Manage The Clock


 
M

Michael Kelly

New member
I've had my WSM 14.5 for almost 3 years. I've read all the best books, visited the best websites, immersed myself in the low and slow doctrine and have loved it.

I love the idea of buying a nice cut of meat a few days ahead of the cook to get it prepped and ready to go. I love the idea of getting up first thing and starting a great fire and starting the cook. I love how the whole neighborhood soon fills with the delicious smell of my smoker cooking. I get great satisfaction hitting my numbers on my thermometer. I'm never happy with my own cooking but others tell me my results are delicious.

My problem is time and timing, mostly with larger cuts. My last cook was an 8 lbs pork butt. Got it in the smoker at 8AM and stabilized my smoker temp to 230. About 3 hours later my butt hit the stall at 160 and stayed there 5 hours. So far so good. I don't panic at the stall anymore. 6PM it had climbed to 171 and my cooker was nice and stable, between 225-230. Everything good, right? I'll hit 195-200 degrees and we'll be eating soon.

8PM comes and it's still at 171. 9PM, more of the same. 11PM I finally gave up and pulled it at 176. By that time we'd already had a light dinner and just had a small pulled pork sandwich as a snack.

This isn't the first time that has happened to me, but in the past I was a bit more romantic and forgiving about the whole matter, this time I was upset. I understand it's an imperfect process but I'd like to reasonably schedule a cook that would be ready at a normal dinner time. I'd like to have guests over and be able to say "dinner's at 7" without spending the whole day worried my meat wouldn't be ready. I understand I can wrap it in foil and shorten the cooking time but I am trying to avoid that "crutch" My goal is to hit 195 in a pure way within a reasonable time frame. I want to nail the pork butt because my ultimate goal is to nail a brisket.

Seems to me if I don't want to wrap in foil I have 2 choices, 1) be patient and schedule more cooking time, or 2) drop the low and slow temp of 225-230 and cook at a higher temp. While adding more cooking time is probably the best answer, it simply doesn't fit in with my lifestyle of work and family. I could probably come up with an 18 hour block of time to smoke but it wouldn't be the kind of thing I could do with frequency. I'd like the ability to make a quick decision to smoke a butt with good results without having to alter a whole weekend. The other solution seems better to me, turn the heat up to reduce cooking time. My problem with this is I don't know what the "sweet spot" temp would be that would still be low and slow enough but take my butt to 195 by a reasonable dinner time.

Ok, it's a bit longwinded but I can't be the only guy that's faced this problem before. Wondering how others have learned to manage the clock and feed your guests at dinner time.
 
You already answered your own question with the two choices cited. If my 'timing' is off I foil and crank up the heat a bit and try to give it enough time to rest. When i've gone to the crutch and pulled it off, with a crowd waiting for brisket and pulled pork, I made the mistake once of not allowing enough time to rest. Next time i'll make the hungry people wait a bit longer (what's an hour after 9 hours of cooking - have a drink) while it rests correctly. If I'm at home i just start earlier and go back to bed and put if faux cambro for a couple of hours until time to eat. I still don't have enough experience to correctly 'guess' how long a specific piece of large meat product will take!
 
I know your pain and Mike Coffman showed a solution, which in my opion, make the best Pulled Pork EVER!

Mike Coffman

http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?51784-Smoked-and-Braised-Pulled-Pork

My take

http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?52135-A-Mike-Coffman-inspired-cook
http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?52996-I-ve-been-called-out

Basically, you can cook a 5LBS Pulled Pork or 20LBS (or more) of Pulled Pork in 8 hours

In my second run, I smoked for 4 hours and braised for 3 hours and that was 15LBS of meat
 
ChuckO said:
I know your pain and Mike Coffman showed a solution, which in my opion, make the best Pulled Pork EVER!

Mike Coffman

http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?51784-Smoked-and-Braised-Pulled-Pork

My take

http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?52135-A-Mike-Coffman-inspired-cook
http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?52996-I-ve-been-called-out

Basically, you can cook a 5LBS Pulled Pork or 20LBS (or more) of Pulled Pork in 8 hours

In my second run, I smoked for 4 hours and braised for 3 hours and that was 15LBS of meat
Click to expand...

