First pulled pork and a few questions

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dan bon

Newbie
Original poster
Jul 8, 2013
14
10
Hi all, smoked my first pork butt (bone in, 4.8 lbs) and it came out way better than I could've hoped, a lot more smoke flavour and juiciness than I thought it would. I smoked for 8 hours at around 210-215 (with some fluctuations on my cheap Canadian Tire smoker) using the minion method. Have a few questions...

I used hickory chunks instead of chips this time and expected them to smoke for a few hours, but it sees like  despite the fact that some were baseball-sized, they stopped smoking after maybe 45 min and i found myself adding chunks 3 more times throughout the process. Is this normal? I thought the chunks would last longer...

Despite using the minion method, i also had to add quite a bit of charcoal throughout the process to keep the heat up. Admittedly there was quite a buildup of ash which was probably not helping and i also dont have vents at the bottom but i though i would last the 8 hours without having to replace the charcoal with the minion method. What did i do wrong?

love to hear any feedback

thanks 

 
I do 80% unlit coals and 20% hot seems I have to add to it after 2 hours this is a side fire box also I used Hickory chunks and need to move them a few times to keep them smoking.
 
you should expect to add more wood later in the process, but also when you set up your minion make sur eyou stagger where the wood chunks are. Have some in the middle that will burn right away and put others along the edge that will burn later as the fire expands outward. That's what i do but i usually throw another chunk or 3 in about 3-4 hours in. Remember after about 6 hours the meat stops absorbing smoke so after that time there is no point in adding more wood. Just coal to keep the fire going.

Was your ash build up from previous smokes or from that cook? Do you have a picture of your smoker? Not sure what you mean by Canadian Tire Smoker :)
 
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