My biggest smoke yet.

from a buick 8 · Feb 16, 2009

On Saturday I was able to pull off my biggest smoke to date on my duo. I was at Sam's on friday and bought 17 lbs of pork butt (was two pieces). Rubbed with mustard and coated with rub Friday night. I put it on the smoker at 2pm Saturday, took just a little over 16 hours to get the meat up to 200 deg. Was a long cook !!!

The day turned out to be colder then i had thought it was going to be (low 30's), I went through allot of fuel and even threw a few whole logs on to keep the temps up. I am still have trouble getting the minion method to work 100% of the time, I think one of my issues is i am starting with too much fuel in the basket. I used maple wood to smoke with.

I let the butt's set for a few hours (wrapped and in a cooler of course), was still over 140 deg when i pulled it. i ended up with just a little over 9 lbs of great BBQ (after some for breakfast of course).

So how long will the pulled pork keep in the fridge?

Here are some pic's.

The pack from Sams (great price $21.00)

All ready to go in the CG, I need to get a second digital therm,
My analog one shown here ended up very smoky, not able to see the number anymore.

Here is my supply of wood, from a tree that fell in my yard. i am in the process of cutting it into small chunks.

My cheap foil baffle.

I think I am using too much charcoal to start with, it chokes out at first.

All the time adding fuel and worrying about the temp was worth it.

A little over 9lbs worth ( after a good breakfast)

now I am going to buy one of those Seal-A-Meal things and freeze about half.

grothe · Feb 16, 2009

Looks good Buick...nice job!!

capt dan · Feb 16, 2009

Nice job! Sounds like you may have airflow issues. 16 hrs is a long time! I usually do mine in 9-12 hrs max.

The pulled pork will keep a week if it is taken care of. After 3-4 days, I usually vac-pack whats left and freeze.

Success breeds confidence, keep at it!

from a buick 8 · Feb 16, 2009

Air flow issues please tell me more. I keep the vents wide open and the CG is not sealed very well (that may be an issue also).

I was able to pick a Seal-A-Meal today so i froze half of it.

smokingnd · Feb 16, 2009

Looks great, i'm making a Sam's run in March (Don't have one here) planning an getting some shoulder to smoke. Thanks for QVIEW

grinder · Feb 17, 2009

I don't think your cook time is far off. A couple 6 pounders usually take me 10-12 hrs. @ 225 deg.

capt dan · Feb 17, 2009

5-6-7-8 lbs don't matter that much. I have never been one to go by the 1.5 hrs per lb, even at that rule, it shoulda only been 12 hrs. Its more the type of meat, the actual piece of meat, and the temp at the grate, not on the door of the smoker. It takes a certain amount of time to break down the connective tissues in pork butts and large hunks of beef.
heres my suggestion for you, for whatever its worth.

sounds like ya did a fair amount of reading already. Look into the mods forum, and try to do some of them to your offset. A permanent baffle and tuning plates are important,Try to use lump next time, and less of it, get a cheap therm that you can set on the grate, the 3-5 dollar oven therm will work nicely until you can get a digital for smoke chamber temps only. You can also use the one you stick in the meat. The chamber temp is more critical than the meat temp in the first 6 hrs anyways.For pork butts and larger pieces of meat, it is OK to smoke them at a higher temp. I smoke mine at 235-260, on occasion, it'll willhit 270-275, its no emergency.I would suggest a heat spike is less troublesome as a big loss in temp, those are smoke killers.They make the cook time longer and usually make whiter smoke.
Once you get a few dozen large smokes under your belt, you'll develope your own tecnique that works for you and your smoker. I started out with one like yours, but mine was a left side firebox.

I don't use it as much anymore, I use this one now days.

in the bottom pic, you see a cheap oven therm on the grate, along with a digital in a block of wood. a few probes in meat that is within a couple hours of being foiled. That whole load of meat takes the same time to do as 1 butt. As long as the meat is surrounded by good heat/temps and nice tasty smoke, your product will be the best it can be.

Hope the info helps.

capt dan · Feb 17, 2009

here is my first baffle and plate set up, made at least a 60-70 percent difference.

Here is a nicer baffle, and different plates, I later went to solid plates with 1/2 inch spaces in between(no pics of that).

from a buick 8 · Feb 17, 2009

Thanks for all of the advice. I have put some new therms in the hood (one on each side). I know that was problem was keeping the temps up high enough (was around 195 to 225 most of the time). I had planned on getting some more remote therms I will get an extra one for the grate.

You baffle looked like a cut up cookie sheet, I have some old ones I will give that a try.

I have trouble finding lump in the winter around here. I will make sure i stock up next fall. When I threw on some whole logs I was able to get better temps (225 to 275).

I am going to try and do two shoulders like that about once a month, maybe throw in a brisket also.

capt dan · Feb 17, 2009

Yes the first baffle was the end of a cookie sheet. I found that the angle couldn't be too steep, or the draw suffered. If you search the charcoal forums, there are some better threads about some great mods that were done lately.

Once you can relatethe actual grate temp to the therms on your door, you will save alot of time opening and looking at the cheapies.At 250 grate and 300 on the door, you may think, well the door is 50 degrees hotter than the grate, but at 200 grate, you may still have 275 on the door, so its importan to do some notes in the beginning, after a few months, you'll know much better about the smoker.

ganny76 · Feb 17, 2009

Looks great. Points for you!!!

richoso1 · Feb 17, 2009

That's a lot of great meat you smoke up, congrats and thanks for sharing.

from a buick 8 · Feb 19, 2009

If i find a good deal, is it best to smoke the meat and then freeze it or should i just freeze half of it and then smoke what is left.

capt dan · Feb 19, 2009

its more economical to smoke it all probably 4 butts max for your cooker, might hafta rotate some to do that.Helps hold the heat in too if ya have more mass in there. My Lang cooks12 -14 butts max, unless I want then touching and want to do a lot of shuffling. The meat is always better tasting if the cooker is full. I think they like each others company!

.

Probably has more to do with the fats and grease dripping down onto the convection plate and sizzling and mixing with the smoke.Pulled pork freezes very well, especially with a vac bags. Date the bags for reference.

bigbaldbbq · Feb 19, 2009

It looks good.

irishteabear · Feb 19, 2009

Looks good. Nice job.

cowgirl · Feb 19, 2009

Nice job Buick! Looks mighty tasty!

fired up · Feb 19, 2009

Nice looking pork!

smokingscooby · Feb 19, 2009

Great Looking Q!! Nice job

jwbbq · Feb 20, 2009

I'm far from expert yet but I also had temp problems when using my SFB at first. The secret for me (which someone here told me...sorry I don't remember who) was airflow.

I was so worried about it getting too hot that I had all of my vents closed down too much...which in my case was at all.

Now not only are all my vents open but I also pull out my fuel drawer a little for even more air. It's made a huge difference.

My biggest smoke yet.

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