Packer for Thanksgiving

[JohnM70]

First of all: Happy Thanksgiving. Along with a turkey we decided to smoke a packer (at least I was told it was a packer) it is about 16 lbs. and although it is not my first it has been a while since I smoked one. My plan is to try some burnt ends and start the smoking today. I know Thanksgiving is a ways off but I plan to finish up sometime tomorrow 11/24. I am not going to serve the entire packer (most of it is for the warden an me and other special people) I just want to give them a little taste about a 1 /4 or so depending what the warden OK's.
My plan is to vacuum-seal and freeze the flat in a 2 or 3 large serving sizes and the point I may just keep in the fridge after the hordes have their fill 
I have read many of the posts by Habanero Smoker and Pachanga et al. one of the issues I had before was trying to figure out exactly where the flat and point are. From the picture you can see where the black line is that this is the flat. The red line sort looks to be where the point is. Am I close? I cannot see the fat line that separates the flat from the point although it appears the grain is perpendicular to the grain on the flat.  I will post pictures as the smoking starts.

[Habanero Smoker]

If you turn the brisket fat side down you will see a thick vein of fat, that vein separates the flat from the point. After it has cooked it is easy to find the fat vein while the brisket is fat side up. A knife will easily cut through the vein.

The Weber Virtual site seems to be down, but the below link also has a fairly good pictorial:
Basic Brisket Tutorial

[JohnM70]

Thanks Hab I wanted to leave the top fat cap unaltered but when I take it out tomorrow I will carefully look for it. I have seen the link you provided but it does not look like my packer. Right now we have 30MPH wind and the temp is 30 F on the deck. The tower is  at 207 in front of the Brisket. I will wrap in an blanket later, leaving the vent wide open. Right now the IT is 160 but ! could be close to a fat pocket. I will check with a thermapen and arrange the IT probes as necessary. Maybe I will post more pictures tonight otherwise in the morning.

John

[Habanero Smoker]

Once the brisket is done, the area where the flat meets the point should be easy to identify. The Weber site is back up. Their tutorial explains how to determine where the flat and point meet after it is fully cooked. You will have to scroll almost to the end and read the section "Separate The Point From The Flat".

Brisket Selection & Preparation

You are getting pretty good temperatures for the weather conditions you are experiencing. Your brisket may be finished by now, but besides taking measures to block the wind from entering the side and top vents, next time try closing the top vent to 1/2 to 3/4 open, you may see an improvement in temperature; especially in windy weather. If no improvement is noted you can always open it back up. Also if the conditions are too harsh, you can finished in the kitchen oven once the smoke has been applied, but some like to wait until the brisket hits an internal temperature of around 165°F.

[JohnM70]

Well let's start from the beginning. First I screwed up big time (like in biblical proportions) :'( everything was going well. The packer was approaching 165 F after only 6 hours and I figured I would check and reposition the temp probes. I use the Thermapen to find the lowest temp. Indeed there were areas which measured 135F so I repositioned the probes and closed the door I checked the mavericks and they were recording correctly. My wife was helping and I decided to wrap the tower with a packing blanket I had used last year with good success. I noticed that the water level was still up and steaming (I am using an aluminum pan which is larger than the bowel supplied) I decided that before I went to bed I would change the water and add some apple juice. I figured it would take some time to bring the tower back and I went down to the TV room to finish a program. The first mistake was I did not bring the maverick remote down with me (major FUBAR). As usual I fell asleep. About 90 minutes later I woke up and could smell the beef cooking. That was unusual I went up to the kitchen deck doors (the maverick was beeping and displaying HHH)  and saw a lot of smoke. I thought what the heck is going on the SG has been off for about 2 hours +. I had awakened my wife and she was on the way. I went onto the deck as saw the packing blanket was on fire and there was a lot of smoke. I removed the blanked and dropped on the deck (remember we had a 30MPH wind) the brisket was a charcoal mass. The flames were going crazy. I know I should not have done this but I got a large pitcher of water and though it into the tower.  The Water did the trick and the tower fire went out. There is more...
I turned around and saw the blanket was on fire without thinking I through it off the deck.  When it hit the ground it became a minor fire ball. My wife retrieved the fire extinguisher and I quickly hit the blanket with 2 blasts which put out the major part of the fire. 2 buckets of water later it was out and I did not need to worry about it blowing through the neighbors yards as it froze to the ground. I had unplugged the tower and PID but the tower was still hot I secured the door.
The Damage: 
The probe wires are destroyed, one maverick seems to work I have not checked. The PID seems OK. The SG looks ok (I think) but I will test later this week. The rack that the packer was on was deformed. The tower is going to the dump! The 900W element was trashed.
I thank God that I got there in time. My blood pressure is normal. I will test all of the support items to determine what I must replace.
This morning I cleaned most of the mess and was going to dump the packer, $60 worth, when my wife said to cut it open, I was looking at a charcoal mess, I cut it in half and was surprised to find that with the charcoal removed the meat was medium rare to medium and tasted OK. When we warm up some of the pieces I will add some apple juice to the package. I think we managed to salvage about 8+ pounds.
When I look back the errors I made were beyond the pale. The other reason I did not take the Maverick downstairs was that one of them kept dropping the signal (do you think I would have replaced the batteries?). I may post some pictures of the aftermath later when my embarrassment subsides :-[.
Right now I think I will purchase the 'Original Bradley' since the PID can control both the SG and tower and I am looking to try other things.
Again, I screwed up, the equipment works great.

