Smoked Boston Butt OK Joe

[tag0401]

Made my first all wood(hickory and pecan) run on the OK Joe. Learned a lot. Temps were all over the place at first then after reading a few articles I starting cutting my splits into smaller 1 1/2 splits. This helped a lot! What really seemed to help the most was when I added a water on to the chamber next to the firebox. I have never put water in my smokers before but this seemed to tighten up the temp swings and make them less extreme. I will accept any advice on this.

Thanks

 

[kruizer]

Sounds like your are doing all the right things.

 

[noboundaries]

Water is a heat sink with a maximum temp of 212F (I'll leave atmospheric pressure and altitude out of the discussion). It absorbs available heat until it flashes to steam and expands 1700 times in volume, but the steam temp remains 212F (once again disregarding pressure and altitude). Water is the biggest reason your temps stabilized.

If the air in your smoker was saturated, your smoker would not go above 212F. But, that's not the case, so you can get higher temps, but not as high as a dry smoker.

 

[yankee2bbq]

Made my first all wood(hickory and pecan) run on the OK Joe. Learned a lot. Temps were all over the place at first then after reading a few articles I starting cutting my splits into smaller 1 1/2 splits. This helped a lot! What really seemed to help the most was when I added a water on to the chamber next to the firebox. I have never put water in my smokers before but this seemed to tighten up the temp swings and make them less extreme. I will accept any advice on this.

View attachment 459080
Thanks

Awesome job! Love that bark! And yes, you did good by using that water pan.

Water is a heat sink with a maximum temp of 212F (I'll leave atmospheric pressure and altitude out of the discussion). It absorbs available heat until it flashes to steam and expands 1700 times in volume, but the steam temp remains 212F (once again disregarding pressure and altitude). Water is the biggest reason your temps stabilized.

If the air in your smoker was saturated, your smoker would not go above 212F. But, that's not the case, so you can get higher temps, but not as high as a dry smoker.

Who knew you where a scientist?

 

[noboundaries]

Who knew you where a scientist?

Until this moment, I never gave it much thought that the word "science" appears twice in my degree!

 

[daspyknows]

Final product looks good