Need feedback on my first cook observations

[rbstern]

Did my first real cook on Sunday on my new/used P&S Ultimate Upright offset smoker. A 12lb turkey, a pork shoulder, and a couple of lean round beef roasts. Went about 6 hours. Had to move turkey to vertical chamber after about 5 hours to keep from over cooking. More about that in a moment.

Turkey and pork were moist and tender. The beef roasts had great flavor, but a bit dry. I expected that. Just not enough fat in them. Sliced thin, the meat is excellent for sandwiches. Very nice, smoky flavor in everything.

Some observations about the smoker's (and my) performance:

1) Maintaining an indicated 225 to 275 on the main cook chamber thermometer turned out to be pretty easy. Took about 40 minutes to get the rig up to temp (ambient air temp about 60 degrees). Adding a stick every 30 to 40 minutes was all that was needed.

2) Unfortunately, 225 to 275 on the standard Pitts & Spitts thermometer was 50 to 75 degrees lower than what was happening in the smoker (center and left side...away from firebox). Disappointing, because the P&S thermometer's probe end is perfectly positioned at grill level, near the center. Should have been more accurate, IMHO. I was using a rack thermometer inside the smoker, and it was reading consistently much higher than the P&S thermometer: How fast the turkey cooked was the tell. The smoker was definitely running hot.

I moved the oven grate surface thermometer around the cooking chamber to verify what I thought was happening. Never moved it close to the firebox, but that section of the chamber was very hot. I had a small water pan on that side. Will probably use a larger pan in the future. Hoping to avoid needing to make a tuning plate.

Hoping for feedback on the following:

- Your own experience with factory thermometer accuracy, particularly ones installed near the grill level
- Should I be running a smaller fire? I had a good bed of coals throughout the cook, and typically one to two sticks (typical / avg firewood sized sticks, red oak) burning at a time. The firebox was by no means full, but it was running hot
- I ran the dampers most of the way open, trying to keep the smoke clear. Maybe 3/4 to 7/8 on the stack damper, and almost always all the way open on the firebox damper. The P&S damper is nicely designed for fine adjustments, but it's hard to tell, visually, how much of an opening there is. A few times, when I was getting high on temps, I dialed it back slightly and that helped keep things in hand.
- Last but not least: Recommendations for digital/remote thermometers? At this point, I need to build a knowledge base of what's happening on different portions of the grill, to aid in temp management of future cooks.

Thanks in advance for any comments.

 

[02ebz06]

Don't have an offset, so can't help with those questions.
But I've never trusted a thermometer in the lid.
Some are better than others, but I still don't trust them.
As for remote thermometers, I'm a fan of the Thermoworks Smoke (they have 2 and 4 port ones).
Have had them for several years and no failures.
The Thermoworks Signal is another one some here have.
Others here use InkBird.

 

[Chasdev]

Dialing in a cooker is always an adventure, you should probably try a fire with no meat and move the probes around to get data from different areas in the cook chamber.
Some guys swear by the "biscuit test" and it looks like that might offer some insight.
I installed high dollar analog gauges and they still read different than the digital probes.
Fact is, you can't know exactly where it's hot or not, more just the averages.

 

[Newglide]

I second the Thermoworks and not trusting the lit thermometers as well as the biscuit test. I haven't ever ran a P&S so what works for me may not work on the P&S.
Some may disagree with me but I nefer mess with the damper on the chimney, I prefer it to be wide open and make my adjustments on the firebox side. Dialing in a stick burner will take some time and each one is different. You can also experiment with fire placement, My OC Pecos works best if I move the fire closer to the firebox door rather than toward the cook chamber. Some people like using a fire basket to keep the coals contained and it also helps if you feel like you need to move them closer or further away from the cook chamber

 

[tallbm]

Did my first real cook on Sunday on my new/used P&S Ultimate Upright offset smoker. A 12lb turkey, a pork shoulder, and a couple of lean round beef roasts. Went about 6 hours. Had to move turkey to vertical chamber after about 5 hours to keep from over cooking. More about that in a moment.

