Smoke Going Right Now

[grande]

We had a lot of freezing rain in Buffalo last night & as a result, my work is without water for the day. They sent us home, so I decided that I would try to smoke the 4 pork butts that I was going to smoke overnight on Friday. I have the butts in the smoker, but they are a bit larger than I thought. Is it a big problem if I have the butts touching each other? I realize that it will be surface that is not exposed to the smoke but they are not pressed right up against each other. They are just touching a little bit.

Also, I noticed that I have to crank the power up on the electric smoker quite a bit higher to maintain my temperature with the 4 butts as opposed to when I only did 1 butt.

 

[fatback joe]

About the only big difference you should see is the lack of bark formation where they are touching. If that bothers you, you may want to rotate them every hour or two......but personally I would not bother. Probably would not be worth the heat you let out by opening the door.

 

[grande]

Actually my bigger problem is that I can only get my smoker up to 180°F with all of that meat in there. Plus it's only about 36°F outside. It looks like it's going to be very "low & slow" today.

 

[fatback joe]

Yeah, don't open the door to move them.........unless you are moving them to the oven. I think after a couple of hours in the smoke I would just finish inside if 180 is all the higher you can get..

Good luck!

 

[grande]

Life is getting better. As the temperature of the meat rises, I am able to get a higher smoker temperature. (makes sense) I'm running @200°F right now with 2 butts @105° & 2 butts @80°F. I think that I just needed to get everything warmed up a little bit. Thans for your help Joe!

 

[fatback joe]

Yeah, whatever you do, don't open the door to that damn thing. LOL

 

[grande]

I just spoke to my wife on the phone. She just said the same thing!

 

[fred420]

hope all went well...greetings frrom west seneca way.....................

 

[grande]

Everything is going well now. I'm running the smoker at a solid 230°. I have 2 butts at 142° & 2 butts at 130°. Life is good! I'll post a couple picture later tonight.

 

[capt dan]

As they get warmer(the butts) they will absorb less heat, and as they cook, they will get smaller and grow apart from each other. I would leave them, although after they get to 155-160, you may have to rotate them witht the ones that will be 120-130, unless you don't mind the 3 hr difference in finish times.

 

[kookie]

Waiting to see the q-view..........

Kookie

 

[grande]

I'd post a Q-view, but right now I'm at a 160° plateau & I need to get a couple hours sleep. I'll get a couple pics up tomorrow.