How many wood chunks?

[Charcoal Chump]

Usually I only smoke 1 pork butt at a time on my UDS and I usually add 3-4 chunks (depending on size) of smoking wood to the charcoal. This weekend I am going to try doing 3 butts at the same time, would I need to add more wood chunks or will the same amount be enough.
In my head I'm thinking stick with the 3-4 but just wanted some other opinions.

Thanks,

 

[motocrash]

A CC full of smoke is a CC full of smoke no matter what's in it.Stick with your normal.

 

[Charcoal Chump]

Thanks motocrash, that's what I had thought but then started second guessing myself.

 

[RiversideSm0ker]

Agreed, there is no need to add more wood than normal. If that works for you with one butt it will work with three. You may need to cook for a longer period of time to get all of that meat to the right temp but the smoke will still be the same smoke.

George

 

[Charcoal Chump]

Thanks George, good to know that it may take longer, hadn't thought of that.

 

[RiversideSm0ker]

Thanks George, good to know that it may take longer, hadn't thought of that.

I found this out myself last weekend. I cooked two butts at once for a group of folks to that I work with and they took 14+ hours to finish. That was running hot and fast over 250 the whole time. It may have been the larger mass that had to be heated and cooked at the same time or it could be that I was doing three rack of BBR at the same time. Needing to open the CC to rotate racks and to do the foiling and unwrapping may have been the difference in cook times. I can't say for sure. I just figured it was worth mentioning since three butts is a lot of mass and it seems logical that those might take longer to finish than a single butt.

George

 

[noboundaries]

Mass is a heat sink, absorbing heat energy. Three 10 lb masses will take as long as one 10 lb mass in the same smoker as long as the chamber temp is the same, say 250F. Now, you may have to open your vents more to keep the fuel putting out more energy to keep the chamber at 250F as the greater mass absorbs available heat. More air means more fuel will burn, which may be the only thing you'll notice. Cook times at 250F remains the same as one mass.

Opening the smoker to spritz, wrap, fiddle, or peek, will release heat energy that the burning fuel has to replace, which extends a smoke. This is more an issue on electric smokers. Opening a smoker can have the opposite affect too. It can fuel the fire with an influx of air, causing more fuel to burn and the smoker to run hotter. I run into this with my WSM when I'm doing a low n slow smoke and need to open the lid for some reason (check a temp or remove one hunk of meat while another keeps smoking).

 

[Charcoal Chump]

noboundaries that is some great information, thank you for that.

 

[RiversideSm0ker]

Mass is a heat sink, absorbing heat energy. Three 10 lb masses will take as long as one 10 lb mass in the same smoker as long as the chamber temp is the same, say 250F. Now, you may have to open your vents more to keep the fuel putting out more energy to keep the chamber at 250F as the greater mass absorbs available heat. More air means more fuel will burn, which may be the only thing you'll notice. Cook times at 250F remains the same as one mass.

Opening the smoker to spritz, wrap, fiddle, or peek, will release heat energy that the burning fuel has to replace, which extends a smoke. This is more an issue on electric smokers. Opening a smoker can have the opposite affect too. It can fuel the fire with an influx of air, causing more fuel to burn and the smoker to run hotter. I run into this with my WSM when I'm doing a low n slow smoke and need to open the lid for some reason (check a temp or remove one hunk of meat while another keeps smoking).

I can verify that I definitely had to use more fuel cooking two butts and three racks of ribs at the same time then it does if I am just cooking that one pork butt. I went through an extra bag of charcoal in fact. It was an eye opening experience.

George