Overnight cook question


 
Funny story:

I recently went to a Land Rover rally and took along my WSM to feed our group with some pulled pork. Got everything going and locked in around midnight and climbed into the tent with my ET-73 receiver. Around 4:30 the low temp alarm went off...this was unusual as I usually am never woken up when doing overnights. I climbed out of the tent, opened the lower vents a touch and went back to sleep. About an hour later the high temp alarm went off...what the heck? I climbed out and closed the vents down to where they were originally set and wasn't woken up again.

In the morning I found out the problem. One of the other campers smelled the cook in the middle of the night and couldn't resist getting up and "checking out the butts". He pulled the lid to look, causing the temp to drop in the cooker, heard my alarm and scurried back and hid behind his tent before I could get out of mine. Not knowing that someone had lifted the lid, my adjustment caused the spike an hour later. He would have gotten away with it had he put the lid back on in the same position that I had it (thermometer, door and one lower vent all in a straight line). I knew right away what happened and after some cross examination of the attendees found the culprit.

No harm, no foul. I had at least 5 people tell me it was the best BBQ they have ever had.

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I received my 18.5 WSM about a month and 1/2 ago. Been using it every weekend. Last weekend I did my first butt roast over night. I must say, I haven't done to much other than what this website recommends in the "cooking topics" page. I filled the chamber completely full and then some of unlit charcoal and wood, lit 40ish in chimney, and put on top. Opened all vents, got it up to 200 and back the bottom ones off to about 35%ish. Went to bed at 11:30, got up about 8:30 (a few Great Lakes Oktoberfest beers contributed this length of sleep) smoker was at 250. Started to drop around 210 at 11ish, put a few more started charcoals on there, filled water pan back up and was good to go. Best pulled pork I and everyone who tried it has ever had. Should have done what everyone else does though and cook a few. Used a tone of fuel for one butt!
 
thanks for all the great advice.

it never seems to matter how much I practice. things always get weird on me when we compete. any insurance to get me through the night will be much appreciated.
 
I don't know JB, if you want the guarantee, I would think that would be with a guru or stoker. Even though I agree with you about the $.

Generally speaking on overnights, I still use my et-73, and the low/high alarms always have worked well, but I don't even bother setting them anymore.

As somebody else said, I know my smoker, and as long as I got the mid section set on the base just right (mine has a bit of an air leak if I don't spin it around just right), I know that I can put in X amount of lit charcoal, leave my vents set X open, I'm good the whole night for maintaining 225-275. I just go to bed and normally don't get up until 7AM. Usually with a big headache and cob webs in my eyes, so no, I rarely if ever manage to get up to check mid night. Like Kevin, the only overnights I do anymore are the big forgiving cuts like butts or chucks, so I don't loose any sleep worrying about any of it.

Todd
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I don't know JB, if you want the guarantee, I would think that would be with a guru or stoker. Even though I agree with you about the $.

Generally speaking on overnights, I still use my et-73, and the low/high alarms always have worked well, but I don't even bother setting them anymore.

As somebody else said, I know my smoker, and as long as I got the mid section set on the base just right (mine has a bit of an air leak if I don't spin it around just right), I know that I can put in X amount of lit charcoal, leave my vents set X open, I'm good the whole night for maintaining 225-275. I just go to bed and normally don't get up until 7AM. Usually with a big headache and cob webs in my eyes, so no, I rarely if ever manage to get up to check mid night. Like Kevin, the only overnights I do anymore are the big forgiving cuts like butts or chucks, so I don't loose any sleep worrying about any of it. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

sleep is really the crux of the issue. we are trying to run our comp schedule in a way that allows us some decent rest. We found that turn-in time is a lot more interesting with a good rest during the night.

our current schedule has us doing the butts overnight and starting everything else in the morning. The theory is that we'd only have to worry about one thing.

the problem has been, even with our screens, things never run like in our driveways. the past two comps, the wsm ran really hot, and even cracking one vent a smidge sent it climbing even more. both times we went to bed with it completely buttoned up, and you can imagine what happens when a wsm is closed...the fire eventually dies. If we could have an alarm to alert us when its below 225, somebody could go crack a vent.

I'd love a stoker for comps, but I can't seem to justify the price. save for our three wsm's, I doubt we've invested in other gear nearly the price of one. it seems odd to be to double our investment just for a little insurance.
 
I've had overnights that were totally uneventful. My ET-73 never went off even once. Like one or two others said, at my age I don't sleep through the whole night anyway, so when I do get up I check eveything out, spray the butts and go back to bed. I always plan things so tht if the temps did drop, there's enough time to add fuel and get the heat back to 250 or even a bit more. The meat can always sit for an hour more or less, eh?

Other times the temp seems to go all ovr the place - it goes up, and i close vents a bit, so it goes down, and I open them - all %$#@$ing night long. But mostly things tend to stabilize after a couple hours.
 
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