.

 

[Steve Petrone]

If I remember the early days around here correctly, this talk of high temp cooks would have been coonsidered heresy! I like the higher temps for butts and briskets. Why take 18 hours when you can do it for much less?

 

[John Heutz]

My last butt cook was inadvertantly a "high temp cook". Fell asleep and the water pan went dry. Overall the product was on the high end of "OK" everyone at work thought it was the best they ever had I though it was well below average.....too dry for my liking. The leftovers did make a fine chili though!!! I do agree with Steve though. My thinking is that BBQ is supposed to be "low and slow" and try to avoid temps over 250 as much as possible.

 

[K Kruger]

High heat doesn't automatically mean dry. Overcooking does--and that can happen at any temp. However, caught unaware as you were with the waterpan situation, you would not have known to check the meat sooner.

 

[Mike Marlow]

Have only done one high temp. smoke so far. The butt came out very well. Pulled well and the flavor and moisture was very like low and slow. Will do it again as it did mean I didn't have to get up during the night.