I am having a fire management issue while cooking today's pork butt - advice needed, please

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Daba's BBQ

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
Jun 24, 2021
340
227
Metro NYC
7/14 - 8:23 am EST

Good morning everyone

I am in the process of smoking a 5-pound pork butt. I placed it on the grill around 7 am after the temps hit around 275-285 degrees. It has now been cooking for 1 hour and 20 minutes. I am using three probes. One in the pork and the other two monitoring the temps in two different locations under the hood. Currently, those probes are reading 246 & 259.

The temps drop constantly and since 7 am, I have added 3 chunks of post oak and a second helping of lump charcoal. At this rate, I'' go through an entire bag of charcoal and one 10-pound of wood. Is such fluctuation normal? Is this the amount of wood and charcoal I will be going through every single time I want to cook? If so, it seems like a huge waste of money and time.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thank you.

Peace

PS - just as I finished typing this, the temps dropped to 219 & 233
 
Sounds normal to me. I have one of the thin metal offset smokers and it is one hungry cooker. I use it more as a grill now and let my pellet cooker do the smoking.
 
I just put it up for sale on Craigslist, Offer Up, and FB Marketplace

Anyone interested, LMK
 
If you can cook on that you can cook on anything. It is a wonderful way to learn how to manage a fire. Then you will really appreciate a more expensive cooker when you get one, but you will never NEED to! There are a lot of us who like to cook on different cookers & like the challenge of learning a new cooker. Every time you do you add to your knowledge base. Good luck, and give that cooker another chance. Maybe try a chicken this time. There are also a lot of mods that you can do to improve the performance of your smoker.
Al
 
If you can cook on that you can cook on anything. It is a wonderful way to learn how to manage a fire. Then you will really appreciate a more expensive cooker when you get one, but you will never NEED to! There are a lot of us who like to cook on different cookers & like the challenge of learning a new cooker. Every time you do you add to your knowledge base. Good luck, and give that cooker another chance. Maybe try a chicken this time. There are also a lot of mods that you can do to improve the performance of your smoker.
Al
This!.....

If you want to save coals and such it will be way more efficient to smoke in the main chamber. IE put the fire box grate in the left half of the cooking chamber and put the coals on that side and then put your pork on the far side. You will use way less fuel and have lest fluctuation....but really its not an issue to go from 220 to 275 rolling up and down....very normal!
 
I put it on the offset around 7-7:30 am and moved it to my Traeger around 10:30 am. I wrapped at 12 noon and the internal temp hit 203 at 1:30 pm EST. I just now wrapped it and it will rest in my cooler until 5:30 pm

Here is the final product
 

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I put it on the offset around 7-7:30 am and moved it to my Traeger around 10:30 am. I wrapped at 12 noon and the internal temp hit 203 at 1:30 pm EST. I just now wrapped it and it will rest in my cooler until 5:30 pm

Here is the final product
Looks tasty to me.....Nice work!
 
I put it on the offset around 7-7:30 am and moved it to my Traeger around 10:30 am. I wrapped at 12 noon and the internal temp hit 203 at 1:30 pm EST. I just now wrapped it and it will rest in my cooler until 5:30 pm

Here is the final product
ty
 
This!.....

If you want to save coals and such it will be way more efficient to smoke in the main chamber. IE put the fire box grate in the left half of the cooking chamber and put the coals on that side and then put your pork on the far side. You will use way less fuel and have lest fluctuation....but really its not an issue to go from 220 to 275 rolling up and down....very normal!
Al, that is actually a pretty damn good idea. Kinda like a horizontal Weber Kettle
 
I wouldn't sell it. It makes a great grill and cheap offset style smoker.
Load the CC full of coals and grill then use the FB as a warmer or fire for cast iron skillet.
I wish I could justify a thick wall offset as a homeowner.
 
The butt looks really good from my vantage point. Nice job on that new smoker.

Point for sure
Chris

I put it on the offset around 7-7:30 am and moved it to my Traeger around 10:30 am. I wrapped at 12 noon and the internal temp hit 203 at 1:30 pm EST. I just now wrapped it and it will rest in my cooler until 5:30 pm

Here is the final product

ty

For the life of me. I don't think I've ever seen a member thank themselves on a post. :emoji_laughing:

Chris
 
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The butt looks really good from my vantage point. Nice job on that new smoker.

Point for sure
Chris



ty

For the life of me. I don't think I've ever seen a member thank themselves on a post. :emoji_laughing:

Chris
The TY was to those who replied to me; pretty simple explanation
 
The TY was to those who replied to me; pretty simple explanation

I was just joshing with ya. Thus the laughing emoji. I realize that's what you meant. However it's not how it reads.

Chris
 
No worries. I had a very rough day of smoking. But it did turn our amazing

All good on my end

Peace
 
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