This mix cooking method sounds interesting. But I have some questions...
1) what about NOT cutting in pieces the boston butt, just leaves it entire
2) let the smoking phase last longer, maybe 6 hours to get a meteor looking.
3) cooking T in the smoking and in the braising phase is 250 F at the lid therm or at the grill?
 
1) I don't know the answer, but I believe for "time management" you have to cut them
2) Mike did it for 3 hours as did I in my first cook. I increased my smoke phase by one hour in my second cook, and it resulted in one less hour total time from my first cook
3) My 18.5" runs solid when the dome dial show 250. I assume my top shelf is a tad hotter and my bottom shelf is a tad hotter than my top shelf. My besk cooks haven't been when I "maintained" a temp at the grate, my best cooks have been when I maintain 250 at my dome dial. I would guess that my grate temps are +/- 10 degrees max from my dome dial
 
ChuckO said:
1) I don't know the answer, but I believe for "time management" you have to cut them
2) Mike did it for 3 hours as did I in my first cook. I increased my smoke phase by one hour in my second cook, and it resulted in one less hour total time from my first cook
3) My 18.5" runs solid when the dome dial show 250. I assume my top shelf is a tad hotter and my bottom shelf is a tad hotter than my top shelf. My besk cooks haven't been when I "maintained" a temp at the grate, my best cooks have been when I maintain 250 at my dome dial. I would guess that my grate temps are +/- 10 degrees max from my dome dial
Click to expand...

Does Your answer to #2 mean that you cook to IT and NOT to time (cooking time)?
 
I went into the cook with the plan that it would be a timed cook, ending in 8 hours. However, becuase I'm ever curious, I checked for doneness at 7 hours and found it the cook to be done. (Temp & Tenderness) I would say that maybe my first cook could have come off earlier, I pulled it at exactly 8 hours. No way was it overdone, but as you know PP can dry out when it sits out. It had sat out for probably 4+ hours when I had some more, and it seemed dry to me. But that was my first cook. My second cook was perfect, and it was moist for the 3 days it took to eat it
 
I commend you for wanting to avoid foiling. Not only does foiling inhibit crispness of the bark and fat, it dilutes the smoke flavor, especially if liquids are introduced. I'll still foil some at the end of a cook if it's needed, though, like if the bottom grate butt(s) is too far behind.

Anyhow, water is great, but you don't want to get up that early. Use a dry foiled pan, and start off with enough lit charcoal on top so that you can preheat the cooker quickly to about 275*. Your wsm has a gauge, right? See that the "smoking zone" goes up to 275? Well, after putting the butt on, the temp will dip back down somewhere in the 225-250 zone, but we don't want it to stay there. At first it's ok, because the gauge is greatly affected by the cold meat, and actual grate temp will be significantly higher. As the meat warms though, it's ok to let the gauge rise to somewhere 250-275. Be advised that direct sunlight hitting the dome can make the gauge have a false reading, though. Basically, what I'm saying is it's perfectly ok to cook pork butts at 275 without foiling, and you can get the thing done in somewhere around 1.25 hr per pound if you rock and roll. You gotta start off with enough lit charcoal to get things going, though, and keep things going.

As for resting time, if cooked tender, really all it needs is to lose it's steam for fifteen minutes or so before pulling. Might as well finish in foil if you think you gotta hold it hot in foil after a cook, because either way, the bark is gonna start losing that crispness that we all love when it's right off the cooker. I'm not talking about jerky bark, either. Keep that temp 250-275, and the bark shouldn't get tough or dry out if the fire is burning fairly even. (Cook fat down.) For that matter, you can get dry and tough bark from cooking too slow, or even at 225 for too long without water in the pan. Us wsm users usually foil and cooler because of schedules or when it's done early because we cooked overnight, not because it's a necessary part of the cooking process. Whatever works for ya, though, and good luck with it next time. Oh, and before you ask, I don't advise cutting butts in half, either. :-)
 
Just to be sure, Dave Russell, you're telling me to leave the water pan empty?