Turkey and pork were moist and tender. The beef roasts had great flavor, but a bit dry. I expected that. Just not enough fat in them. Sliced thin, the meat is excellent for sandwiches. Very nice, smoky flavor in everything.

Some observations about the smoker's (and my) performance:

1) Maintaining an indicated 225 to 275 on the main cook chamber thermometer turned out to be pretty easy. Took about 40 minutes to get the rig up to temp (ambient air temp about 60 degrees). Adding a stick every 30 to 40 minutes was all that was needed.

2) Unfortunately, 225 to 275 on the standard Pitts & Spitts thermometer was 50 to 75 degrees lower than what was happening in the smoker (center and left side...away from firebox). Disappointing, because the P&S thermometer's probe end is perfectly positioned at grill level, near the center. Should have been more accurate, IMHO. I was using a rack thermometer inside the smoker, and it was reading consistently much higher than the P&S thermometer: How fast the turkey cooked was the tell. The smoker was definitely running hot.

I moved the oven grate surface thermometer around the cooking chamber to verify what I thought was happening. Never moved it close to the firebox, but that section of the chamber was very hot. I had a small water pan on that side. Will probably use a larger pan in the future. Hoping to avoid needing to make a tuning plate.

Hoping for feedback on the following:

- Your own experience with factory thermometer accuracy, particularly ones installed near the grill level
- Should I be running a smaller fire? I had a good bed of coals throughout the cook, and typically one to two sticks (typical / avg firewood sized sticks, red oak) burning at a time. The firebox was by no means full, but it was running hot
- I ran the dampers most of the way open, trying to keep the smoke clear. Maybe 3/4 to 7/8 on the stack damper, and almost always all the way open on the firebox damper. The P&S damper is nicely designed for fine adjustments, but it's hard to tell, visually, how much of an opening there is. A few times, when I was getting high on temps, I dialed it back slightly and that helped keep things in hand.
- Last but not least: Recommendations for digital/remote thermometers? At this point, I need to build a knowledge base of what's happening on different portions of the grill, to aid in temp management of future cooks.

Thanks in advance for any comments.

Hi there and welcome!

It seems to be a common thing that factory thermometers are just not good or placed in a useful position.

I recommended a 4 probe digital wireless thermometer like this Inkbird. I have it and it's great and Inkbird is an active sponsor here so it seems easy to get in touch with them if you have an issue. This thing will go on sale for sure during the holiday sales:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H4J1K8Z/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

As for the other stuff, it's all guess work until you get good reliable temp readings at rack level in various spots on in your smoker.
You may not be able to improve the temp differences in areas BUT you will know if they are consistently there in those spots and if there is a consistent spread between spots.

Like in my MES40, the lowest rack right side front is the coolest spot, and the left side back is hottest spot. It's about a 15-18 degree difference between those 2 spots, and in dead center of the rack is maybe a 7 degree difference.
This is consistent and the same pretty much applies to higher racks BUT they are consistently lower temps than the lowest rack (closest to the heating element).

So knowing this, I know to put bigger cuts of meat or thicker portions to the hot side so everything cooks more evenly.

A 4 probe thermometer will allow you to figure out multiple temp spots AND still give you the ability to have a meat probe going.
Once you figure out your smoker you can just do a probe in the hot spot and one in cold spot and know you average between those while cooking.
You then use the extra probes for meat, which is helpful for hard to temp meats like a brisket (easy to miss the sweet spot in the flat, so 2-3 probes helps greatly).

I think the thermometer is the place to start so you can then accurately figure out if you need to make modifications and what they are :D

 

[rbstern]

Hi there and welcome!

It seems to be a common thing that factory thermometers are just not good or placed in a useful position.

I recommended a 4 probe digital wireless thermometer like this Inkbird. I have it and it's great and Inkbird is an active sponsor here so it seems easy to get in touch with them if you have an issue. This thing will go on sale for sure during the holiday sales:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H4J1K8Z/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

As for the other stuff, it's all guess work until you get good reliable temp readings at rack level in various spots on in your smoker.
You may not be able to improve the temp differences in areas BUT you will know if they are consistently there in those spots and if there is a consistent spread between spots.

