When Do You Add Your Meat


 
JRAiona

JRAiona

TVWBB Gold Member
I'm getting ready to do a pork butt and have a question. The recipes I've looked at under the cooking topics add the meat right away and let the cooker come up to temp. I was of the thinking that you should allow the temp to come up the add the meat. What do you guys do?
 
I add it right away since I use the minon method for all but high heat cooks and I find it comes up to low and slow very quickly and I'm lazy. I've never understood why you'd bother to lit an entire chimney of coals only to essentially immediately snuff out the fire to get it down in temp.

other reasons to wait is some feel that the smoke that comes initially from your wood as it lights gives an off taste. I've never noticed anything. the only time I would wait to put the meat on is if I was using the standard method and trying to get the temperature DOWN and I was worried about burning my rub, but as I mentioned I never use the standard method for low heat cooks even if they are short ones.

occasionally i'll also wait for it to come up to temp if I'm smoking something that is done quickly and I want to make sure it cooks the right amount of time and gets the right amount of smoke the recipe suggests.
 
Last edited:
The only time I wait is if I JUST lit the kingsford blue bag and am getting the acrid white smoke. after that it doesn't really matter what temp you put your meat on at, imo.
 
I wait until I have a clean burning fire (no visible smoke) with charcoal only. I usually slightly overshoot my target temp because I know the food will absorb energy and reduce the temp.

Then, I add the meat, reinstall the lid and add the smoke wood (thru the access door). When it is clean burning, I know all the thin blue smoke I see is from the wood I added.

From the point I light my chimney to getting a clean fire usually takes about an hour. I am prepping my cook during this wait.

I hope this helps.
 
I take an approach much like Dwain and Enrico and wait a little while before adding the meat to get past the initial heavy white smoke phase. I light around 20 or 25 briquettes in a chimney and do prep work until the coals are ready, add the lit coals, assemble the smoker, and let my ATC unit (CyberQ) do its thing while I do more prep work for maybe another 30 minutes. The temp is usually around 200 - 225 by the time I add the meat, usually on its way up to 250.

I once had fire issues while doing a reverse sear on steaks, had to add new coals during the cook (and got the heavy white smoke that comes with that), and the steaks came out with a very distinct and unpleasant flavor. It might not be as easily detected in a low and slow BBQ meat, but it makes me think that I don't want the meat on until the heavy white smoke phase is over.
 
Thanks so much guys. I kind of thought the same as well, waiting till the fire was burning clean and the cooker was up to temp.
 
I always light my coals minion doughnut method. When the coals are lit in my chimney I dump them into the middle of my unlit coals and put one piece of smoke wood directly on top of the lit coals. I assemble the cooker with all vents 100% open and watch temp/smoke. When temp is around my desired temp I start shutting down vents slowly to level it off around my target temp. Once the cooker temp is stable AND I am getting more clear none white smoke I put meat on. It takes me about 30 minutes to light charcoal in chimney and another 30 min of so to bring temp up and get a clean fire. I am pretty good at guessing how many coals to light based on my target temp and weather... IN THEORY in my perfect cook dreams I would guess the right amount of charcoal and water in water pan so I could keep all vents 100% open the entire cook. Lots of air flow means a happy clean fire!
 
this is all my personal opinion. . . but:

if you are using the minion method basically you are constantly creating said off flavors, but just in smaller batches I.e. you are constantly lighting the wood and charcoal. you see more noticeable "bad" smoke at the beginning of the cook simply because you are lighting far more charcoal and wood at the beginning than during it. the only way to stop said theoretical off flavors is to fully light everything (all charcoal and wood in the smoker) before you put anything on which seems like a rather big waste to me. I agree blue has a weird smell when lit, that's why I use competition, but I still can't taste the difference in the final product between the two, nor can I remotely taste the difference between food put immediately on the smoker when it's cold or after the heavy smoke dissipates.

in the words of our leader:

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/fireup2.html

If there's a controversial aspect of the Minion Method, it's that it contradicts the conventional wisdom that says all charcoal briquettes must be fully lit and covered with gray ash before cooking begins. Everyone knows how bad charcoal briquettes smell while lighting, so some people assume that this smell permeates the meat during cooking, since fuel is lighting continuously over many hours. Interestingly, the Minion Method does not seem to affect the appearance, aroma, or taste of food, and it is used with great success by many winning teams on the barbecue competition circuit.
 
