Lower and Slower? - A dliemma

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Was wondering if I could/should do a smoke that would intentionally take much longer. Here's the problem:

I Plan to cook two 8 lb butts and one brisket for Saturday late afternoon. However, I only have time to put everything on the WSM either early Friday morning or late Friday night. I can have the WSM running without much supervision with my Guru.

If I put it on late Friday night (say midnight), I'm afraid it won't be done in time to cook, rest, and prepare in time. I'd only have around 12 hours.

If I put the meat on early Friday morning, it will probably be done early Saturday morning at the very latest. Perhaps I could extend this cooking time by setting the Guru to around 200 or so? If I could extend it to say noon on Saturday, I could foil it for several hours in a cooler. Even still, we're talking about a 28 hour cook!!! Does anyone have any suggestions?
 
Hello Elvis
I believe you would dry out the meat if you cook it too low and slow, water evaporates. The brisket would suffer the most.

I understand your problem, I've been in a similar situation. You could try cooking at 250*F upper grate temp over night, get up at 8am or so and foil them. Pull the brisket at the right time and leave the butts to cook.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Little Elvis:
Was wondering if I could/should do a smoke that would intentionally take much longer. Here's the problem:

I Plan to cook two 8 lb butts and one brisket for Saturday late afternoon. However, I only have time to put everything on the WSM either early Friday morning or late Friday night. I can have the WSM running without much supervision with my Guru.

If I put it on late Friday night (say midnight), I'm afraid it won't be done in time to cook, rest, and prepare in time. I'd only have around 12 hours.

If I put the meat on early Friday morning, it will probably be done early Saturday morning at the very latest. Perhaps I could extend this cooking time by setting the Guru to around 200 or so? If I could extend it to say noon on Saturday, I could foil it for several hours in a cooler. Even still, we're talking about a 28 hour cook!!! Does anyone have any suggestions? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I wouldn't use the lower temp method you are suggesting. If you absolutely cannot start earlier than mid night Friday night. Start Friday morning and cook the meat accordingly, (cook, foil, rest in cooler, etc). Pull the butts and put in an oven proof dish and foil tightly and refridgerate. To reheat put in a 200* oven a couple hours before you want to eat, spritz the meat with a bit of apple juice to help keep it moist.

For the brisket cook to 10* less than your desired finishing temp, double foil and let rest fat side up until it cools and place in the fridge. Place in the oven fat side up about 30 minutes before you put the pulled pork in. You can add a bit of liquid (low sodium beef stock works good) if you want to help keep it moist.

Hope this helps.
 
I know nothing about the Guru, so I can't address that. I think, however, there would be a problem in slowing the cook down to 200. You may not be getting any cooking done at that temp and you could have a problem of your meat staying in the danger zone 40 to 140 for too long.

I did 2 butts that averaged a little over 7 lbs each last weekend. They finished at around 7 a.m. I held them till 2 p.m. and the internal meat temp was 146.

I recall Stogie, a legend, talking about shutting down the WSM, tightly wrapping the butts, and leaving them in the WSM for very long periods of time. I think he said it may have been up to 24 hours but that was including the cook time.

Paul
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Paul G.:
I know nothing about the Guru, so I can't address that. I think, however, there would be a problem in slowing the cook down to 200. You may not be getting any cooking done at that temp and you could have a problem of your meat staying in the danger zone 40 to 140 for too long.


I did 2 butts that averaged a little over 7 lbs each last weekend. They finished at around 7 a.m. I held them till 2 p.m. and the internal meat temp was 146.

I recall Stogie, a legend, talking about shutting down the WSM, tightly wrapping the butts, and leaving them in the WSM for very long periods of time. I think he said it may have been up to 24 hours but that was including the cook time.

Paul </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Paul,
I remeber seeing Kevin talking about that too, but have never tried it! It definitely sounds like the way to go!

Elvis,
You may want to give that a shot if you want to pull the butts and slice the brisket fresh vs. re-heating!
 
I have left a foiled butt in the WSM, forgot about it (I was cooking other food too) and the fire went out over night, don't know when, I woke up the next morning and though, "DOH! Did I really do that ?" The sucker was too hot to touch. That was after many hours in a warm WSM. The dome temp at ~60*C (140*F).


morgan
 
Elvis

If you decide to try Stogie's method, it is important to close ALL vents,(after the meat has been cooked to the desired internal temp) including the top vent. If too much air gets in, the temp could remain too high to the point that your meat would continue to cook and might dry out some.

Good luck.

Paul
 
Stogie's max time for holding a foiled butt in a closed WSM is 6 hours. He also noted that a larger one is necessary-- in the 8-10 lb. range-- for it to work. Apparently, smaller roasts don't have sufficient mass to retain enough residual heat to hold safely for that long. A closed WSM with no leaky door should snuff the coals completely within a couple hours.
 
If you are serving late Saturday afternoon a Friday night start will work fine. 4 hours before serving time if the meat is still in the 160 to 170 internal range then foil and watch it closely, it will finish in time.
Jim
 
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