SmokeFest 2018!

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keverroni

Newbie
Original poster
Apr 18, 2016
12
27
I thought I would share some results from a day of smoking. My cousin and I both have smokers (mine is a Masterbuilt Dual-Fuel that I run on Propane, and his is a Masterbuilt Electric Smoker), and we keep talking about how we should just have a big day of smoking meat over at my place (hence the name we came up with: SmokeFest 2018). I hadn't had the chance to use my smoker in probably a year, so I was assuming everything would just be smooth sailing (more on this in a moment).

Friday night we set out to Costco and picked up all of the meats. We went with 2 boneless pork butts (2-7lb ones. Costco sells them as one pack, and he had never done a butt before), Chicken Legs (I had never done), Salmon (I had never done), full Brisket (10 lbs. Neither of us had done before), ABTs (He had never done), Breakfast Fatty (He had never done), Brussels Sprouts (Neither of us), and Mac and Cheese (Neither of us). Needless to say, this day was going to be a huge undertaking, and was going to involve some serious learning for both of us. We also were under time constraints, as our wives, his kids, and a couple of my friends were coming over for dinner at 6pm Saturday. We decided to fire up the smokers at 3:30am, putting the butts and brisket in mine, and then rotating everything else in and out of his with the Fatty going in first into his. We prepped the big stuff (butts, brisket, and fatty) before we went to bed so all we had to do was put them in the smoker.

We woke up at 3:30am, went out to start up the smokers, and his fired up just fine, but when I went to ignite mine, all I got was a huge fire shooting back at me underneath my smoker! Change of plans, put the butts, brisket, and fatty in the MES. Right after we got that all set, it started raining. Looked at the radar and it was going to be a while before stopping, so we had to build a makeshift shelter with a tarp, broken patio umbrella, and a bunch of bungees. while those all started up we found some videos and some old posts on here about what could be wrong with my smoker. Most likely culprit we found was spider webs got in the tube that the gas flows through, causing the blockage. We decided to wait until the rain stopped to try to blow them out, since other stuff didn't need to go in for a long while.

We pulled the fatty about 3 hours in, and it was perfect! We decided to throw the salmon in the MES since my wife had to go to work and we were going to eat it for lunch anyways. The smoker temp was about 230 and the salmon got done in close to 30 minutes! Note to self that we need to do it at a cooler temp (closer to 190) next time, so it can take a little more smoke before its done. Still came out really good.

Rain finally stopped for a bit, and we blew out the gas tube on my smoker, put it back together, and it worked like a charm! We were back in business with two smokers, rotating the smaller stuff in and out of mine. Now it was all going to come down to a matter of timing. We had a minor snafu, in that we had put all of our extra bacon on my gas grill to cook it up for the mac and cheese, and we walked inside and promtly forgot about it. 10 minutes later I look outside and the grill is on fire! Oops. No bacon in the mac and cheese.

Anyhow, all went well! We pulled the flat and point of the brisket apart at 195, cut up burnt ends, mixed with BBQ sauce, and threw those back in the smoker for another 90 minutes. we took the brisket to about 203 and pulled it out and let it rest for about 90 minutes before cutting! One butt was done about 5pm and then other one right at about 6pm. Let the first one rest for an hour and then it pulled great for dinner. We all ate off the first one, and I pulled the second one an hour later. Incredible day of smoking! total time was right at 14 hours from start until we pulled the last butt out of the smoker! Here's a bunch of pictures from the day!
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Nice work, that was one heck of an undertaking. Another few fests like that you will have smoked everything possible :P
 
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Righteous looking spread there!! Like Chile said, I instantly thought of a quote- Chief Dan George from Outlaw Josey Wales. "Endeavor to persevere"
 
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Only a true pit master would tell that story and have the phrase "Anyhow, all went well!" in it!

Looks like a great day, and fine food. Genius starting with a Breakfast Fatty to have while smoking everything else.
 
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Way to overcome those obstacles and put out a good looking spread. Nice Job.

Point for sure.

Chris
 
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Thanks all! It was a fun day, and I definitely learned a lot, which is the important part!
 
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