overnight smoking...


 
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Rick Moore

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I am considering doing my first overnight smoke this Friday night for a Saturday afternoon football party. I have smoked on my WSM probably about 15 times and am fairly comfortable with the temperature consistency during cooking. But I don't think I am comfortable enough to go sleep my normal 7 hours while the butts are smoking. How do you all balance the sleep vs. checking on the smoker thing? In other words, how often are you getting up and checking on the smoker?

My initial plan was to start the WSM around 9:30 pm with the Minion method - putting the butts on about 10:30 pm - then I would get up around 2:30 am and check things out - then I would get up again around 7:00 am to check on things - and probably just stay up with it from that point on.

Any thoughts?
 
I am comfortable enough to go sleep. I get things set up, WSM safe, stable and go to sleep. I usually do check it first thing in the morning.

My experience with butts and briskets is that the first six to eight hours are awful boring. If I did wake up all I would probably do is throw in wood and take a quick look.

After a while I learned to trust the WSM. I feel comfortable not waking up in the middle of the night.
 
The only way we cook brisket, butts and chuck rolls are overnighters. I never check during the night, no problems yet. I do feel more comfortable with sand than I did with water. When I first started doing overnighters I was using water and it came close to running out a few times. If you are uncomfortable with the overnight do a dry run first with no meat. I however would probably put on some large butts and let the good times roll!
 
I did my 2nd butt this past week. Wanted some pulled pork for Halloween. Started the WSM at about 8:30pm Thursday night and put the butt on at 9:30. Checked the temp again at 10:30 and went to bed. Woke up at 6 and it was still at the same 230. I added about 12 unlite coals just because and went to work. My wife called me at 3pm saying the temp alarm was going off and was down to 198. I told her to open a vent (they'd all be closed up til this point). Temp went back up.
After work I just checked the coals - still plenty left.

Pulled the pork at 8:30. Came out great and was almost too easy.

Rob
 
Rick,

If you do the Water Pan Modification and you are only cooking a couple of butts, you can sleep 7 hours easy. Set the temp at 240, keep the vents at 1/3rd open and you are good.

However... The more meat in the cooker, the more attention that you have to pay attention to the cooker. When I shove 8 pork butts into the WSM, I am up every couple of hours to adjust the vents or to add a few coals.
 
Rick-

The first couple of times I did an overnighter, I checked the temps and water every 3 hours. I am now comfortable enough with it that I don't worry about it. There are some things that you can do to make things work out well consistently:

- I now use sand in the pan for overnights (don't have to worry about water evaporating.)

- I get the meat on at least a couple hours before I want to go to bed. This let's me make sure that I have a stable temp before I go to bed. I find that if I don't allow that time, then your WSM may still be settling down, and you may not get the temp you want.

- I set my alarm for 6a, and I get up to check the temp. Then, I make some coffee, and, if it's summer, sit outside and watch the sun rise; if it's winter, get a fire going in the fireplace and read a book. /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

HTH,
Rich G.
 
I was always to scared to do an overnighter too. I've still only done 4, but never had enough guts to even try until I got my Maverick ET-73 remote therm. I still get up in the middle to flip/baste, and maybe make an adjustment, otherwise rely on the Maverick. So far the Maverick has only woke me up once with a too high smoker temp. I was even more glad I had it on a chuck roast foiling temp way earlier than planned, and the alarm went off for meat temp. Anyway, so far, need it or not the Maverick still helps me sleep better.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Kirk J:
[qb] Anyway, so far, need it or not the Maverick still helps me sleep better. [/qb] <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>I agree wholeheartedly! I've done two overnight smokes of pork butts. The first time, I started a little late, ended up not getting to bed until 1am, and then woke up every couple of hours to check the temps, etc. I was exhausted the next day!

So, I bought a Maverick ET-73, and on my second smoke I started around 8pm, got the meat on and temps settled by 10:30pm, set the alarms (and tested them once) and then got a good night's sleep. I woke up at 6:30am, looked over and saw the temp was stable at 232*F -- and then noticed I had forgotten to re-enable the alarm after testing it! /infopop/emoticons/icon_redface.gif

Oh well, the WSM did it's usual great job. My guess is that after another few overnight smokes, I'll sleep like a log.
 
Hmmm - the Maverick seems to be a hot item! I'm thinking Christmas presents here...everyone always wants to know what they can get for me - I'm going to have to find where to get one and how much they are and see who might get this "gift idea" for me!

Thanks for all the tips! I'll give the overnight smoke a try this weekend and post some results afterwards! Maybe even try and get a few pics of the butts during cooking, and of course, just before chowing down!
 
Hi Rick,

There are a lot of positive reviews of the ET-73, and it is very useful for overnight cooks, especially if you're nervous about temp control like me (I'm sure I'll get better at it over time).

I have a few complaints about the ET-73, however:

- Overall quality isn't great. The switches are flimsy. My first unit was defective, and I had to return it (switch wouldn't stay OFF)

- The probe wires are very short, and the transmitter needs a magnetic mount.

- One of the units (transmitter, IIRC) has it's on/off switch inside the battery compartment -- not real convenient.

- When the alarm sounds, you have to remember to reenable the alarm.

Still, it's a useful device, and I haven't seen anything better in a dual-temp, wireless thermometer. I also have two Acurite thermometers that I bought from BBQ Galore. I use them for shorter smokes where I'll be around the WSM. They are much more rugged, have longer probe wires, look really nice, have magnetic mounts, etc.

BTW, I bought my ET-73 through thegadgetsource, and their service and price were outstanding. No problems with the return of the first defective unit either.
 
Rick,

I've done a few overnighters now and slept right through them. Everything turned out fine. I actually feel that temps are more stable during nighttime cooking, at least here in Wisoncsin. Wind usually dies down, sun obviously isn't a fator, ambient temp is usually dropping, but not too fast.

Just watch out for the wind. If it's going to be a windy night or a major change in weather is forecasted, then I'd probably plan one checkup at night.

The worst I did was sleep in 'til 10:00 (brutal hangover) and woke up to 200 degrees dome temp, no water in the pan. Just fired up a chimney of Kingsford, filled up the water pan, and was cooking away at 240 within an hour. The WSM hardly missed a beat.

Go for it and let us know what happens.
 
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