I've always just filled it automatically, not giving it much thought.
 
Michael Kelly said:
Just to be sure, Dave Russell, you're telling me to leave the water pan empty?

I've always just filled it automatically, not giving it much thought.
Click to expand...

...If you want your pork butt done faster by cooking faster, yes. Just stretch a couple pieces of foil over the top of the pan with a depression in the foil for drippings. Water in the pan is great for long cooks, especially overnight, but it's really only efficient for cooking in the 225-250 range, not at 275. Be advised though, that because there's no better heat sink than water, you'll need to keep tabs on your cooker.
 
quote_icon.png
Originally Posted by Michael Kelly Just to be sure, Dave Russell, you're telling me to leave the water pan empty?

I've always just filled it automatically, not giving it much thought.
Click to expand...

Dave Russell said:
...If you want your pork butt done faster by cooking faster, yes. Just stretch a couple pieces of foil over the top of the pan with a depression in the foil for drippings.
Click to expand...
I've been doing this for years, without problems.
 
Another technique I need to consider, particularly if I want to advance to a full packer, is the over night cook. Mostly because I haven't tried it before, I'm a bit nervous about leaving the smoker unattended while I sleep: I imagine I'll have dreams of a fire gone cold and an angry mob of raccoons tearing at my meat.

From my research it seems the minion method will keep my fire burning all night and that once I get dialed in I can leave my WSM for hours without worry.

Wondering if people routinely plan overnight cooks when required cooking time goes over 12 hours? Are there tips you can offer the first timer that will produce both a delicious lunch and a good night's sleep?
 
I prefer not to wrap too but it's a tool I'll sometimes use. Sometimes you hit a weird 2nd stall and particular piece of meat can just be stubborn.

For overnight cooks I set alarms on the maverick thermometer such that it goes off if the temp gets to high or low. I usually set it to be pretty forgiving like 215 to 260. I may get woken up a few times but I usually get plenty of sleep

My 22.5 wsm has gotten pretty easy to control as i just got the cajun bandit door. The stock door was too leaky.
 
Michael Kelly said:
I'm a bit nervous about leaving the smoker unattended while I sleep: I imagine I'll have dreams of a fire gone cold and an angry mob of raccoons tearing at my meat. Are there tips you can offer the first timer that will produce both a delicious lunch and a good night's sleep?
Click to expand...
use Nyquil and set animal traps :D
Really, it's not your 1st born... it's only meat.
 
…but you haven't seen how mean our raccoons are….hahaha.

I'm coming to terms with all this stuff. I'm going to start with a pork butt and cook overnight. I'm sure it will go well.
 
I don't think a butt requires an overnight cook unless you are eating it for breakfast or lunch. I cooked four butts (average 8.5#) this weekend on my 22.5" WSM with an average temp of 285*ish. Up at 6 am to start the fire, butts on around 7 am, into pans with pineapples and marinade at noon(was doing an Polynesian style dinner), wrapped with foil and back on the pit, done around 4 pm and pulled around 5 pm. They turned out great. Better than any I ever tried at 225*.
 
…and in the end, I just did it. On a whim I bought a pork butt, rubbed it down with a blend I got from The Spice House, put it in the smoker at 7PM and let it roll. For a few hours I tweaked the vents to hit my target temp (between 220 and 230). That meant that the three vents were almost closed. I checked at midnight and saw it dropped to 217. I opened each vent 1/3 and went to bed. I got up around 9AM and saw the smoker was still burning a strong 240 and the putt was at 207. Maybe that's a bit high but I'm not gonna sweat 5 degrees.

It is the most tender, tasty pork butt I've smoked yet. The overnight cook opens up so much time and makes managing a great low and slow cook so easy.

The more I push the envelope with advanced, long term smoking, the more impressed I am with Kingsford, it's so consistent and reliable you could almost set your watch to it.
 
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