Please check out my timeline. My first overnight cook, and I'm not happy about it.

[fendersrule]

I'm cooking BBQ for the neighborhood. Well, not for the entire neighborhood, but my family that's relocating up here as well.

I want to knock it out of the park. It will be my second attempt at brisket. My first attempt was perfect, until I held it in a warming oven that was reading too high for 12 hours. Instead of it being 150, it was 190. This time, I will not make that mistake again and will use a meater while it is in the oven with an alarm.

I got a pork butt, 3 st louis ribs, and a brisket. No screwing around here! I'm really not happy about having to stay up overnight, but I'm not sure of how else to do it. Really want to keep my pellet grill out of it. Wood-smoked only, with using my Weber Smokey Mountain as a crutch to gain more space.

Food to be served on Sunday at 5PM.

Please take a look at my schedule and critique it. I don't want to take any shortcuts if it impacts the quality. However, if there's an obvious shortcut I'm missing, please let me know.

Saturday - Saturday Night:

BRISKET

• 7PM- Start brisket on Oklahoma Joe
• 2AM- (estimated) wrap brisket and place in WSM w/ meater alarm.

2:30-5:30AM (estimated) SLEEP

Sunday

BRISKET

• 5:30AM- (estimated) Remove brisket from WSM and place in warming oven w/ meater alarm. Hold until 5PM @ 150F

PORK BUTT

• 6AM- Start Pork butt on Oklahoma Joe
• 11AM - (estimated) wrap
• 2PM - (estimated) finish. Hold in warming oven.

ST Louis Ribs

• 8AM- Add Ribs to Okalhama Joe w/ Pork Butt
• 12PM - (estimated) wrap
• 2PM - (estimated) rest

Basically, I'm able to give myself 3 hours of sleep total.

 

[fendersrule]

I've never cooked a pork butt on my offset. I was planning on it being a 8-hour cook @ 225-250F. Am I underestimating this?

I've been reading that I maybe I should plan for a 12 hour cook with a porkbutt. Plus, pork butt can be held, so no downfall at all if it's done any faster! Maybe I can throw the pork butt in with the brisket...and that may work out to being more sleep for me?

 

[02ebz06]

You didn't say what temp you are cooking at.

Why don't you want to use the pellet grill?
Would make life a lot simpler for this project.

I don't think you can get a pork shoulder done in 8 hours at 225-250f.

If I were doing that (I would use pellet grill) I would put the brisket and pork shoulder on at midnight at 275f and go to bed.

A remote thermometer with an alert would be able to tell toy when you get to the 160-165f stall so you cane get up and wrap.

Both should be done around noonish.

Take them out, FTC them, the put the ribs in. Should be done around 4:00pm.

 

[clifish]

I might delay the ribs till a bit later, I don't think they benefit from a 3 hour rest. Others will chime in I am sure.

 

[fendersrule]

Temps are going to be ~250F

New plan below. Changes:

1) Cook Butt and Brisket Together. 12 hour+ meats
2) Slightly delay St Louis Ribs.
3) Total sleep time improved to 5.5 hours (nice)

Saturday - Saturday Night:

BRISKET + BUTT

• 7PM- Start brisket & Butt on Oklahoma Joe
• 2AM- (estimated) wrap brisket and butt and place in WSM w/ meater alarm.

2:30-5:30AM (estimated) SLEEP

Sunday

BRISKET + BUTT

• 5:30AM- (estimated) Remove brisket and butt from WSM and place in warming oven w/ meater alarm. Hold until 5PM @ 150F

6AM-8:30AM (estimated) SLEEP

ST Louis Ribs

• 9AM- Add Ribs to Okalhama Joe
• 1PM - (estimated) wrap
• 3PM - (estimated) rest

 

[schlotz]

What will be the trimmed weight of the brisket? Assuming the butt is around 9#. If pulling the brisket when its done/tender via probing, I would leave it open on the counter for at least 10 minutes or more looking for a drop in IT of 5-8º before wrapping it back up and placing in the oven. You want to stop the cooking before the rest. Make sure both meats are in an aluminum pan to secure any juices. Personally I would start the ribs a bit later, say 10am.

 

[fendersrule]

Trimming brisket soon!

Butt weight: 7.65 lbs

Brisket weight (untrimmed): 12.1 lbs (small guy). Should loose 2-3lbs post trim.

Yep, I usually leave meat on the counter for 20-30 minutes before moving to warming oven.

I like the idea of using aluminum pans!

I'll wrap everything in paper, no foil, so even more reason to use pans. Hell, I could use the pans not only for the warming oven, but may be a good idea to use inside of the WSM as well since that's a bottom-up cooker--for both the butt and the brisket.

 

[schlotz]

Trimming will probably remove another 2-3 lbs. So a 9-10# brisket running at 250º might not take as long. Every brisket is different although prime or wagyu usually get done quicker than choice. The smaller butt might also get done quicker. BTW: you are using a calibrated thermometer to ensure your grate temp, correct?

 

[fendersrule]

I used a very similar smaller brisket last time, and it was an 11 hour cook (before rest and hold).