Last edited:
Matt I understand your stance but the thick white smoke goes away. Sure more charcoal gets lit as the cook progresses but a little at a time does not seem to create that thick white bellowing smoke.

I always reverse sear my ribeye steaks. I put them on the WSM with the cooker at 185 degrees and then hit them hot and fast at the end to finish them. The first time I tried this method I dumped in my coals and smoke wood and with puffy white smoke going full charge I put my steaks on. They were cooked beautifully but tasted like a cigarette. I have NEVER put meat on until the thick smoke went away after that. I have had success cooking steaks and everything else with waiting until it went away.

water in water pan vs no water, low and slow vs hot and fast, lump vs briquettes... do whatever works for you!
 
When doing Minion, coffee-can, I dump +/- 10 lit briqs into the fire ring, empty water pan, and assemble everything, put the meat on, right off the bat. Catch the temps on the way up. I use Aussie Heat Beads & don't get any "off" smoke. AHB being very clean burning.
The only billowing white smoke I get is from the wood chunk lighting up that I put on top of the lit briqs. The rest of the wood chunks are buried in the unlit briqs.
I can honestly say that I haven't tasted any "off" flavours in my cooks......ever.
 
Tommy B said:
Matt I understand your stance but the thick white smoke goes away. Sure more charcoal gets lit as the cook progresses but a little at a time does not seem to create that thick white bellowing smoke.

I always reverse sear my ribeye steaks. I put them on the WSM with the cooker at 185 degrees and then hit them hot and fast at the end to finish them. The first time I tried this method I dumped in my coals and smoke wood and with puffy white smoke going full charge I put my steaks on. They were cooked beautifully but tasted like a cigarette. I have NEVER put meat on until the thick smoke went away after that. I have had success cooking steaks and everything else with waiting until it went away.

water in water pan vs no water, low and slow vs hot and fast, lump vs briquettes... do whatever works for you!
Click to expand...

absolutely correct. whatever works for you is best. I don't smoke steaks, so I haven't experienced that. but I have done chicken and fish (stuff that tends to absorb off flavors easily) and have noticed no off flavors. I used to wait too and then one day I was running late and wanted to get it on asap and noticed no difference and I haven't looked back. but I hardly see how it hurts to wait! I'm just by nature an impatient person! not the greatest quality to have for bbq!
 
A similar conversation was had at the kettle club site not too long ago and some people smarter then me proposed the theory that the minion or snake method fire preheats the coals before they fully ignite and this limits the some of the heavy starting smoke.

There was also a mention of preheating the smoking wood by placing on top of a kettle lid while it heats up limit to the heavy starting smoke of the wood as well. This technique was apparently adapted from offset stick burners who would preheat wood on top of the fire box before putting it in the fire box.

I use an empty water pan on my WSM so i have experimented with putting wood chunks in the empty water pan while the coals are heating up. Theoretically its similar but i haven't done enough cooks this way to say if its working or not.
 
I wait until my heat comes up. Plenty of people don't and it works find for them. I had a bad cook where I didn't wait and I badly over-smoked my meat. All it takes is one bad experience to turn someone off that. Also I like to let the temp come up slowly on the WSM so I catch my target temp on the way up. There's nothing worse than badly overshooting it and fighting high temps the whole cook.
 
I wait out the heavy smoke, too. When doing a Minion start (which is almost always) I toss a good-sized hunk of wood into the chimney with the briquettes to get the smoke going without the acrid initial smell. Don't know if it works or not, but my results are getting less bitter on the outside. Doing a 9lb Boston butt tomorrow and getting hungry.
 
For Boston Butts, I don't think it makes a lot of difference in the final product when the meat goes on the smoker. However, with chicken and turkey, it does make a difference that can be smelled and tasted.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top