Wild Temperature Swings


 
B

Burt Alcantara

New member
Cooked my largest shoulder to date -- 10#. Started with a ring of briqs in the Performer. Lit one end with a propane torch. Came up to 260 in about 3 hours. Stayed there for a long time. Then it went to 311. I shut down the top half way and went back to 260 +/-. A short while later it hit 425. I opened the lid to check the briqs. Everything looked normal. Once again it settled at 255 or so. A little while later, up to 400+ again. Did the open and close again.

After a while the coals began to burn down so it didn't go crazy anymore. I use a Maverick 732. I put the probe on the grill grate next to the meat. When the temps when high, the probe was away from the embers. I tried to pile the briqs to an even depth using the eyeball method.

I had 2 stalls. One at 165 for 2 hours and one at 190 which dropped to 189 for about 1.5 hours. After that the temp hit 196 within 20 minutes.

I pulled it and gave it a dousing of Chris Lilly's Memphis sauce but with about 1/3 of the sweetner called for. Delicious!

Is this normal?
 
The temperature swings aren't really normal, I smoke often in the kettle and have never really had the problem. What were the bottom vents set at. I leave the top vent open on the kettle and the bottom vents basically closed for most of the cook and that always keeps me below 300, I never lift the lid until it is done or needs more coal. As a rule you want to control your temps with the bottom vent and not the top (if you were and you still had to close the top vent to stay below 400 I would say something is wrong, maybe the lid was slightly off?)

Really glad it worked out well and tasted great though, at the end of the day that's all that matters!

Clark
 
I keep the bottom vent closed and most of the time, the top wide open. When the temp gets too hot I close the top slightly.

Does it matter where the temp probe is placed? That's something that perplexes me. It doesn't seem to matter most of the time but inquiring minds need to know.

Thanks,
Burt
 
Originally posted by Burt Alcantara:
I keep the bottom vent closed and most of the time, the top wide open. When the temp gets too hot I close the top slightly.

Does it matter where the temp probe is placed? That's something that perplexes me. It doesn't seem to matter most of the time but inquiring minds need to know.

Thanks,
Burt
Click to expand...

I keep mine as close to the meat as I can without touching it. A clothespin works great for keeping in in place, just slip the probe through the opening in the spring.
 
It matters where the probe is placed. The only way to get consistency cook-to-cook (and often within the cook) is to forgo grate placement entirely. Put the probe in the lid vent in a consistent spot, like up to the point the probe meets the wire.

Before you or anyone asks 'What's the difference between the lid and the grate temp?" I'll tell you now: It doesn't matter. The lid vent (not a lid-installed therm) is the least affected spot on the cooker. Get used to working off it - don't temp elsewhere - and these problems vanish.
 
up to the point the probe meets the wire.
Click to expand...

Don't understand this description. However, I've been considering dropping the probe down the top vent. All we're looking for is consistency.

Thanks for the replies,
Burt
 
The probe itself is attached to a long wire that attaches to the transmitter, right? At the probe end, the metal probe is a few inches long, then it attaches to the wire, yes? (I have an older model so I don't know if this is still true.) Drop the probe into the vent so it is in the cooker, but the wire it is attached to is outside the cooker, i.e., the point where the probe meets the wire is right at the vent opening.

Make sense?

This avoids common problems at the grate: too close to a mass of cold meat and the reading will be skewed; too close to the edge of the grate and the reading will be skewed; lots of meat on the grate and the reading... among other things.

The only thing you have to remember is to remove the probe before lifting the lid - easily done, and worth the small effort to have consistency.
 
Yes. Perfect. Thank you.

As to my comment on temp differences upthread, far, far too much time is spent (read: wasted) concerning temp differences between lid and upper grate, or lower grate and upper grate, or whatever. It utterly does not matter. Can't stress this enough - and I repeat this over and over.

Temping in two places is not necessary - and judging from numerous comments on this board alone, can make you crazy. Whatever the actual cooktemp is is simply immaterial. No need to know it. Temp in one place - and in my considered opinion the best place is the lid vent - and one place only. If you cook till the meat is done, i.e., tender in the case of barbecue, to a specific temp in the case of, say, chicken breast, or a roast you are cooking to medium-rare, you're good to go.

If my lid temp says 350, say, the temp I use for ribs, and the 'actual' temp is, say, 300 or 250 does it matter? Not in the least. As long as I am cooking to done it makes no difference. But, because I use this temp all the time for ribs, and because, imo, the lid is the spot least affected by potential inconsistencies elsewhere, I know that if I target this temp every rib cook it is most likely that the ribs will be done in roughly the same time as they have been before, making allowances, as needed, for, say, difference in rib size or what have you. And this has been precisely my experience over many years.

But the opeartive issue for excellent results is cooking till done, irrespective of everything else.
 
All points well taken. All points make perfect sense. Myron Mixon says something similar. Why cook at 220 when 350 will get the job done quicker.

My only concern here is the fat. I've found, in my very limited experience, that slower cooking gets rid of more fat. The shoulder from Costco had substantially less fat then the shoulder I get from my local market. This last cook had very little fat.
 
No. This is not a question of high heat vs. low heat. This is a question of your temp reading at the lid vs. whatever the actual temp is at the cooking level. THAT'S what doesn't matter. Numerous people get caught up in trying to determine the temp at the grate (which can vary) or frustrated because their lid temp doesn't match their grate temp - and spend inordinate amounts of time trying to figure that out.

My point is that this does not matter. If the lid says 250 and that is your target, it matters little what the grate temp is. Just get used to that that temp at the lid - or whatever your target is - and that is what you can then use for consistency.
 
Is there any reason not to use the lid-installed therms on the newer WSM's in the same manner as recommended for temp probes placed in the lid vent?

Randy
 
I don't own one, but as long as it's fairly accurate I don't see a problem. It's only a 3/8"dia thread so that will slip into one of the 3/4"dia vent holes no prob.
A coupla other options is a therm from BBQ Guru or a turkey fryer thermo like this.
I use a smaller 5" or 6" one which clips right into the top vent.

Tim
 
I don't own one either. When I get a cooker for the Vegas house it will be an 18 as I do not like the door design nor the addition of the therm in the 22.

Whatever the cooker I'm cooking with I temp at the vent if at all possible, even if there is an installed therm. I often find their cooking accuracy suspect even if they test correctly.
 
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