Live-updates: setting up first smoker and smoking a pulled pork shoulder!

[ewanjackson]

 
I am no legend except for in my town. My cooking is pretty popular here. I just cooked for a 300 plus person wake the other day and I may have gained some noteriety with my smoked mac and cheese. All ten gallons of it gone in 15 minutes lol.... 

Hahahaha!

Got bored while waiting so I made a cute graph to show the temps over time. Definitely not a nerd! Hahaha

47c66b7758d093c748997a37010cb8e4.png

• ewanjackson
• Mar 24, 2015

 

[timberjet]

 
Yes it has risen 149 - 154 in over 30 minutes so definitely hit it.

Smoker has just dropped slowly to 219 F. Any tips, or just leave it as it is for now? There is a good amount of charcoal in the bottom, I guess it's just the low outside temp that may be affecting it.

21:00

Meat 154 F (stall time)

Smoker 219 F (went down 6 F in about 15 mins so not too much to worry about I guess)

give the smoker a little shake to get the ash to fall through to the bottom of the ash pan. It builds up and chokes the fire a little bit. That will solve your problem. You might have to do it every few hours depending on how good your charcoal is.

 

[timberjet]

Maybe just rap on the side of the bottom part a couple times.

 

[ewanjackson]

 
give the smoker a little shake to get the ash to fall through to the bottom of the ash pan. It builds up and chokes the fire a little bit. That will solve your problem. You might have to do it every few hours depending on how good your charcoal is.

OK I'll give that a go now. The stuff I bought is a no-name brand really, but it was the first briquettes I found in 5 shops, and wasn't exactly the cheapest stuff!

21:15 - 3 hr 45

Meat 156 F

Smoker 216 F

 

[timberjet]

 
OK I'll give that a go now. The stuff I bought is a no-name brand really, but it was the first briquettes I found in 5 shops, and wasn't exactly the cheapest stuff!

21:15 - 3 hr 45

Meat 156 F

Smoker 216 F

Again, wade might be able to steer you to good charcoal where you live. He is pretty knowledgeable about charcoal smoking and uses Weber smokers.

 

[ewanjackson]

 
Again, wade might be able to steer you to good charcoal where you live. He is pretty knowledgeable about charcoal smoking and uses Weber smokers.

Ah yeah good shout.

Shook it up a bit, and took a 10 second look inside - there doesn't seem to be too much unlit charcoal left :( I bought a full 5kg 11lb bag and used all of it so I thought that should have been enough. Let's wait and see though :)

 

[timberjet]

Well, I unless you can get more charcoal I would just go until you run out and foil and head for the oven. Once you foil it won't get any smoke anymore anyway. Just set your oven for 225 and finish it there. That's what I do when I foil. Saves on charcoal and you can get a good night sleep. Just set your maverick to go off at 200 or whatever you are shooting for. You will know when it is done if you do the probe test starting at around 200. Poke it in the center and if the probe goes in very easily it is ready for the 2 hour rest wrapped in foil in a dry cooler with some towels. This is the most important part in my opinion. I can't wait to see the end result. I did a chuck roast last week and made 11 pounds of charcoal go for 22 hours at 225 in this smoker.

my uds.jpg

• timberjet
• Nov 16, 2013

 

[timberjet]

But, I will tell you it was probably 50 degrees outside so with your near freezing temps you won't get that much mileage. Some of the members here recommend getting a welding blanket to wrap your smoker in when it's cold out. I will see if I can find a picture of how that is rigged up.

 

[timberjet]

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/172952/using-the-wsm-in-bad-weather

 

[ewanjackson]

Dang nice one.

21:45 - 4 hr 15

Meat 156 steady

Smoker 214

Will give it a final shake and then have to admit defeat for tonight. Shame as the weather was in the 60 F ballpark earlier in the day.

You mentioned the Maverick in the oven. How exactly would I manage this? just probe in and wire out of the door?

 

[welshrarebit]

I've been following this thread and timber jet has been giving you some great advice.

Just a couple of tips from me. If you can find a charcoal grate for a 18.5 kettle in your area you can tie wire it to the WSM ring and have a charcoal basket. This way when you're doing a long smoke you can take off the smoke chamber grab the charcoal basket with a pair of tongs and lift one end and give it a good shake and get all the remaining charcoals to one side and refill it with new charcoal and a couple of chunks of flavor wood. Now you've got a reloaded minion basket.

Is also say that you have to keep the cover on because when it rains the lid will catch it all and fill up the bottom of your smoker!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[timberjet]

 
Dang nice one.

