Overnight cooking


 
D

Dan J

New member
I have a question about cooking overnight (and hopefully getting a full night's sleep!).

I have been regularly making 4lb and 6lb boston butts. 4lb averaged a 9 hour smoke and the 6 lb was at least 12 hours. I'd like to smoke some large ones at least 6.5 lbs overnight. Is there a way to get a 7-8 hour cooking period at 225-250 degrees while I'm sleeping and don't touch the smoker? I can usually get 3 hours easy, but then I typically add some fuel or water, or at least mix the fuel up a little. I'm especially worried the water won't last that long...

Thanks in advance!
 
Dan, very easily, I and others routinely do 20+ hour cooks with no refueling or water.
1) Replace your water pan with a clay saucer or sand.
2) Start with a very full ring of fuel.
3) Don't peek. Most cooks I don't remove the lid until I'm testing for tenderness.

Hope this helps and good luck with your cook. I love overnight cooks, just something about them that thrills me . . . I think I need to get out more.
 
Thanks for the quick reply Larry. I am still somewhat new on the Weber bullet (about 6 months) so sorry for the basic questions.. When you say "or sand", do you mean to fill the existing water pan with sand? and when you say "clay saucer" do you fill it with anything? If not with anything, don't the drippings burn on the saucer? Is the entire full ring of fuel all lit or is part fully lit and part not lit at all? (i have heard that adding unlit charcoal will affect the taste, but haven't actually witnessed this...) Again, I appreciate the help...
 
Hi Dan,

Tonight I will do my first overnight (It's now 17:OO here, in Belgium).
I 'm going to put an extra waterpan on the bottom grill. It's my first time so I can't garantee it will work, but maybe it can help.
Bert
 
Dan good questions. I use a clay saucer so I can speak in detail to that and only guess on how those who use sand do it. You can also look under the WSM Modifications forum and find many posts on this subject there.

I simply wrap a 14" clay saucer in foil, place in water pan and run a sheet of HD foil over the top. Others foil the water pan also as sometimes you can get some grease in the pan.

I'm guessing those who use sand foil the water pan, fill w/sand and then run foil over the top.

Use the Minion Method to start your fire. I start mine with 8 lit briquettes. Regarding taste, I haven't experienced this but I don't use Kingsford in my WSM which is the fuel most complain about. Many on this site do use Kingsford for their overnights btw.

EDIT: A couple more tips on going dry and using the Minion Method to start. CATCH YOUR TEMPS ON THE WAY UP! It's far more difficult to bring your temps down when using a clay saucer than water. What I do is shut down all my bottom vents when she hits 200, wait a few minutes and see where she settles in then start adjusting bottom vents until you've dialed in your final temp., will take about an hour. Once dialed in sit back and watch the temp stay dialed in for hours, still blows my mind. Again, catch your temps on the way up or you'll be fighting them. Lastly, I assemble my WSM when I put my lit on.

Hope this helps.
 
Thanks again. Larry, my only question/concern is with foiling the saucer. I found that when I ran out of water, the drippings hitting the "dry" foil created a burnt smell and I was worried that it would affect taste, so I quickly added water. Have you found any issues wth this? (in a separate example, I cooked a fresh ham without water to achieve 325 degrees for Thanksgiving and glazed the ham at the end and definitely found that the glaze dripping on the foil REALLY stunk up the neighborhood, so added a little water quickly and it turned out fine - so this is in my head now about drippings on the foil).

Bert - the two water pans is an interesting idea too - let me know how that works out.

Thanks everyone...
 
Never had an issue with any "burnt" smells or flavor on my WSM and I've been dry since around my 3rd cook.
 
Dan - I'm new to this too, but I've read of people using a couple balls of foil in the pan to
"tent up" the top layer of foil so that it's not resting on the bottom of the pan. The layer of air between the bottom of the pan and the foil with drippings keeps them from burning.
 
Thanks - that's a good idea too.. Larry, thanks for the info. I will try the sand method since it's readily available and try your methods with it. I'd also like to hear the results of whether Bert's second water pan dry's up or not. Thanks!
 
It's 21:00 hours here. I will use the Minion method ( wich I learned on this forum), and I will add the second water pan.
The fire will be ready to start cooking in 20 minutes.
I 'll keep a log and let you know.

Wish me luck,
Bert.
Probably the first Belgian overnaight cook ever
icon_razz.gif
 
Bert, I'm curious, what's the extra water pan for? Are you planning on using it as a double heat sink?
 
dan,

larry offered some great tips that i really can't add to. i easily get 14 hour plus smokes with my WSM using the same tips. what blows my mind is how the temp stays stable for the whole cook once it settles in. also, i could easily go for a 4 to 5 hour smoke with something else AFTER i pull the butts off of an all nighter! with no added fuel!
 
Dan,

I just did my 2nd overnighter last weekend. I had the WSM dialed in between 240-250 for 8 hours without touching it. With a little adjustment to the vents and a tap on the legs, I had it back up to that temp for a few hours more. It's pretty amazing. I used a full chamber of Kingsford, mixed w/ some lump, and of course, some smoke wood. Once I filled it, I packed it all in and topped it off with more K. I used water in the pan as hot as I could get it from the tap. Cook went 14 hours, and I didn't have to add fuel or water. Temps were in the low 30's.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I used water in the pan as hot as I could get it from the tap. Cook went 14 hours, and I didn't have to add fuel or water. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
You mean you didn't choose to add water? Standard pan can dry up in as little as a couple hours. ?
 
Great discussion... I'm assuming the second water pan Bert is trying will take much longer to evaporate since it isn't directly over the coals.

I'm curious on the sand method - filling the water pan with sand. What does is actually do to enable long cook times? Does it somehow regulate the temp?

Those of you who have overnighted it, are you leaving the bottom vents fully open?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Dan J:

Those of you who have overnighted it, are you leaving the bottom vents fully open? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

i leave all the vents wide open after it reachs an 'idle'. experiment and see what works best!
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Those of you who have overnighted it, are you leaving the bottom vents fully open? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Final position varies from one WSM to another, conditions, how much meat our cooking, fuel etc. If memory serves me correctly (I now use a Stoker so it's been awhile) I usually end-up with two bottom vents open about 1/8 of the way.
 
It's 7:15 here. I'm cookng for 9,5 hours, The t° is 225 since begin without changing anything.
Didn't touch the vents, didn't ad water or fuel.
 
Bert, how'd the experiment turn out for you? Also, I didn't catch what you were cooking, I assume butts. Just curious.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top