[Habanero Smoker]

Sorry to hear about the fire, but fortunately no one was injured, and the fire damage seem to be only to the smoker. Let us know if you figured out what could have started the fire.

[JohnM70]

After reviewing all that had transpired, it appears that it was indeed a grease fire (duh). When I trimmed the fat cap I decided to save a little to make 'cracklns' (sp). Well it appears that when the fat on the top rack rendered there was too much fat and it dripped passed packer and landed on the on the drip tray. Which if I remember correctly was where the fire was coming from.
I have tested the SG and PID and all is fine. The final test will be with a new tower. Hopefully I will make a decision on replacing the tower and get back to Smok'n! :)
All of the probes have been replaced and I am in the process of replacing the fire extinguisher with three; one for the kitchen and two near the BBQ and smoker. The following pictures tell a sad story:

Things were progressing nicely.  The PID probe was moved to its proper position when the door was closed.


After the fire... A  nice nice lump of coal  >:( Surprisingly I was able to save about 8lbs.  ;D


Results of fire... just a little hot :-[


more.  :'(


All in all it could have been much worse!

John

[KyNola]

By looking at your photos it appears that the fire more than likely didn't start on the drip tray but from grease running down the side wall on to the smoke generator or down the back wall hitting the heating element, flaring up and then spreading to the drip tray. In your photo where the brisket is shown cooking, if you look on the left inside wall you will see the brisket is up against the wall.  You can see where it left an initial mark as the tray slid on to the rails. Hard to tell if the brisket is also touching the back wall.  It appears the fire ran up the left side wall as well as the obvious fire damage to the left side of your door where it came through the gasket. 

Another thought that could explain the drip tray is if the burnt pucks stacked up on themselves and continued to smolder, grease from the drip tray dripped on them long enough to ignite.

[JohnM70]

By looking at your photos it appears that the fire more than likely didn't start on the drip tray but from grease running down the side wall on to the smoke generator or down the back wall hitting the heating element, flaring up and then spreading to the drip tray. In your photo where the brisket is shown cooking, if you look on the left inside wall you will see the brisket is up against the wall.  You can see where it left an initial mark as the tray slid on to the rails. Hard to tell if the brisket is also touching the back wall.  It appears the fire ran up the left side wall as well as the obvious fire damage to the left side of your door where it came through the gasket. 

Another thought that could explain the drip tray is if the burnt pucks stacked up on themselves and continued to smolder, grease from the drip tray dripped on them long enough to ignite.

Great call and I appreciate the evaluation. I know the Brisket did not touch the back wall. We made sure of that when we put the meat in the rack. The smoking was done for about 2 hours and the pucks were not stacked up the last time I looked. I could see steam coming of of the water/grease (I had a 12" pan with water) the pan was not cloudy that is why I had thought I had more time, obviously not.
The SG had been off for about 2 Hrs. but I guess it would retain enough heat to ignite the grease coming from the left side of the meat. The scorching on the back may be where the fire started because the fat on the top rack may have been near the back of the tower.

Again thanks for your evaluation. I will see what my wife remembers and let you all know but I think you are spot on. I will be much more careful next time.

John

[Habanero Smoker]

For myself; looking at it, it is unclear as to how that fire started. With the blanket wrapped around the smoker, the flames shooting up the sides could be that was the main oxygen point for the fuel. Another observation is your drip tray. The front part looks pretty caked up. The drain hole could have plugged up and it is possible the fire started there. When smoking/cooking briskets and butts in the Bradly I always check halfway through the cook to see if the drip tray needs to be cleaned off a little. I keep a 2" metal putty knife next to the smoker to scrap off built up residue. The fire may have begun there.

Can you post pictures of the cabinet below the drip tray?

[KyNola]

Habs makes a good point about the drip tray.  It is pretty caked up and could have clogged the drain hole contributing to the fire.  Interestingly enough, if you look toward the back of the drip tray it appears to be fairly clean, can even see the surface of the vents reflecting the light.  I wonder if the excessive caking towards the front is the burnt fat from the brisket and the burnt fat that was on the rack above the brisket that all fell through the brisket rack and landed on the drip tray while burning.

Habs is also right about pics of the cabinet below the drip tray.  Those photos could be helpful.

[JohnM70]

Here is a picture below the drip tray. Unfortunately I had emptied the drip pan (aluminum throw away pan) after the fire was out and cooled down, although I managed to spill about 1/3 on the way down the stairs. As I said above  the water in the drip pan was not that cloudy and some steam was rising and I though I had some time before emptying the pan.
A lot of lessons learned... the hard way.  I am following your advice about the putty knife and I will add a large metal bucket to dump the pan water into. I do have a line on another tower but it is a wait and see.

Again thanks for your input. Everything you all said was common sense... I must have checked mine at the patio door.  ::)

John

[Habanero Smoker]

There doesn't appear to be any fire damage or as much damage under the drip tray. It is difficult to determine what could have caused the fire.

As for common sense, it often comes form experience. I ruined a couple of pork butts, because the drain hole got plugged. Although there was not a fire there was a lot of smoke, I caught it before it ignited. The pork had a strong burnt taste, even after removing and discarding the bark. I had to through both of them away. Another thing you should keep near by is a fire extinguisher.

I hope your plans on getting another cabinet work out soon.

[Old Dog]

Excellent analysis, sorry about your results. By writing up the events surrounding the fire, many others can learn, I sure did. I recognize some mistakes I make too. The drip tray issue is one that immediately will be addressed. :(
   Thanks again