Very long cooks on a charcoal grill without automatic temperature control (ATC)?


 
Tony P in Florida

Tony P in Florida

TVWBB Fan
I find that my E6 has pretty stable temps. Much better than my ceramic vision kamado. But I have been reluctant to do a pork butt since most are about 8 lb... so I would be looking at a cook of around 12 hours cook time.

I currently use a Maverick 2 probe system that I purchased in 2016 for temperature monitoring. The last few years I wished I had more than one food probe. So I was thinking I could get the x4. ThermoWorks has a sale on the Smoke X4... 20% off at the moment, so $160. Not as good as the Black Friday prices. I looked at the Signals and I'm sure it's going to go on sale in a couple of months worst case. Although I do like the dedicated receiver on the X4. I can add the billows, but would wait on the billows until it goes on sale because it's 69 bucks now. And why pay full price when I can get it on sale in a couple of months is my thinking.

Anyway, wondering how folks make pork butts and brisket without an ATC on a charcoal grill. I've done pork butts on my vision kamado and it was really really long... I don't want to go through that again.
 
Smoke X4 is great. I love mine and I have a billows.

Without ATC the X4 will give you high and low temp alarms on meat and pit temps.

If you decide to add a billows it's ready.

It is also a very good long range remote.

And before I had ATC my longer cooks were more stress. With the billows I did an overnight in the rain in the BGE and slept very well.
 
Last edited:
For pork butts, I run them at 275, and find it to be around an hour per lb, and I do 8 pounders quite regular. I can get 8 hrs from my Slow and Sear in my Performer, but I usually do them on the WSM 18 with no problems, and I normally don't use an ATC for them.

Charlie
 
I use the Smoke X2 and Billows on my 18 WSM.

I don't sweat trying to keep the temps totally level during a long cook. Anything between 225-275 is fine for me (with or without using the ATC).

But on a long cook, using the ATC just makes it much easier to keep it in that range. So you are more freed up to do other things.

Really improves sleep quality on an overnight cook.
 
I have the TW Smoke X4 and Billows but haven't bothered to use the billows on my Weber E6 yet. If you build the fire correctly, the E6 will run stable smoking temperatures for 12+ hours easily.
 
I see... So I WAS running temp too low... It's been a few years in think since I did pork butts. I was at 230 on the ceramic kamado as the Target Temp.

Well, I am smarter today now :). Glad I asked.

The next time I try a pork butt, it'll be on the E6, and I'll shoot for a target of no less than 275.
 
Tony P in Florida said:
I see... So I WAS running temp too low... It's been a few years in think since I did pork butts. I was at 230 on the ceramic kamado as the Target Temp.

Well, I am smarter today now :). Glad I asked.

The next time I try a pork butt, it'll be on the E6, and I'll shoot for a target of no less than 275.
Click to expand...
I do my overnight pork butt smokes at 220 so I don't have to wake up early.

If I start one in the morning wanting done for dinner, I do 225 for a few hours, then raise the temp to 250 or 275, wrap and finish it at 300 F grate.

I don't know if the first few hours of lower temp helps get more smoke flavor in the bark, but I'm thinking it does.
 
Stabilize your temps and let ‘er eat. That will run pretty stable for 14-16 hours at minimum.

I also use Smoke X4 and also have Billows. I don’t need Billows and half the time I don’t use it. Temp stays pretty solid, I shoot for 250 and the range is typically 225-275 or so during the cook
 
I’ve never used a temp control device and even stopped using temp probes a couple years ago. For long cooks I usually go overnight on my WSM and it holds steady at about 250. If I am doing an early morning start I use the WSM or go snake method on Performer. I like to keep things pretty simple and probes and wires and technology in general inhibit my enjoyment of the BBQ process. If I was doing a competition it might be different but maybe not…I know there are some great products out there but I think if you get to know and trust your grill you will succeed 95% of the time.
 
Richard S said:
I’ve never used a temp control device and even stopped using temp probes a couple years ago. For long cooks I usually go overnight on my WSM and it holds steady at about 250. If I am doing an early morning start I use the WSM or go snake method on Performer. I like to keep things pretty simple and probes and wires and technology in general inhibit my enjoyment of the BBQ process. If I was doing a competition it might be different but maybe not…I know there are some great products out there but I think if you get to know and trust your grill you will succeed 95% of the time.
Click to expand...
Some year I may get to that level of experience.

I'm in it for the food and an ATC is one of the tools as a means to the end, which is the food.
 
I ended up going with the thermoworks smoke x4. Since I was really itching to have more than one food probe. 18% off President's Day sale. Not the best sale, but it's not full price either :)

So I went with a unit that could be expanded with the blower in the future.

I'm not going to jump on the billows blower just yet. I want to try my next 7.5 lbs.pork butt at 275 and see how stable the temps are for a long (~8-10h) cook.

Thanks for all of the feedback in this thread. I appreciate it.
 
Now I'm legit. The thread can remain in photo gallery :)

This came pretty fast. I ordered around 6:00 p.m. EST Tuesday and arrived today.

Edit:. The magnet meat temperature was a gift. I did not order it
 

Attachments

  • 20220224_143324.jpg
    20220224_143324.jpg
    198.9 KB · Views: 2
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top