60 lbs of Butt in my MES40...with ROOM

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bullitz

Fire Starter
Original poster
Dec 7, 2014
59
20
I have had some really good success with my MES40 since I purchased it.  But those smokes were 1 of those, maybe 1 of these,  or maybe a couple of those other things.

This is my first smoke with a relatively full smoker.  I have 5 boneless butts in there (from Costco) and there appears to be room for one more (halved.. or... not tied).


Yeah... this is WAAAAY out of my league.  

But since its for my daughters wedding reception next weekend, I gotta make it good.  :)

This just went in about 5-10 minutes ago.


I have a Maverick but I also bought the Weber Wireless Thermometer today.  Initial testing shows that the Weber is more accurate than the Maverick.  The Weber showed boiling water at 208 on both sensors.  That is right on the money for my elevation(2000ft above sea level).  

The Mav showed 200 and 204 on the sensors.  

At room temperature, both probes showed 78 on the Weber which I believe is spot-on.  I dont recall what the Mav showed but the probes were about 5 degrees off between the two.
I will be using both the Mav and the Weber.
 
Thats a lot of meat!!! WHats better than BBQ for a wedding though. Keep up the pics)
 
For anyone trying this with THEIR MES, you practically need a bucket under your smoker to catch the juices that cook out.  I emptied the little tray almost every hour from 10pm til about 3am.  After that I emptied it every 2 hours. 
I started the cook at about 8pm last night and it is now 10am the next morning.  14 hours.  The little ones are about to come off.

The bark looks questionable.  I kind of expected a darker bark at this point especially since I didn't wrap.  I think its because of the amount of moisture coming out of these in such a small space.

 
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Reactions: Bearcarver
Looks Great BuLLitz!!
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That's a real Load of Tasty Pork!!!
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I was a little worried after seeing your first picture because there wasn't a lot of room for air flow around those top two racks of Butts.

Then after some shrinking, the next pics got some separation.

Bear
 
My MES40 was set to 135 on the display. Because of the temperature swings of an electric smoker, that 135 setting seemed to AVERAGE 125 in the temperature swings as measured by my Maverick thermometer.
When I had the mes SET to 225, the average temp was around 205 if I recall.
Do not trust the MES temp readings. Use a good aftermarket thermometer(wireless) and find out what settings work for you and your smoker.

The butts were boneless 12lb'rs. Boneless butts are 2 halfs in the bag.
4 of the butts were tied together and 1 was left halved so that I could fit all 5 butts into the smoker.
There are a few reasons that I will never use boneless again:
  • To save space, I had to tie the butts. That was a pain.
  • Some loose bits got waaaay black and crispy. Good eating.. but not for pulled pork sandwiches. My guests would not approve.
  • Cutting and removing the string after its done also removes bits of the good bark.
  • The bone is a good indicator of doneness

The halfs were done at about 3:20pm which is just over 19 hours but there are a lot of factors. It could have been done MUCH faster if it was the only thing in the smoker.
One of the tied butts finished just minutes later.

Two tied butts came off at the 21.5 hour mark.

So, even though all of my butts were roughly the same size, in the same smoker, they finished between 19 and 24 hours. They are done when they are done.

That last butt had issues. The MES lost power for a little while (when I pulled the two at 21.5 hours) and the cabinet started to cool.
I turned it back on and let it go but that butt would not get above 192.
It started to dry out so I removed it.

See this thread from HarleyBike. If you are doing one or two butts, this might be a better representation.
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/201483/first-pork-butt-s
 
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Butts look great can you post how you like that webber after a few smokes  looking into a good thermometer.
 
Bullitz , don't you love a full Smoker
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,

The color is from the moisture , as you suspected , a large smoke as that was will change some of your parameters of your cook .  The color of your Smoke does a lot to

effect the Meat  too
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I have  all the Butts come off at the same time very often , just goes to show you , it's done when it's done , Krboyd 
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Here is a load I did , and a single Butt , notice the color difference  ;

x at once ,

, and

. ..

Have fun and . . .
 
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Reactions: gary s
 
Butts look great can you post how you like that webber after a few smokes  looking into a good thermometer.
There are some good points and some bad points to consider for either thermometer.

The Maverick is great in that it has both High and Low alerts.  I will use my mav as the measurement for the cabinet so that I know if I have a power failure or the smoker gets too hot.
I would have did that this time, but one of the probes for my Mav got bent somehow.  With this many butts in the smoker, I made the decision to use my 3 remaining probes in the meat.
I ordered a replacement probe Friday night.  Should be here this week.

The Weber is great because it is more accurate than my Mav.  What I don't like about it is that the monitor turns off on occasion.  When you turn it back on it takes a few seconds before it re-syncs with the base unit and probes.  What happens if my monitor turns off when I am nearing the alarm point?  Is it going to turn back on and alert me?  I doubt it... but need to do some testing I suppose.

If you are going to go with ONE wireless thermometer set, I say go with the Maverick...unless there is something better out there.  
But I think that both the Mav and the Weber have a place in my aresenal.
 
 
 
Bullitz , don't you love a full Smoker
icon_question.gif
 
cool.gif


,

The color is from the moisture , as you suspected , a large smoke as that was will change some of your parameters of your cook .  The color of your Smoke does a lot to

effect the Meat  too
confused.gif
 

I have  all the Butts come off at the same time very often , just goes to show you , it's done when it's done , Krboyd 
icon_exclaim.gif


Here is a load I did , and a single Butt , notice the color difference  ;

x at once ,

, and

. ..

Have fun and . . .
Ooh Yeah!!!  A full smoker is a thing of beauty for sure.  

Those pics are a great representation of a full smoker vs a partial full smoker.  I think that going forward, I will only do 1 butt per shelf(4).

I was actually quite nervous about the ordeal but as stated previously, knowing y'all are here is a great comfort. 


 
 
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