Think I know the answers but you guys are the professionals, got one waiting in the fridge for tonights marathon smoke-a-thon
Meat will absorb smoke as long as you apply smoke to it . The smoke ring quits forming at around 140 degrees F. if you wrap in foil and use towels for insulation ,You shouldn't dirty a cooler. Foil at 160 -165 w/ some liquid and back on the heat till 200+ .Wrap in heavy foil into an ice chest insulated w/ towels or a blanket for at least an hour and it should stay hot for 4 or 5 hrs.Meat cannot absorb much smoke after 140f, I would foil at around that temp. My most recent butt, I smoked until 145f, and brought the butt inside and finished in a 5qt crockpot. A covered crockpot is very close to foiling. It's also well insulated, so at your desired temp of let's say 200f, you cut the heat and now you're in the resting stage, right in the crockpot compared to dirtying up a cooler. You can even pull your pork right in there and after it's done, if your crockpot has a warm setting, when you're ready to serve your guests, turn it to warm.
Foil at 140*? Don't like any bark? It's been my experience that it takes 3 to 4 hours to reach 140*, not really a lot of time to develop much bark. And usually that's just about long enough to get a spritz or two in. Do you wrap yours at 140*? How does resting a double foil wrapped butt, in two towels, dirty up a cooler? There may be some rare situation that comes up causing someone to finish in an oven or crockpot as you suggest, but IMO, shouldn't be the norm. If it is the norm, might as well start it in the crock and get you some liquid smoke and give a neighbor the smoker. Just sayin.Meat cannot absorb much smoke after 140f, I would foil at around that temp. My most recent butt, I smoked until 145f, and brought the butt inside and finished in a 5qt crockpot. A covered crockpot is very close to foiling. It's also well insulated, so at your desired temp of let's say 200f, you cut the heat and now you're in the resting stage, right in the crockpot compared to dirtying up a cooler. You can even pull your pork right in there and after it's done, if your crockpot has a warm setting, when you're ready to serve your guests, turn it to warm.
I've been bumping my propane smoker up to about 240* for butts. As someone else mentioned to me before on here, 225* is good for ribs. At 225* it does take time to reach temps, for example my last butts I done 2, 9 pounders, one finished in 11 hours and the other 12 hours and this was at 235* to 245*. Previously at 225* a 9 pounder could take me upwards of 15 hours. I've went back to foiling mine at 165* because I had difficulties getting out of the stalls on 3 or 4 straight smokes. As others suggested, try both ways and see what works best for you.When using my Charcoal Smoker, The pork turned out great, now that I'm using a propane smoker and able to dial the temp to 225 on the nose, It takes FOREVER to get to temp, My pork this weekend never hit above 170 and I had to serve it like that..... With the charcoal, i would get temp spikes all the time 250,300,200,etc and it cooked in 6-8 hours and tasted GREAT.... I'm beginning to wonder if the perfect temp is my achilles heel. Yes, I have calibrated the thermometers
I agree with Bear on this. Most importantly don't forget the qview and to send a sample to the two of us for uh "quality control" is what we call it this weekI agree with the "foil at 165˚" crowd, but "RdKnB" said it best in---"[color= rgb(24,24,24)]I suggest you try it both ways and pick the one that suits you."[/color]
Bearcarver
Ok...has anyone ever tried to
Smoke to 165. Then foil to 200, then take out of foil, apply some more rub, and put back on the smoker till 210? Seems like you might get a nice extra bark sorta burnt ends style