40 pounds of Pork Butt in the 18.5" WSM (with lots of photos)

Case price was $1.28 a pound, but the freezer is full so I had to pay the higher $1.49 per pound price at my local Sam's Club for two of the 2 butt cryo-packs.  I could have got them for less at restaurant depot, but Sam's is right next to my office.  I just toss a cooler in the car when I go in that morning, and pick them up on the way home.   Restaurant Depot means I have to fight Atlanta traffic at 5pm both ways.  No other way to put this, Atlanta traffic sucks badly.

Don't think I have not considered trying that.....  He would probably do it, but I can see the next audit being a problem

Midnight update.....

Ok, pit has been lit nearly 12 hours.  Yes I know, a WSM can run all night on a single load.  On the other hand, charcoal is cheap and I like to sleep soundly and not worry about the temp crashing. So here is what I do.  I pull the body of the WSM and set it in a metal water heater pan to protect the deck boards from heat and grease.  Then I shake the lit charcoal to clear the ash.  Some people stir the coals to do this through the WSM body door.  I prefer the meat to be off the coals so I don't have to worry about even the possibility of ash landing on the meat.  Then I use a metal shovel to collect the remaining lit and move it to a metal bucket which is sitting on some spacers to again protect the deck (the metal bottom of the bucket will get hot). Then I reload the fire ring with fresh unlit blue bag Kingsford.  Then I dump the lit back on top and spread them out.  I prefer the lit over unlit method as I think you get a cleaner smoke that way.  The smoke from the unlit travels through the fully lit coals and IMO it burns out some of the acrid smoke you can get from the unlit as it first lights.  It's a little more work to do it this way, but it only takes about 3 minutes and it works great.  Going to give the pit an hour to make sure it is stable and then it's off to bed.  Not too bad for an overnight cook as I actually get to sleep!

Here is the midnight photo of the top rack butts.  Internal temp is at 164* so depending on what sort of stall I get, these should be done around 6 to 7am.


We have these new really bad ass food transport containers at work.  They are made for NATO by Sintplast and it's a model GB7.  They are like the Yeti cooler of food storage and are supposed to keep stuff hot like nothing else.  This will be the first time I've used them so I'll also report on how this works.  I'll post photos of the GB7 later but there is the heat retention chart from their website.  This thing says a 205* pork shoulder will still be above 140* 36 hours later.  Wow!!!!!!

9AM update....

Stall.... well it is, what it is.  Still at 185 after 19 hours on the pit.  So time to pull them, foil them and into the convection oven while I take a shower.  I tasted a piece of the bark that pulled off on the grate and it was wonderful.  Sorry no photos.  I will take more once we unfoil them to pull at the office.

Apologies for the delay.  Been a little hectic around here after the work BBQ.  My youngest daughter is trying to move into her first apartment, so you can imagine....

As to the pork butt smoke.....

Tossed the foiled butts into the convection oven while I took a shower.  By the time I got to work and got everything set up, I had 15 minutes to spare.  Meat was still just as hot as fresh off the pit thanks to the military grade food container.  These things are sweet.   I've seen them on unclesamsretailoutlet.com before, and may have to pick one or two up for myself (the one I used today belongs to the office).

Here are the containers.  Weigh about 40 pounds empty.  They have a 7 gallon stainless steel food well inside with a stainless top.  Top has a silicone seal and air vent and the container top also has another silicone seal and two locking latches.  Totally liquid tight so if you dropped it with 7 gallons of Brunswick stew, nothing could spill.




Ok, back to the BBQ comments.  Pulled 3 of the pork butts and got them set up for the luncheon. All 3 big bosses came down.  Everyone loved the pork and the home made sauce was again a hit (2nd time I've made this recipe).  Another co-worker made a huge pan of his pasta with cheese (way better than mac & cheese, but I don't have the recipe - I know it has Mexican Parmesan in it). I guess it's a good sign when "the" top boss comes back in and asks if there is any BBQ left (she usually does not come back for seconds).  I was working with the meat and asked a co-worker to get me a photo of the pulled pork.  I should have asked her to take one of the pasta, but forgot.  Here is one of the 3 serving pans of BBQ we had set up.  Great bark and flavor.  Overall a very successful two day process.

