overnight cooking

[Theresa L]

I would love to hear comments about doing overnighters. Briskets, pork butts, stuff that takes a long time.

I did a brisket and pork shoulders overnight before and they turned out nicely, and the temp was a solid 230 the entire time. Bottom vents fully closed, Minion method of lighting the Kingsford. I was psyched.

But then my buddy just got a WSM and did an overnight cook but his temp dropped considerably after a few hours with the bottom vents closed. He had to fiddle with the vents in the dead of night to get the temp back up.

So now I'm wondering, for the next time I do an overnight cook, should I start waking up periodically to check the temp? I can do that if need be, it's not hard, it'll bring back fond memories of having a newborn baby in the house. It's just that I was under the impression I could just leave the thing alone but now my buddy's experience with his overnight cook has me wondering if it's more prudent to monitor the temp. It would be a bummer to sleep all night, get up in the morning and find the temp too low; I'd probably throw the meat out out of concern for food poisoning.

Any comments, helpful advice re: how to do overnighters AND get sleep, I'd appreciate it.

Theresa

 

[Dennis Solin]

I do overnighters in Arizona and Oregon, in the summer and the winter. You kind of need to know how your WSM will run at the given temp. I never totally close the bottom vents and I never have a problem. Month ago in Oregon did an overnighter on 20 lb chuck roast. Actually started about 5:30pm, 1/2 open vents, in teens at night, through some more charcoal on about 11:00pm, dome temp was about 240 at 7:00am in the morning, internal on roast was about 190. Using sand eliminates problem of water running out. Lover overnighters, load up the charcoal big time and cook away. I usually fill the entire charcoal ring with unlit and dump a chimney of lit on top of that. Have not ran out yet.

 

[Kevin Taylor]

Hi Theresa!

As Dennis said...I would get a few uses under my belt before venturing on an overnighter. Very important to know how the unit operates with various vewnt settings.

You should never attempt an overnighter with the vents closed! At some point, if the unit is even close to airtight, the temps will drop.

One last tip..I always let the unit stabilize for a few hours before turning in. That means, let it get up to temp, then get it stabilized for at least an hour. This will allow a more peaceful rest!

 

[Theresa L]

Thanks for the replies; I believe it's good advice not to do an overnighter the first cook, even if that's not what I did /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

Interestingly enough, my buddy rebent my door so that it fit more snugly, and when we did some ribs last weekend we had to keep the bottom vents partially open to keep the temp up. So I guess my results with the two overnighters that I did with the bottom vents fully closed were successful because of air leaks.

Theresa