Pork Butt with Kingsford


 
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Paul McBride

TVWBB Member
Howdy.

It's been a while since my last smoke, and since I had a reserve of Kingsford charcoal when they changed the formula, I have actually never done a smoke using the new formulation before.

I am smoking 3 pork butts (8-10 lbs each) for a party tomorrow, and find myself faced with the new Kingsford. A few questions:

1) Is it safe to use the Kingsford for an overnite Minion smoke? What should I do differently from my usual Minion approach?

2) I've read that temps run higher; I'm afraid, as it is windy, that this might cause me trouble. Should I put the smoker in the garage? (With the door open of course).

3) If I have a temperature spike, will putting a can full of water into the smoker work to bring the temp down?

4) Shooting for serving @ 6 pm tomorrow; what time should I put the butts on?

Thanks all in advance for your help...
Paul
 
Question #2 here is a good distillation of the rather lengthy discussions that were held when the new Kingsford came out.
 
1. See Doug's link posted above.

2. If you can do it and still have adequate ventilation, yes.

3. Keeping the waterpan full will help as will keeing the vent facing the wind closed.

4. My guess is that you'll finish between 17 and 21 hours if you maintain an approx lid temp of 250. I would have it on the cooker around 8 p.m. You'll have a 4 to 5 hour period you can hold in a dry cooler.


Best of luck to you.

Paul
 
Thanks for the link, Doug. Very helpful.

And thanks for the response, Paul. Quick question, though: I was planning on having the waterpan full of sand (as per my usual method when using Minion). I find that I have too much heat loss with the pan full of water. But if the temp spikes, would putting a can of water in the smoker help keep the temp down, or would the diff be negligible?

Also, wind is 25 - 35 MPH? Is that high enough to consider the garage?

Thanks again,
Paul
 
I do most of my butt cooks over sand when I'm only using the top grate, as in 2 butts. I've never really had a problem with spikes, but certainly the wind could do it. Yes if you can do it with the garage door open (hopefully that's not the direction the wind is blowing, and the WSM very near the entrance, I would try that.

I've never tried or thought of putting a pan of water on the pan with the sand. You might actually be developing too much of a heat sink ... ? Can't really help on that.

Paul
 
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