Like in my MES40, the lowest rack right side front is the coolest spot, and the left side back is hottest spot. It's about a 15-18 degree difference between those 2 spots, and in dead center of the rack is maybe a 7 degree difference.
This is consistent and the same pretty much applies to higher racks BUT they are consistently lower temps than the lowest rack (closest to the heating element).

So knowing this, I know to put bigger cuts of meat or thicker portions to the hot side so everything cooks more evenly.

A 4 probe thermometer will allow you to figure out multiple temp spots AND still give you the ability to have a meat probe going.
Once you figure out your smoker you can just do a probe in the hot spot and one in cold spot and know you average between those while cooking.
You then use the extra probes for meat, which is helpful for hard to temp meats like a brisket (easy to miss the sweet spot in the flat, so 2-3 probes helps greatly).

I think the thermometer is the place to start so you can then accurately figure out if you need to make modifications and what they are :D

Agreed. Have an Inkbird 4 probe unit on order. Hope to have it in use by my next cook. Will be interesting to compare the readings to the analog thermometer in the same spot.

 

[tallbm]

Agreed. Have an Inkbird 4 probe unit on order. Hope to have it in use by my next cook. Will be interesting to compare the readings to the analog thermometer in the same spot.

Oh I bet the analog is waaaaaay off.

Also you can test your probes by running them in boiling water and they should read at or very near to 212F (depending on elevation).

You then will know if you are dead on or like 1-2 degrees low.
Don't submerge the back end of the probe though, they are not mean to be water proof.
I put mine in a gallon ziplog bag, I wear an oven mitt, and then I dip them to test them. Works like a charm as long as you don't stab through the plastic bag :D

 

[rbstern]

Doing a cook today, with an Inkbird and four probes installed. The center/grill level analog gage is consistently low by 75 degrees. My cheapie oven grate surface temp gage is low by 25 degrees. Important to know and explains why my turkey cooked so fast last weekend. I was running too hot a fire. Feeding it smaller splits, at a slower rate, is making the temps much more in line with what I want.

On a positive note, the left side and center of the grill are consistently within 10 degrees of each other.

Appreciate the feedback. The learning continues...

 

[jcam222]

I'd buy a good remote multi probe thermometer and rely on it for pit temps. You can use that putting probes in multiple areas to understand the heat distribution as well. Most smokers will have hot and cool spots. Once you know where they are you use them to your advantage.

 

[tallbm]

Doing a cook today, with an Inkbird and four probes installed. The center/grill level analog gage is consistently low by 75 degrees. My cheapie oven grate surface temp gage is low by 25 degrees. Important to know and explains why my turkey cooked so fast last weekend. I was running too hot a fire. Feeding it smaller splits, at a slower rate, is making the temps much more in line with what I want.

On a positive note, the left side and center of the grill are consistently within 10 degrees of each other.

Appreciate the feedback. The learning continues...

Yep an accurate multi probe thermometer reading is the 1st step to consistency. Glad it's helping out so much alread!

FYI, if you want turkey and chicken skin to not be leather you will want to smoke at a higher temp anyhow (325F smoker temp should do it).
But at least you know you are smoking at a higher temp for them :D

 

[Chasdev]

Last thing is that placing cold or ambient temp meat in the cooker will lower the readings on the probes, so let her run for a spell before increasing the heat output into the cook chamber, you could end up too hot waiting for the internal averages come in line with the incoming heat level.
It helps if you gain a mental map of how much fuel it takes to get to a certain temp (at least in a stick burner), preheat the cook chamber then place the meat and let it cruise for a while before tinkering with heat input changes.

 

[rbstern]

Did a five hour cook today (pork ribs, venison neck roast). Managed to keep the temps in the 250 to 280 range the entire cook, with an easy pace of adding a split every 30 minutes or so. Food came out great, had a nice meal with extended family and friends. The Inkbird is an indispensable tool.