Outside air temp newbie question


 
S

Scott Chiu

New member
Hello All,

Brand new to TVWB; really cool forum that I'm glad i discovered. I am planning on purchasing either an 18.5" or 22.5" WSM for an upcoming tailgate where I will be cooking for 15-20 people. As far as the menu goes, I would like to smoke pork butts, brisket, and sausage. I'm expecting the ambient air temperatures to be around 45 F at the start of the cook, and rising, but not exceeding 65ish F. I am going to assume wind will not be a factor because if it windy I have a well sheltered area to set up the smoker.

Given these factors, do y'all have any helpful advice/suggestions on fuel load, anticipated cook time, etc that would make for a successful cook? TIA for all the help.
 
Welcome to the forum Scott. Your cook times are going to be dependent on how large your brisket and butt are. Once you know that and whether or not you plan to foil them, hopefully we can help.
 
Welcome Scott,

I'd have 2 large bags of charcoal on hand just to be safe. There are a lot of variables to determine cook time; Rolf points out 2 of them. Foiling speeds up the cooking. Will you be cooking both the butt and the brisket at the same time? If so, it will take longer for your WSM to get up to cook temp because you'll have a lot of cold meat in it. Many prefer a high-heat cook for brisket which will save time. I usually let my butts go overnight as I like to render a good deal of fat out of the pork especially for pulled pork. You can stack your meats; butt on bottom and brisket on top or vice versa. The air temps won't affect your cook. I recommend you read the section on the Minion Method . The Minion Method works great for most cuts of meat that require longer cooking times. Also, check out the Cooking Topics section, read the suggested cooking methods for both pork butts and brisket. Cook times are covered in each method. Fire away when you have more questions.

Paul
 
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Thanks for the intial advice. The plan is to do 3 8lb porks butts on the bottom grate, and a smaller 8-10 lb brisket on the top grate with the and sausage around it. After scouring this website/forum over the past several days, I think the Minion Method will be the best because of the extended cook time. I plan on having 2 large bags of Kingsford on hand. As for foiling, I will most likey foil in an effort to speed up the cook. With the additional information, please offer any more advice or ask more questions. Thanks.
 
What kind of time window do you expect to cook in?

Waiting for coals to burn out or go out leaves a hot grill that may still be hot by the time you want to leave. When I tailgate, I bring a small metal garbage can with a lid, some sand and a couple gallons of water. When I'm done cooking, I put a couple inches of sand in trash can, dump coals in trash can, extinguish with water, put little sand on top of that, then put the lid on tight. I leave that on the ground till cool and ready to leave. Grill will be cool enough to load up too.
 
Seriously, I wouldn't try a Brisket and Butts for a tailgate unless you start really early and go HH.
Have you considered doing them the day before and re-heating come game day?

Tim
 
timothy said:
Seriously, I wouldn't try a Brisket and Butts for a tailgate unless you start really early and go HH.
Have you considered doing them the day before and re-heating come game day?

Tim
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Exactly what I was thinking. Not only is it harder to do in a tailgate situation, this seems like an initial cook. I'd cook ahead of time and reheat at the tailgate. I'm sure you'll enjoy the tailgate much more.
 
I would ideally like to do the cook the day before but due to work and travel to the game I won't have time to do that. It will be the initial cook with the WSM, but not initial smoke with a vertical bullet type smoker, I have some experience from a previous smoker, just not on a WSM. Perhaps a scaled back quantity would be a better option to look in to? Also, I understand the tailgate situation perspective, but right now the plan is to start well enough in advance so we are taking the meats off the smoker 4-5 hrs before we intend on eating so we give the meats plenty of rest time, and plenty of beverage time for ourselves.
 
Scott Chiu said:
but right now the plan is to start well enough in advance so we are taking the meats off the smoker 4-5 hrs before we intend on eating so we give the meats plenty of rest time, and plenty of beverage time for ourselves.
Click to expand...

Doesn't that mean you're going to have to start in the middle of the night ?
 
High Heat brisket = 4.25 - 4.5 hours
High Heat Butts: 9 hours

this is only cook times - not prepping your cookers & meat & starting the coals (another hour+)

Cook ahead, freeze & thaw ahead of time, & re-heat the thawed meat on-site (1-3 hours).

The only way I'd want to do what you're suggesting is if you had a motor home in the parking lot and were setting up camp.

You don't need to pull the meat off 4-5 hours in advance of eating, IMO 1 hour or so is more ideal, or more what I usually do.

& back to your original question: Outside temps (in your & most scenarios, imo), Irrelevant.
 
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