Worried about temp differences in offset?

[daveman92789]

I'm sure I'm not the only one wondering about temp differences in an offset smoker & if its possible to utilize the entire cooking surface. I have done countless research & mods about my smoker. Spent hrs doing dry runs with 4 temp probes trying to figure it out. Well today I took a risk & I'm glad I did. I have an OC pecos & today I put 5 butts on totaling 38lbs. Yes I did have to rotate meat but only twice. I discovered from center of smoker to firebox my heat comes from the bottom & from center of smoker to exhaust my heat comes from the top. I left the original baffle in & let her ride only watching one thermometer & I'm glad I did. I just wanted to share my story because I've been wondering this very same thing. Get out there, let her ride, & have fun. By the way 1 butt is 9.9lbs, 3 butts are 7.5lbs, & 1 butt is 6.5lbs.

 

[sawhorseray]

I'd imagine you got some company coming to help eat some of that meat, looks good! RAY

 

[daveman92789]

I'd imagine you got some company coming to help eat some of that meat, looks good! RAY

I do. It's my son's 1st birthday.... I put all the pressure on myself to make this big cook so hopefully it turns out good. Butts are sitting at 195 so haven't tried it yet. I'll post pics of the finished product when we pull into it in 1.5hrs....

 

[SmokyMose]

Man that's a lot of butt!
Unless you have a high$ reverse flow or something you're going to have a temp difference in your chamber, even with baffles. That's why I cook meats as far to the left as possible in mine and use the right side for things like beans or ABTs...
Learn your smoker and you can cook anything :-)

 

[daveman92789]

Man that's a lot of butt!
Unless you have a high$ reverse flow or something you're going to have a temp difference in your chamber, even with baffles. That's why I cook meats as far to the left as possible in mine and use the right side for things like beans or ABTs...
Learn your smoker and you can cook anything :-)

I agree 100%. Today I really learned mine. I thought I would never be able to use all of my cooking surface but today I did. Due to the diverter in my smoker the center is the hotspot & the outsides are the cool spot... even closes to the firebox... the pork was amazing is all I can say. After 4hrs I started rotating meat.

 

[Will Squared]

Learn your smoker and you can cook anything :-)

I'll Second That !

 

[Wildwill532]

Looks like it's got tons of flavor looks good

 

[daveman92789]

Looks like it's got tons of flavor looks good

It was probably the best pulled pork I've ever smoked. I wish I would have removed more of the fat cap. I left most of it on because I thought I needed it to protect the meat.... but I didn't. Nothing got burned. I ended up pulling most of the fat cap off after the cook. You can see some in the bowl with the bones. There was so much juice that I had to pour some off....

 

[SmokyMose]

It was probably the best pulled pork I've ever smoked. I wish I would have removed more of the fat cap. I left most of it on because I thought I needed it to protect the meat.... but I didn't. Nothing got burned. I ended up pulling most of the fat cap off after the cook. You can see some in the bowl with the bones. There was so much juice that I had to pour some off....

Yeah, it's easy to pick out the big pieces of fat while you're pulling it. I believe the fat adds flavor through the meat while cooking.
Some folks here make a finishing sauce using that leftover juice to add to the PP, but I never have.
Looks awesome, daveman! I'm picturing a bun with some BBQ on each half with a generous pile of that Pork and a dollop of Cole Slaw...
:-)

 

[daveman92789]

I thought i would also share some interesting finds when doing my cook. I had 6 different probes all around the cook chamber so i could really see the flow of heat... especially with that much meat in the chamber.... I drew up a little diagram in autocad to reflect how i saw the heat traveling through my cook chamber...
My findings were that the heat deflector in the cook chamber really does save the meat from direct heat. From center of the cook chamber to the firebox all my heat comes from the bottom and from center point to the exhaust stack the heat comes from the top. I think this is important to know because everyone talks about measuring the temps at grate level.... i could understand that with ribs but when you start talking about a thick piece of meat like a pork shoulder or brisket theirs unmeasured heat running across the top.... The meat is still getting cooked and is still getting exposed to high enough temps to cook it. With this experiment i discovered grate level temps isn't always an accurate measurement because 2" above the grate that temp can be way different. during my cook the butt in the middle was 9.9 lbs and the butts on the outsides were 7.5 lbs. all the 7.5 lbs butts got done at the same time & they were on opposite sides of the chamber... p.s. one of the butts was 6.5lbs... but you get what I'm saying

Per the diagram you can see that i do have temp differences but the important thing i found here is that didn't matter. Everything got the same amount of color and i think that probably has a lot to do with air flow. everything cooked at 1hr per pound except for the big guy. he cooked a little faster. it only took 9hrs for that one....

Your cooker may flow different that mine but this is how mine works and i would have no problem cooking this much meat again....

one little trick i found years back running a charbroil offset and found it to be true on this OC pecos is an analog thermometer on the firebox... I have found on my smokers that the firebox temp drops before the cook chamber temps drop... my firebox running 400 degrees gives my 275 in my cook chamber. the firebox can drop down to 350 before any temp changes in the cook chamber... so once i see my firebox temps drop i add a log. by doing this i can keep my cook chamber steady... maybe someone can test this out on they're smoker and see if it helps them maintain temps....

 

[Will Squared]

Thank you Daveman.