I don't have a 22.5", but other than the fuel burn rate and amount of charcoal needed to fill the ring, I would expect the process to be pretty similar. I do have a BBQ Guru Digi-Q 2 on my WSM, so temp management is one thing I don't have to worry about. I've had the Digi-Q since 2006 and love it. If you don't have one, well worth adding one.

I know that in general the 22.5" WSM burns fuel faster than the 18.5". Basic physics explain why. It is a larger volume of air and often a larger mass of meat to keep at temp, so it just takes more fuel. So I can't give advise on when you will have to consider a charcoal reload. There are several ways to reload, and it can be as simple as open the door and feed in charcoal. I just do it the way in my posts above as that is what I like to do on a long smoke. If you are on a wood deck remember to protect that if you pull the body or put the hot coals in a metal bucket. The heated metal can scorch the wood deck (wonder how I know that?). Other than the fuel burn rate, smoking a full WSM is pretty much like just doing one butt on the top rack. I've found that I don't need to rotate the butts around in mine, and I run it with a thick clay flower pot base sitting on top of a foiled but empty water pan (gives an air gap under the flower bot base). I get much longer smokes per amount of fuel on this combo as it's basic physics again that using water in the water pan will make you burn through fuel quicker, but it does moderate a temp overshoot better than a clay pot base. But with the guru running the air flow, I'm not worried about an overshoot. There is usually a 15 to 20* overshoot after I refuel the fire ring, but that is acceptable to me and it settles down in a half hour or so (on this length smoke that half hour is nothing).

As to holding, I would refrigerate it if you have the space. Plan on using some sort of finishing sauce when you reheat it. Another trick I do is right after pulling and before putting the pan out on the portable steam stand, I shake on a little more of the same rub that I use on the butts and add finishing sauce. Once mixed in with gloved hands, you can't really tell there was extra rub added, but the complements I get on the product show it works (just don't over do it on the rub).

Here is a finishing sauce that I really like. Good flavor, and it's simple to make with not a lot of ingredients:

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/finishing-sauce-for-pulled-pork.49892/

I start mine the day before and time it so I don't have to mess with reheating. Once I pull the butts at 200-205* internal, I double foil them and put them in a mid-sized cooler (perfect for 3 butts with little left over space). I have used standard full sized coolers before and if I go with a larger cooler or less butts (ie, more empty space), I fill it with towels on top of the foiled butts. Close the lid and don't touch it until you are ready to pull and serve. I've held butts for 7 hours this way and they were still too hot to pull by hand (way above 140*). The ones I did in this smoke and put in those military grade food transport containers were nearly as hot as when I pulled them from the smoker. So if you need 60 pounds and the smoker will hold a little more, sneak another one on.

Foiling will soften up the bark, but unless you foiled during the smoke/cook, it should still be fine. If you foiled at 160 or so, you will end up with a very soft bark (I don't foil until I pull the butts unless I have a time crunch).

Another thing I do is I try to add one extra to the smoker and that is for my family. In this smoke I really only needed 2 for the event, but I brought 3 as there are always people wanting more. That sill left 1 for us which I pulled and vacuum packed in 2 lb batches for use later (frozen).

Oh, and I have done six 8-9lb butts at one time in the 18.5" WSM. I had to stand 3 on each grate leaning in like a tripod to the center. It worked, but I don't think I would do it again. Where they touched there was no bark and that is way more meat than the 18.5" is made to handle. But in a pinch..... think outside the box. If I can squeeze 60 pounds of butts into a 18.5" you should have not problem in the 22.5" (and should be able to lay them flat like normal).