How many pounds?

johnintx1 · February 24, 2005, 12:42:25 AM

How many pounds, of say pork butts, can you smoke at one time in a BS? Is the BS large e-nuf for a family get together?

Howdy Yall
Live to smoke,Smoke to live.
Smoke on!!
John Welch
Amarillo Texas

Chez Bubba · February 24, 2005, 01:04:52 AM

Depends on the shape of your butt![:D]

And the size of your "family".[;)]

Realistically, you're only going to get 1 per shelf & want to stagger them left & right. Most butts small enough to fit on the shelf are going to be 5-6 pounds. If you find a real flat one, maybe 8 pounds.

Last year for our Indy thing, we managed to smoke 110 pounds in 2 smoke sessions with 2 smokers. Sauced it, froze it & reheated in Indy.

Just be aware, you cram that much butt into the smoker at once & it's gonna be a 12-16 hour smoke, even longer if you FTC.

Kirk

http://www.chezbubba.com
Ya think next time I check into a hotel & they ask "Smoking or Non?" they would mind?

gotbbq · February 24, 2005, 01:07:41 AM

I'm with bubba- 1 per shelf is about right. we have put 2 per shelf but the time is much greater. Also the mass of the meat times a long time for the BS to heat up.

Gotbbq[^][^][^]

johnintx1 · February 24, 2005, 02:25:56 AM

Wouldnt a person put the meat in at close to room temp. and also have the BS perheated like a oven? Inst it really like a oven in the house,your baking with somke? or not? Does this thing hold enough food say 50 lbs of meat,or no? if no roughly how many lbs can you cook in one cooking session

Howdy Yall
Live to smoke,Smoke to live.
Smoke on!!
John Welch
Amarillo Texas

Chez Bubba · February 25, 2005, 12:18:50 AM

John,

50# would be pushing it. When we do our big smokes, we only put in about 35-40# per smoker, and that's pretty cozy. You need to allow for smoke & airflow around the product.

What you're smoking also has a lot to do with it. You're only gonna get one 15# turkey in it at a time. If you're doing chicken legs, yes, 40# is do-able.

No, you're not "baking with smoke", you're smoking. Baking would be at a temp of 350-400F, smoking is at 200-225F. Preheating the smoker helps, but when you open the door to put the meat in, WHOOSH, there goes all the hot air.

Now you have taken up at least 50% of the available airspace with room temperature meat (70F). The meat is so much denser than the air available to heat it, so yes, it will take a long time to bring it up to temp.

Your regular oven works on the same principle, it just has more power to recover quicker, becaused it's designed to bake, not smoke, and that's why there is a need for people to have seperate machines. If you cook a 16# prime rib in your oven for X hours, I can guarantee you it will take X++++ hours if you cram 8 of them in there.

HTH,

Kirk

http://www.chezbubba.com
Ya think next time I check into a hotel & they ask "Smoking or Non?" they would mind?

veggieman · February 25, 2005, 01:46:01 AM

Chez
On the subject of freezing and saucing for Indy. How long did you freeze your butts before Indy? Reason for asking, I will be smoking for my sons wedding in august. Planning on Pulled pork and Shredded bbq beef. Not sure what kind of beef, brisket or some kind of roast. Would like to get meat ready at least a month ahead of wedding,if not earlier. We will be feeding around 350 to 400 people. Any thoughts or suggestions on feeding a large croud. Also what kind of sauce did you use and approximately how much per lb.

Chez Bubba · February 25, 2005, 02:20:28 AM

Veggieman servin' meat?[:0]

We cooked, shredded, sauced & froze them within the month preceding the race. I can't say for sure how long is too long, but I did notice a distinct difference in the quality of some of the leftovers we reheated in July.

I'm sure we served over 500 people, but that was during a 12-16 hour period. (I forget what time I went to bed.[:I]) What we are going to do this year is pack it in Vac-U-Suck bags, then freeze. We'll take my turkey deep-fry unit & fill the pot with water. Toss the bags in to warm them, then tranfer to a crock pot as neccessary. (Thanks Rob)

With your situation, I'm assuming the food needs to be ready at the same time. I'm not real sure on how I'd handle trying to warm 100# at a time, other than I would make sure it's all defrosted before I try.

We used S&S's Vaunted Vinegar Sauce, 2 cups per 10# if I remember right. Key here is to test drive whatever you want to do in a small batch before committing to the final recipe. We also found it is better to make it less spicy than our taste prefers & provide a means to spark it up for those on our level as opposed to having too much heat in it that the wimpies can't stomach.

Good luck with the party![:)] I know where you can buy your son the perfect wedding present![;)][:D][8D]

Kirk

http://www.chezbubba.com
Ya think next time I check into a hotel & they ask "Smoking or Non?" they would mind?

Oldman · February 25, 2005, 05:42:30 AM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">We also found it is better to make it less spicy than our taste prefers & provide a means to spark it up for those on our level as opposed to having too much heat in it that the wimpies can't stomach.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Chez, I did not know you had met my wife~~! LOL!

http://rminor.com

Habanero Smoker · February 25, 2005, 10:28:24 AM

Veggieman;
I have vacuum sealed and frozen pulled pork with vaunted vinegar sauce for up to four months, and it tastes great. I never had the opportunity to compare frozen to just smoke side by side. I have also frozen sections of brisket for up to three months and the flavor was still good. I have had good results defrosting and reheating 8 lbs. of pulled pork. I just use a half-size aluminum steam table pan, cover it with aluminum foil and put it in a 300 degree oven; stuck an instant read thermometer through the top, and pulled it when it hit 165 degrees. If you do use vaunted vinegar, I suggest you added it just before you reheat the pork; and not prior to freezing it.

Chez;
If you are going to vacuum seal pulled pork that has been seasoned with vaunted vinegar, you may want to semi freeze it first. The first time I vacuum sealed pulled pork with vaunted vinegar, the sealer was sucking the juice out of the pork [:0].

johnintx1 · February 26, 2005, 05:23:28 PM

Thanks for the info and help.

Howdy Yall
Live to smoke,Smoke to live.
Smoke on!!
John Welch
Amarillo Texas

owrstrich · February 27, 2005, 03:54:55 PM

chezz bubba at the 04 indy 500 with woody and splinter...

http://img1.imagevenue.com/img.php?loc=loc170&image=5c8_chezzfriends1.jpg

http://img2.imagevenue.com/img.php?loc=loc271&image=b8c_chezzfriends2.jpg

did i mention ftc really freaks me out...

more without prejudice later...

owrstrich

Chez Bubba · March 01, 2005, 01:20:42 AM

Just a note to all of you here unfamiliar with Camp & Brew, ISP was there eating![:D][:D]

If you want to know more, www.campandbrew.com pretty much sums it up.
If you want the password to the good pics, email me. Sorry smokinrookiejr, you ain't gettin' it![;)][:D]

Kirk

http://www.chezbubba.com
Ya think next time I check into a hotel & they ask "Smoking or Non?" they would mind?

johnintx1 · March 03, 2005, 11:20:53 PM

Hey Chezz Bubba, I ordered the bubba pucks from your web site over the weekend,02-27-05. but I have not received them as of today 03-03-05. thank you,john

Just do it! Smoke on!!