BB's yesterday, Butt and Picnic on right now :)

[smokefever]

Ok so this is my first run at a boston butt and shoulder picnic. It slept for 16 hours in the rub and I injected them both with pure maple syrup. Yesterday I noticed a hotspot close to the SFB so I decided to put an aluminum roaster pan full of water to cover up the gap where all the heat was going to. I put them on @ 930 this morning and am using a combination of Hickory and Apple chunks for smoke.

An hour and a half into it, the internal temp of the butt was 70. I took this opportunity to spray them both down and turned them over but didn't rotate. I then added half a chimney of charcoal as my smoker was sitting at about 195 steady. I will take pics @ the halfway point and then when finished so stay tuned!

 

[pineywoods]

I would suggest kicking the heat up to the 225-250 area those cuts of meat will take the heat just fine. Good luck with your smoke

 

[smokefever]

Awesome, thats exactly what I was looking for. One concern that I do have is that yesterday I bought a bag of mesquite chunks from walmart as a last resort since my shipment of wood hasn't come in yet. I opened it up and it looked like mulch lol. It was horrible, so I had to use that to get me started this morning, but then went to lowes and got some hickory and apple. Those of course are much better sized then what I got yesterday. I put a big chunk of hickory in when I got back, and then more charcoal. My question is, when should I see that I need to reload with the bigger chunks? Do you pretty much do it when the smoke is dying down?

 

[pineywoods]

Your looking for that thin blue smoke or no real smoke and just the smell of the wood. When you no longer see a whiff of the blue smoke or you no longer can smell the smoke add some wood.

 

[smokefever]

Yea, I got the thin blue smoke part, but it doesnt last too long. When I went out to check, the wood was smoldering so I just threw 2 more on there. I'm just tryin to not make the common rookie mistake and have too much smoke in there. I really appreciate the help

Just checked on them and almost 3 hours in, the temp of the cooker is holding steady @ 250

 

[pineywoods]

Sorry I can't be of more help I use either propane or straight wood in my smokers. I'm sure others will chime in with better help

 

[smokefever]

Just figured I would give a little update as to how things are going with this smoke. So far it is about 11.5 hours in and they are holding steady at 138. Cooker temp is still 235. Do you think I am still on pace for removal @ 1230/130?

 

[jaso]

i start my cook with charcoal and then nothing but wood after that about the time the wood starts to fall apart into coals I add more wood ! Good Luck can't wait to see the qview

 

[smokefever]

Thats exacty what I've been doing (minus the all wood part). I will definitely have to try that next time to compare the two.