Yep, I'm quite fitted with thermoworks stuff. :)

 

[fendersrule]

My second brisket trim. This one was SOOO much easier to work with vs the first. There was hardly any "hard fat" on the fat side. I also decided to not trim aggressively. I made zero errors (didn't expose any meat on the fat side).

 

[fendersrule]

Spare ribs turned into st louis cut.

 

[JckDanls 07]

Since your wrapping (eventually)both meats... It could all be cooked in time with a 4am start ...
Sleep = most of the night ...

 

[fendersrule]

Since your wrapping (eventually)both meats... It could all be cooked in time with a 4am start ...
Sleep = most of the night ...

4AM would probably stress me out though. Brisket = 11 hours (if it cooked exactly like it did last time, similar weight).

4AM + 11 Hours = 3PM. That would mean a 2 hour rest (not bad), but also that would mean starting exactly at 4AM. Likely I'd need to get up at 3:15 AM to start the offset.

Basically, you'd have zero leway starting at 4. I am wrapping with butcher paper, not foil.

One other thing is my offset capacity is pretty low. With the current plan, I'm able to maximize the time spent with it on the offset. If I started at 4AM, I'd have to move the brisket off the offset by 9AM to make room for the ribs (5 hours total on offset). With the current plan, the brisket stays on offset for 7 hours.

I like your thinking though. I don't think it's a bad idea either. It's basically a zero buffer option. Prepare to do texas crutching if needed. The negatives are two hours less smoke time on the offset and removing buffers, but would allow for getting decent sleep in one go.

I think what I may do is to actually forgo the usage of the WSM. Place the meat back on the offset after wrapping, then just stay up until 4AM or whenever need be. THEN to go to bed and not wake up till 8-9AM to worry about the pork ribs. That's another option.

I was thinking I'm working so hard to get good offset flavor, then putting in the meats in the WSM (with butcher paper) will inherently give it some charcoal flavor and may "taint" the offset flavor some. Only for like a 2 hour nap? May be better to just finish it on the offset. Thoughts?

 

[912smoker]

Lots of folks finish in the oven after wrapping with foil/pans. Not taking on any more smoke and not having to feed the fire.

Keith

 

[fendersrule]

Last pic is 4 hour mark.

 

[tpc74]

Looking good to me!!!

 

[JckDanls 07]

How did the night go ? As planned (which it never does) ??

 

[fendersrule]

Hey hey! Honestly, last night went mostly to plan! I decided to not fire up the WSM post the wrap phase and to just stay up and continue to use the offset instead. Instead of being done at 5:30, it turned out to actually be more like 7:00AM. So I was able to sleep for 2.5 hours last night, whew!

The pork butt did its usual stall at 165ish, then stayed in the 192-195F range with what seemed to be forever. Like, at least an hour. I decided to investigate when it was at 195F. Unwrapped it, then was able to easily pull out the bone. Not completely "fall out" pull-out, but like, "this is done" level.

The brisket I cooked until 197-198F. I remembered to flip it over after wrapping it to allow the flat to render faster. Honestly, nothing exciting with the brisket, everything went as planned there. I expect a wonderful brisket.

It was a 13 hour cook instead of a 11 hour cook. So staying up and getting it done prior paid off vs waking up the day of. I think cooking the butt and the brisket together may have extended the time a little.

I tried a "boat" method post wrapping, but it was unsuccessful which probably ate up about 30 minutes of cook time. I thought after wrapping the brisket and butt w/ butcher paper is try to put them in their own aluminum trays in hopes of saving more juices. What I found that happens is the aluminum trays block the convection in an offset, and completely "sheilds" the meat from the airflow. I removed them and instead only used the aluminum trays for the warming oven, which they are in now with an temp range of 142-155F.

What other things differed from the plan?. Once they probed tender, I decided to ignore the warming oven (deal with it when I wake up) and instead just place them in my inside oven (off) and let them naturally cool for 2.5 hours until I wake up to use the outside warming oven/calibrate it.

I have a pretty cool TV setup outside, so I watched 3 movies back to back. Went through a half bag of oak and a half bag of mesquite.

I'm doing a trick I learned from my neighbor. Treat pork butt like beef. SPG only and use beef smoking woods. It was the best pulled pork I ever had so it was truely a superb idea to cook the butt and the brisket together and treat them both like beef.

No pics of the meat, but I'll definitely take some when it's time to serve.

 

[fendersrule]

My wife woke up an hour before me and prepped the spare ribs that I trimmed to st louis ribs. I'll send some in progress pics after it passes the few hour mark. Each rib has its own rub and will be sauced differently.

Since we have a meat grinder, we learned that it made 500% more sense to just buy spare ribs, then trim them.

I went pretty heavy texas style with the brisket and butt, but these will be more Kansas? style? 50% hickory and 50% cherry.

 

[fendersrule]

Ribs are currently at 171-172F and it's 12:45 here. Keeping temps around 150F.

Easily another hour left on the cook, if not 1.5 hours.

I'm choosing not to wrap these as I think it would be a waste of time. Spritzing every 30 minutes or so. Going to start mopping at 185ish. Probably will pull em at 192F or whatever.

Plan for these is to let em cool a little on the counter top, wrap them in foil, and into the warming oven they go!