1st butt today

[Shiner]

Well I did my first butt today. I went to the local butcher and asked him if he had any as I never saw them in his meat cooler. He said he did but he cutes them into shoulder steaks. I asked him for one and he brought me this huge butt still cryovac. $2.00 a lb, came to $22.00. I started to preheat the smoker at 7.00 am temp outside was 2C. By 8:30 Am it reached 255F. Had the butt in by 9.00 AM. Gave it 5 hrs of smoke. By 9:00 PM it was 190F, pulled it and FTC fo 11/2 hrs and pulled it. It is excellent. Now the thing that I am wondering is how some of you guys start the smoke at night and let it go all night. The bowl has to be emptied several times and refilled. Besides the fact that I am afraid off fire. I have the smoker 3 ft inside my garage with the door open. Sorry no pictures

Shiner

[smoker pete]

You sleep with one eye open, sneak a cat nap here and there, stay awake and drink a lot of coffee, set the alarm clock for every 2 hours, etc.  ...  or all the above  ;D  ;) ... one of benefits of being a butt addict!!  Your family and friends will thank you and you'll love doing it for them  8)

[Salmonsmoker]

Shiner, if I read your post right, it sounds like you're rolling smoke the whole time. If that's what you're doing, you only need to roll the smoke for a maximum of 4 hrs. Many do less. A lot of us also use the rectangular disposable type aluminum pans in a larger size than the water bowl that comes with the smoker. You can get a lot more water in it for dousing the bisquettes on the long smokes. Also, once the meat reaches 140F it seals and won't accept anymore smoke, so any smoke after that is wasted. You can rig up a "smoke stack" with 4" expanding aluminum duct to get the smoke piped out of your garage. One end sitting on the smoker exhaust and the other end outside and higher. Convection will will move the smoke up and out. No exhaust fan required.

[TedEbear]

Now the thing that I am wondering is how some of you guys start the smoke at night and let it go all night.

By substituting the small water bowl for a 9x13 aluminum pan you don't have to refill it nearly as often. After I'm finished wit the 3-4 hour smoking portion I empty out the spent pucks, refill it with fresh water and let it go until it is finished cooking.

I have a Maverick ET-732 and I set the high/low chamber temp alarms to warn me if there's a grease fire or if the heating element goes out.  Then I place it close enough to my bed where it will wake me if the alarm sounds.

[Shiner]

Actually I only smoked it for 5 hrs. And let it cook the rest of the time. I did put an aluminum tray below the butt to catch all the drippings, but I forgot to put some beer in it so I could not use the drippings later. I have been thinking of rigging something up so I can smoke in the winter it does go to minus 30C here. I have been thinking of buying a 900 watt heater as the recovery was very slow in yesterday's temperatures. Do you know where I could get one? I live near Edmonton AB Can. You guys are sure a great group, I have been lurking for months and learned lots. Thanks very much.

Shiner

[Habanero Smoker]

I do overnighters with the small bowl. There are two things that I do. I trim the butt so that the fat cap is no thicker then around 1/8". Secondly, I start my butt at around 8 PM, empty the bowl after the smoke has been applied, and refresh the water; this is around 12 midnight. Go to bed wake up around 4:30 - 5:00 AM, and there is plenty of water still in the bowl, and very little grease.

[Consooger]

I do the same as Habs, with a few exceptions. I normally roll 5 hours of smoke and have a medium sized pan and fill it with apple juice. I normally start my butts around 6 roll smoke and then refill and  then off to bed. Wake up refreshed and normally have time left on the Butt. By the time I wake up the butts have hit the stall or close to it.