And here...we....go.....

[Tenpoint5]

You could always start early in the morning go to bed and get up normal time and slide the last pucks. That's what I usually do

[FLBentRider]

You might still want to rotate the rack front to back, since the back of the box is hotter than the front.

[db14]

You might still want to rotate the rack front to back, since the back of the box is hotter than the front.

Yeah, I planned on that, I was just thinking if there were two racks the bottom rack would get considerably more heat and smoke.  This way the two should be even, even if they're not individually.

You could always start early in the morning go to bed and get up normal time and slide the last pucks. That's what I usually do

I could also add a little extra time to the smoke if I wanted a little extra sleep.

[db14]

Meat just went in at 11pm CT.  By the time I got the Mav wires situated and and the door closed I was at 96F in the cabinet.  The meat temp was at 50F.  I've got 5 hours of smoke ready alternating 2 hickory to 1 apple.  I'm off to try and get some sleep and will be checking up on it a the end of the smoke stage, about 4am.  Till then I will leave the slider at max and would be surprised if it would manage to get over 220F in the next 5 hours anyway.  I'm planning on keeping it around 210F when I can.

[classicrockgriller]

It will be great db.

[DarqMan]

Meat just went in at 11pm CT.  By the time I got the Mav wires situated and and the door closed I was at 96F in the cabinet.  The meat temp was at 50F.  I've got 5 hours of smoke ready alternating 2 hickory to 1 apple.  I'm off to try and get some sleep and will be checking up on it a the end of the smoke stage, about 4am.  Till then I will leave the slider at max and would be surprised if it would manage to get over 220F in the next 5 hours anyway.  I'm planning on keeping it around 210F when I can.

I hope you can sleep.  When I put my butt on last weekend at 1am I was up every 2 hours checking on it.  I guess is't a subconsious thing....

I think you're on track... it's going to be great.

[db14]

Yeah, I thought I was on track too.  After that first fours hours got up and checked it and the IT was only at 100F and the CT was at 130ish.  Thought that was low for both, but there was a lot of meat and a lot of water.  I added a couple more hours of smoke since the temps were still so low.  Just went out again and after 7.5 hours the temp was at 100 and the CT hadn't changed much.  I finally knew something was up and figured out that the power cord between the cabinet and the SG, although it looked plugged in, was slightly unplugged and I was getting no power to the heating element.  I've got it going now, but I hope things didn't get ruined.  Is the meat still safe after being at that low of a temp for that long?  If so, I essentially just cold smoked it, right?  How will that effect the tasted/bark and should add more smoke now that the heat is going?  I gave it a lot of smoke already and don't want it to be overbearing either.  Not happy.  I wish that little light was easier to see.

[Caneyscud]

I know the gov't in all their wisdom would start to hyper-ventilate, turn purple, and their eyes rotate in their sockets, but your meat is fine.  Two things on your side - the smoke and the fact that you will probably be cooking this baby to 195 or above.  Lets put it this way.  People pay big money in the white linen steakhouses of the world for steaks that have gone through the controlled putrification commonly called dry aging ----- and have those steaks rare or at least well less than the 165 deg min encouraged by the guvmint ----- and don't seem to mind or die.  My dad's side of the family are ranchers in the Hill Country of Texas.  My grandmother lived to be 95, my great grandmother 101, my great great grandmother 98 or 101 (there is some debate), my great great great grandmother 96.  When they slaughtered a calf (which was frequent), did it get eaten all at one sitting - no,  nor did they have refrigeration or ice.  They didn't die eating meat that had been left out for a few days.  Neither did the men - Grandfather 99 - old age, great grandfather - died relatively early probably with cancer, great great grandfather - don't know how he died but in 80's, great great great grandfather sheriff died in a shoot out.   I and a couple of my friends still leave butter and cheese out for days.  Sure tastes better that way than cold from the frig. 

But then again take note of who you are getting advice from.  My CB handle in the 70's was given to me by a friend.  It was Cow Patty Daddy - after picking up a sandwich I accidently dropped on a cow patty while quail hunting and then picking it up and eating it and made him turn green.  But then again I have only had stomach problems 3 times in my personally cognizant history - once at 7 my dad and I had the flu together and tried to outdo one another in....uhhh.....uhhhh..... projectile presentation of pea soup.  Once on our first cruise to Alaska when I went crazy with all that food - but no throne duty, and once on a Nile cruise I got weazy - but no throne duty.  All those gallons of jalapenos consumed throughout my life musta paid off!!!!!

[db14]

We're now 3 hours in with the heating element actually on and the CT is 204F and the IT is 146F.  We're getting somewhere now.  I'll need to rotate soon and start thinking about when I want to put the other probe into the second piece of meat instead of monitoring CT.

[KevinG]

Wear some gloves, I found out the hard way those things stay hot.

[db14]

Well, we're about 6 hours in and it appears that one is stalling already while the other one tries to catch up.  The smaller one has been at 165F for a while now and the big one has climbed up to about 150F.  It's gained about 10 degrees on the smaller on in about the last hour or so.  I went ahead and put the probe in the other piece btw.

[db14]

So here are the pics from the cooking.  The little one got done after about 11 hours (after I got the heat on).  The big one is at 189F right now.  I FTC'd the little one for two hours before pulling it.  It had a decent amount of fat in it surprisingly.  The meat was moist and tasted pretty good though.  We'll see how the second one turns out.

[DarqMan]

Nice looking pig!

[FLBentRider]

That looks great.

I assume it tasted as good as it looked.

[BuyLowSellHigh]

Looks superb!  Great work.  Bet it taste great too.