Newbie - How do you determine how long it takes to smoke something

[Rich_91360]

Most of the recipes I have seen discuss what the internal temperature of the final product should be.  How do you determine prior to smoking something how long it will take.  How do I ensure I will have food ready reasonably around when I wish to eat without having to prepare in advance (day before or more)
Is there some basic rules of thumb

[FLBentRider]

Most of the recipes I have seen discuss what the internal temperature of the final product should be.  How do you determine prior to smoking something how long it will take.  How do I ensure I will have food ready reasonably around when I wish to eat without having to prepare in advance (day before or more)
Is there some basic rules of thumb

I don't think we have it in one place, but some general guidelines.. How much smoke you apply is up to you. most apply 2 to four hours, some more, some less...

bear in mind that the ambient temperature and the load in the smoker have a large bearing on these times...

pork butt - 14 to 24 hours or more

brisket - 12 to 20 hours or more

whole chicken 3 to 5 hours

pork loin 2 to 4 hours.

Also, a lot of these items are just as good if not better re-heated the next day - the smoke flavor has a chance to mellow and distribute in the meat.

[classicrockgriller]

Rich, the nice thing about some of the bigger cuts of meat is that if you

plan ahead and allow yourself plenty of time to smoke/cook and it finishes early,

You can "hold" the warm finished product in what is called FTC. Foil (2 layers),

Towel (wrap up the foiled product in one or two towels), Cooler (a roomed

warmed quality cooler, like a 5 day cooler).

You can "Hold" your product from 1 hr to 5 hrs or more.

FLBR has stated some excellent info for you.

The IT will tell you when it is done.

Doing a smoke for a set time is a hard thing to judge sometimes.

Just give yourself plenty of starting time to finish properly.

[FLBentRider]

The other thing that just occurred to me:

In the "meat" (beef and pork, as opposed to poultry) category there are really two different types:

tender and not tender

Tender - Rib roast, filet, pork loin, etc

Not tender - brisket, chuck, pork shoulder(butt), etc

The tender cuts you are going to take to a "traditional" doneness IT - like 130 for medium rare for example.

The non tender cuts have various amounts of connective tissue(mostly collagen) that will need a low and slow treatment to be broken down into gelatin and water. These are the ones that you cook longer and to the higher IT - 190-200F for pork butt/beef brisket.

[Tenpoint5]

They Guy's have you pointed in the right direction. How much smoke is up to you. most use 2-4 hours in the Bradley anything after that is considered overkill. Although there are some that will give a brisket or butt a little after shot of smoke for the last hour of the cook time.

[Rich_91360]

Thanks.  This provides some good 'estimates' to work from
Will keep the blog informed on my progress.

Rich

[oldsweat]

Hello, new to this and just want to say thanks for all the info, reading is the key I guess.  Plan on doing 2 chickens this weekend, so more to learn.

BTW, my first smoke was rib eyes with an hour of smoke and finished on the grill, nothing left on the plate, just awesome!

[classicrockgriller]

Hello, new to this and just want to say thanks for all the info, reading is the key I guess.  Plan on doing 2 chickens this weekend, so more to learn.

BTW, my first smoke was rib eyes with an hour of smoke and finished on the grill, nothing left on the plate, just awesome!

That is a nice smoke anytime.

Smoke/grilled Ribeye, yum!