My First Overnight Smoke


 
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Mike Rockwood

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Well.. The 3 butts(5lb, 5.5lb, 6.5lb) have been rubbed and are in the fridge. The smoker is setup and good to go.
The cabbage for slaw has been sliced up and is salting. The beer is on ice and the cigars are humidifying.

Goal: Butts, cole slaw and beans are ready for "da' guys" Saturday afternoon to eat at 5pm. Extra time is planned so as not to be rushed at the end. If the butts are ready early, then I'll wrap them, stick them in a cooler and wait.

Game Plan: Heat up the smoker to be ready to put the butts on by 10pm, est. Make sure all is operating well by 11pm. Set the alarm for 3:00am and catch some shut eye.

Stay Tuned.
 
Hi Mike,

Good luck with your overnighter....I have done pork butts overnight 4 or 5 times with the WSM now, and I always amazed at how well it holds temps. I have always loaded the WSM completely full with Kingsford, then lit 10-20 briquettes, ala Minon method, and rested easy knowing that the WSM is holding a fairly constant temp.

My only advice would be to plan on letting the meat rest in plastic wrap/foil for a few hours after cooking if you can. It seems to improve the texture/taste.

Let us know how it goes, and enjoy the party !! /infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif
 
Good luck, I did my first overnight butt cook last weekend (7 lb butt). Filled up the ring, 15-20 lit briquettes on top, WSM on temp 250 by 10pm. Butt on 10pm. Went to bed 12:30am, got up 4:30am temp at 218, opened vents (too much it later turned out), got it back to up to 250 by 5am, went back to bed until 7am. 7am temps 280 and didn't get them stabilized again until about 10am. My butt was done by 4 pm (It hit 195 internal temp at 3:30, let it reach 199 at 4pm and took it off - 18hours for 7 lb butt). Wrapped in saran wrap, foil, towel and put in cooler. Pulled at 6 pm. Delicious, moist, tender - perfect. I was, however, exhausted.

Next time I will get in on by 9pm and make sure the temps are stable by bedtime, obviously my temps were not quite stable when I went to bed.

Tomorrow - two racks of BRITU ribs.
 
Ok - it's just about 10pm, Friday night. The smoker is up to temps and the butts are on.

One more check in an hour to make sure all is well, and I'm off for a nap. I wonder if I'll sleep at all.. ~grin
 
I got up at 3am and everything was looking fine. Temps were holding well. Internal temp of the largest butt was at 147deg. I added a foil "log" of soaked cherry chips, topped off the water pan and went back to bed.

At 7am, everything is still looking well. Internal temp is at 156. Added another foil/cherry log.

I decided I wasn't working hard enough at this /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif , so I basted the top two butts with pure apple juice and decided to flip the top butts top to bottom, making sure the side towards the middle of the grate was now facing the outside. I then basted this new top, and all exposed sides. That's enough, don't want to work too hard. /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

Time for some coffee and a shower.
 
Mike
Sounds like things are going well, at this point you don't need to continue to add the wood chips, you simply need heat to the end.
Jim
 
OK, Jim... Thanks for the valued and timely input.

Sure smells good outside!

I just checked the Polder and internal temps are at 165deg, temps at the grill are steady at around 225deg +/-.

As I have read that the temp gets to 170 and holds there for a period of time, I'm hoping I started these suckers early enough.
 
Mike
Don't worry about keeping the pit temps at 225? you can let the rise naturally to 250/260?, there is plenty of fat in butts and they can take the heat, also permotes good bark.
You are in the stall now , from 155 to 175? can take a while but once you are above that they move right a long. You will be ready by 5pm.
Jim
PS: deep fring turkeys as we speak, cajun style.
 
Looks like I'm well on my way at just before Noon on Saturday.

Internal temps are in excess of 180deg now. They are looking much different then the last butt I did. I can see where the muscle groups are beginning to separate and the bone is much more visible. Almost good enough to eat! /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif Look like I will have achieved the nirvana of "pig candy" that I've read about. mmmmmmm

I need to pick up a second Polder. I can now see the advantage of having a second probe. One for the butt and one on the grill. I wonder if I can pick up only a probe somewhere? Not a big deal, the thermometer and probe cost me only $14.00 at my local wholsesale club.

Deep frying turkey - Yumm only way to go! I've done a few of them that way on a propane burner and have used canola oil. I used to go with peanut oil and tried to strain and recover the peanut oil for another use, but for the price and one-time use, I've used canola the last few times. Tastes just as good. I haven't brined any yet. Maybe for Thanksgiving.
 
It's 1:30pm here in New England, and the butts that were on the top rack are out, wrapped in plastice, double foiled, and towel wrapped in a cooler to rest and to hold. The internal temps were at 192deg. 15.5hrs was the total.

The smallest butt, 5lb, I had put on the bottom rack and was sitting at 185deg, so it's now on the top rack for finishing.

Sure smells good. I hope "da' guys" let me win some of the card games later.

Well, it's time for a nap before cracking open some cold ones and sparking up a cigar.

Thanks to all for all the input and for sharing your exerience here.

Mike
 
Well... Everything went real well. Everyone was taken over by the smell as I unwrapped a butt and began pulling it apart. I knew I had a winner when everyone started grabbing pieces as I was pulling, including me!

Thanks once again to all for the input. It's been a long day and I'm ready for some shuteye.

Mike
 
Mike,

The real deal is to get the wireless thermometers (one for the grill and one for the meat) and that way you can sleep and let the minimum and maximum alarm capability of the thermometers to awake you.

If the grill temp exceeds a temp it can alarm and if the internal meat temp reaches your desired temp it can alarm.

Trouble is the cost...you can get the wireless units for $50 a piece (remote transmitter and base unit) and pick up another remote transmitter (the base units can handle 2 transmitters if I recall) for about $25 or so.

You can do the same thing with Polders you just have to use walkie talkies or a wireless intercom and key one walkie talkie open by the polders out at the smoker to pick up any alarms and keep one on and listening by the bed.

Regards,
PrestonD
 
Thanks for the tip! My local wholesale store(BJ's) has the Polders for $14.95. I just bought a second one so I can monitor the internal and grill temps.

I am intrigued about the minimum alarm settings. I'll have to look around to find one locally and put it on my gift list, along with the walkie talkie. Another option would be check with parent's I know that have any baby monitors that they no longer use. I'm sure that would work as well, as compared to going the wireless route for the thermometers.
 
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