Questions for biggest smoke yet

[ds7662]

On the 20th I will be assisting a friend with an October fest party. I have offered to let him use my 2 ECB's. The plan is to smoke about 5 pork butts and one beef roast. Total meat weight 43 to 48lbs.

Any cooking tips for this would be greatly appreciated, ex. how long to smoke and so on.

We will be using lump hardwood with hickory, mesquite, cherry, and apple wood available to use for the smoke.

Both ECB's have had the airflow mods done.

He wants to start at 8am and thinks it will be done at 5pm. I wanted to start at 6am and go till about 5 or 6pm.
Thanks

 

[deejaydebi]

Here a chart for times and temperature to help you out:

http://www.deejayssmokepit.net/Downl...emperature.pdf

 

[ds7662]

Thanks for the chart. Any other suggestions are or info would be great.

 

[richtee]

Yeah, if you depend on the chart, the Smoking Gods will plateau yer butt(s) Go over to the Roll Call forum, introduce yourself, tell us 'bout your experience and equipment, and sign up for the 5-day ecourse. You DO have a good meat themometer, right? THAT'S how you know when the stuff's done,not by X hours.
And read this thread- you'll find it interesting
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...?threadid=9175

 

[fatback joe]

Since you own 2 ECBs, I assume you have smoked before..........but I have been wrong before. I guess your concern is the volume........don't worry about it.......whether you are doing 1 butt or 10 butts the procedure is the same and the times are (about) the same. If your butts take 10 hours at 225 on average, for example, they still will. The only real difference is you may take more fuel to maintain your temps since you have a larger cold mass of meat in there than normal.

If you are trying to estimate finish times, just go off your estimate for the time of the largest butt.

Also, like Rich said.........go by temp not time. Use the time charts as estimates, but allow for stubborn meat

Hope that helped.

 

[ds7662]

Ok thanks for that info as well. I have just been smoking for about 4 months now. I have smoked several chickens, ribs, 1 pork shoulder and 1 pork butt. Just not all at the same time. I guess I was just concerned more about the quanity.
Now as far as the 5 day e-course already did that. AND yes I bought a good meat thermometer and also replaced the one's on the ECB's with a real thermometer.

Thanks for the info again

 

[gypsyseagod]

ya didn't say how many ya were feeding. can ya elaborate ? if it's octoberfest & ya got german/polish folk ? i'd try to bulk buy some brats, german tater salad, smoked saurkraut & maybe corned smoked beef/pork.- it's up to you but the best serve for the buck.most meat per serving for the investment.

 

[ds7662]

Well gpsy we are not quite sure how many there will be. Somewhere btwn 50 and 80 I guess. The meat and beer we are providing. Others have been asked to bring side dishes as long as they are German in nature.
Was buddy's idea to smoke the pork. He is paying for it so I am giving him use of my smokers since he has no real smoker.(Has a weber charcoal that he can do indirect with)
Meats/Main dishes are:
5 pork butts- 40 to 45lbs
1 beef roast 5lbs - saurbraten that will be smoked
9lbs of bratwurst
9ilbs of keilbasa(not sure on speeling)
9lbs or knockwurst
German saurbraten stew- 10lbs beef
A couple of fattys.
Oh and hamburgers and hotdogs for those that dont like the other stuff.
The sides once again are up to everyone else

 

[walking dude]

what kind of ecb's?

the regular ones..........or the gourmet model like this one?

d8de

 

[walking dude]

also.........all that meat on just TWO ecb's?

to get all done at the same time?


d8de

 

[ds7662]

The ECB's are the cheap brinkman's from walmart.
No not all the meat will be going on the smokers. We will have 2 gas grills and a charcoal grill to use as well. The main things we were looking to smoke were the pork butts and the beef roast. Although the mention of smoking brats sounds good. I guess what doesnt fit on the smokers will just go on the others. Not everything is going to be served at the same time either. This is set to be an all day/night event. We had not planned on serving the pork and the beef until dinner time. The other things will be served all day/night.

 

[walking dude]

wow..........how big the butts each?

cause, like what Fat Back said......you cook by temps......BUT, my 6 lber i did last weekend......and another the weekend before took 9.5 hours.........had to keep charchol fill, just thru that tiny side door, with the water pan sorta in the way..........wow...........

do a search for the minion method, if you don't know what that is.......that helps with extending the time of the charchol..........

chips or chunks for smoking wood?

chunks would be the best..........tho i have use chips in mine......i just set em a smoker box, that is used with gas grills...........werked out great......they didn't flame up that way...........like chips thrown directly onto the fire........

just make sure you take LOTS of pics.....we LOVE q-view


d8de

 

[ds7662]

Yeah, I know about the temps and I have a good digital meat thermometer, but only 1 of them. I know from my previous smokes that it seems to take longer than you think. My buddy seems to feel that if he cuts the butts in half it should shorten the cooking time. I have told him we needed to start early, like 4am. He feels like 8am is fine. To me I'd rather be safe than sorry.
I am familiar with the minion method and will be using it. As far as chip or chunks, we have both. We have hickory and mequite chunks and then we have apple and cherry chips. The chips we just wrap in foil and slit.
I will take as many pics as I can until the camera gets wobbly.

Thanks for all of your help

 

[walking dude]

yeap on taking enuff time.......you can always foil it and put it in a cooler.......wrapped in towels or blankets........the heat will hold for awhile.....or cook em the day before....the butts that is.......pull em........and just reheat the next day.........then you can do the roast on all the sausages in smoke...........



d8de

 

[ds7662]

Oh well he plans on just slicing so we dont need the 195* temp. He was actually a chef(now a cop), 2 cullinary arts degrees, and he is doing all the stuff for the butts. He was going to marinade some and rub some.
I am doing the fattys, The saurbraten, and the saurbraten stew.

 

[skinnerc06]

Where is this party taking place may I ask. HAH I might stop bye

 

[ds7662]

Just east of Richmond VA. Come on by the more the merrier. This is the 3rd, now annual Octoberfest we have worked on together. Each year gets bigger. As more people hear about it and want to come. 1st year 25, 2nd year 45, this year we expect 80, but as many as 100 might show. We have proffesional DJ(free of course).
I usually do a summer cookout at my place.

 

[deejaydebi]

Just remember times are always an extimate - a guide if you will and could go a few hours more but temperatures is the thing you need to watch.

If by chance they stay at the same temperature for many hours - that's normal don't panic.

 

[bigg125]

debi,
the cooking times chart is a godsend I have been wondering about that for a while now. thanks SMM

 

[badss]

Debi,
I'll double up on Bigg125 in saying thanks for the temp chart. Thats a bonus!