I doubt that you can fit them all at once and that would be a huge heat sink which would be hard to keep up to temp. Personally, I'd do two nights of smoking then reheat in the oven and serve. Or borrow another smoker and do 50-50 in each, or if you can rent a larger smoker that would be cool as well.
I was thinking about bringing my second smoker. The one I started out on, a Char-Griller E1224, it still works. I was leaning that way but just wanted to see if it was possible with just the Highland. I pretty much just got it and haven't pushed its limits yet. I enjoy smoking on the spot and then serving so I definitely want to do it same day.
I did 4 baby back racks last Sun. laid out normally off to the left. I do have the diffuser plates with the water pan sitting under the racks closest to the firebox. Haven't had meat all the way to the firebox yet. I did rotate the ribs closest to the fire after smoking for 2 hours when I wrapped them in foil. Turned out good. The 4 racks were done in my normal amount of time. Do you think that it would extend cooking time if I did all 10 racks at once?
If you have a method of moving your smokers to your work site for the cook that isn't going to cause you too much trouble then I would say go for that and then you can be certain to have better results. In my case, I have no way to transport my smoker to work with no truck. Being 200lbs also makes it a challenge to move too much anyway. I would not feel worried in the slightest to cook ribs all the way to about 5" from the firebox. With rotation at wrap time I am confident there would be no trouble. With those vertical racks It seems like 10 slabs would actually be manageable. I may have to look into that myself.
Oh yeah, that's exactly what I want to do. I've got racks coming from Amazon that will hold 5 per on the side like that. What kind of cooker is the second picture? Did you have to do anything differently than normal? Time, fire size, etc? Can you give me any tips? Looks awesome.
The other cooker is about a 40 year old end firebox style with a tuning plate. My racks have a lean to them so if you spray during the cook, the juices run down freely, and they are taller which helps to stop a rack from curling. I usually start with the thinner edge down in the rack, just as a precaution against a rack getting stuck. The only real difference is a longer recovery time on the pit because you are putting so much cold meat in at once. Once the pit temp comes back, they cook just like they normally would if you were cooking 3 or 4 racks. The spacing between racks allows for good heat flow. I do rotate the entire rack once to even out any doneness. And if your smoker has some uneven heat zones you might have to turn some racks over. You can probably see if that is happening after a couple of hours or maybe you can leapfrog one rack over the other.
Awesome, that makes sense. I'll do that then, so the extra flavoring I add during the wrap doesn't just slide down. Guess I'm just going to bring my main smoker then. All the info. everyone has given has mad me confident to do it.