21:45 - 4 hr 15

Meat 156 steady

Smoker 214

Will give it a final shake and then have to admit defeat for tonight. Shame as the weather was in the 60 F ballpark earlier in the day.

You mentioned the Maverick in the oven. How exactly would I manage this? just probe in and wire out of the door?

Yep that mav. wire will be fine like that. Just don't let it touch the element in there. I use mine in the oven all the time.

 

[ewanjackson]

Ah yeah good shout on that. I do have the grate + ring that you mentioned. Might have to get some wire to do as you show.

Shaken up the coals and there were about 1/4 at the back that weren't even lit it seems. Gave it a good move with a spoon and a lot of the excess ash fell through.

Back up at 239 F for the last 5 minutes so maybe it has a new lease of life. Think part of the problem was that I had to run all 3 bottom vents at 100% open to keep it above 220 and the massive amount of oxygen has just burnt the coals a lot quicker than normal.

22:00 - 4 hr 30

Meat 154

Smoker 239 but getting to the end.

 

[ewanjackson]

 
Yep that mav. wire will be fine like that. Just don't let it touch the element in there. I use mine in the oven all the time.

OK brilliant. Thanks :D

 

[ewanjackson]

22:15 - 4 hr 45

Meat 154 (down 2 F)

Smoker 230 but going down consistently.

 

[timberjet]

 
Ah yeah good shout on that. I do have the grate + ring that you mentioned. Might have to get some wire to do as you show.

Shaken up the coals and there were about 1/4 at the back that weren't even lit it seems. Gave it a good move with a spoon and a lot of the excess ash fell through.

Back up at 239 F for the last 5 minutes so maybe it has a new lease of life. Think part of the problem was that I had to run all 3 bottom vents at 100% open to keep it above 220 and the massive amount of oxygen has just burnt the coals a lot quicker than normal.

22:00 - 4 hr 30

Meat 154

Smoker 239 but getting to the end.

A lot of fuel is burned trying to heat that water in the water pan. That is why us cold country smokers don't use water in the winter months. Actually I never do unless it is 100 degrees out and I am trying to keep the temps down.

 

[dukeburger]

I've been following this thread and timber jet has been giving you some great advice.

Just a couple of tips from me. If you can find a charcoal grate for a 18.5 kettle in your area you can tie wire it to the WSM ring and have a charcoal basket. This way when you're doing a long smoke you can take off the smoke chamber grab the charcoal basket with a pair of tongs and lift one end and give it a good shake and get all the remaining charcoals to one side and refill it with new charcoal and a couple of chunks of flavor wood. Now you've got a reloaded minion basket.

Is also say that you have to keep the cover on because when it rains the lid will catch it all and fill up the bottom of your smoker!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nice idea!

 

[backyardsmokin]

 
Hahahaha!

Got bored while waiting so I made a cute graph to show the temps over time. Definitely not a nerd! Hahaha

47c66b7758d093c748997a37010cb8e4.png

• ewanjackson
• Mar 24, 2015

Naw, this isn't nerdy using excel to produce graphs like this is fun and a good learning.

Me on the other hand I am working on a tool/program that records the temp probes every 3 minutes then puts them into a database.  Then from there it will text me if/when the pit tmp is too high or low, food is ready or I need more pellets (I run a pellet smoker).  I am thinking 16 temp probes should be enough for something like this.  

 

[ewanjackson]

 
A lot of fuel is burned trying to heat that water in the water pan. That is why us cold country smokers don't use water in the winter months. Actually I never do unless it is 100 degrees out and I am trying to keep the temps down.

OK fair point, and definitely massively noted! Will for sure not use water in the next one and see where that takes me.

As it stands I have transferred it to the oven on 225 F. I don't see it as failing, just learning!

I would have taken another picture but I was rushing to get it into the foil wrap and into the over to avoid as much heat loss as possible, but boy does it smell good.

Currently back up to 156 F and hopefully stable to rise when it wants :)

36a8cc6f88afcea678088ec50a8a7eb0.png

• ewanjackson
• Mar 24, 2015

 

[ewanjackson]

 
Naw, this isn't nerdy using excel to produce graphs like this is fun and a good learning.

Me on the other hand I am working on a tool/program that records the temp probes every 3 minutes then puts them into a database.  Then from there it will text me if/when the pit tmp is too high or low, food is ready or I need more pellets (I run a pellet smoker).  I am thinking 16 temp probes should be enough for something like this.  

16 probes lol!

I could actually code something like this very easily - something like a Windows Forms application in C# or vb.net would be so so simple to code.

Only problem would be how to get the data itself. Couldn't do it with a normal probe without some jiggery-pokery.