Cooking a Pork Side

[Install4u]

Hello all, I am very new at cooking with a smoker and I have a few questions for some of you guys.  I am cooking a Pork Side right now and I wanted to know how long should I cook this thing.  I had to cut it in half to fit it in the smoker and it is about 10 lbs.  Also what is the deal with flopping meat over.  I have not read anything about doing this.  Now this piece has the skin on it so I did flip it after it has been in there for 3 hours.  Is this right?  I plan on cooking it for around 8 hours and the only thing that I know to do is to keep checking it until the internal temp is about 180.  I would love to hear some commits on this.  One more thing the door temp reads 225 I have read not to trust this so how are you getting your temps right?  Using another gauge on the vent is just getting the top rack temp is this better?

Thanks,
Russell

[tsquared]

The way most people handle temperature is to buy a dual probe thermometer with a remote readout. The Maverick 73 is popular and works well. One probe is for box temp, hung underneath one of the racks and the other is placed into the thickest part of the meat. I would back off on the box temp if I were you, down to about 210 or so.
T2

[Install4u]

Wow, I just thought that I would let everyone know how this turned out.  By far this was the best thing I have ever cooked in my BS.  The 10lb pork side had to be cut in half to fit in the smoker and it took 8 hours to cook.  I just used common since an a meat thermometer to tell me that it was done.  I decided to add a large link sausage about 3 hours before it was time to pull it off and that was great too.  For any of you who would like to cook one of these I would strongly suggest that you do.  I found out everything that I needed to know right here on this sight to help me out.  When I added the sausage to the BS, I turned the heat down to 170-180 so not to break up the fat.  I also put the sausage on the top rack so that I could open the damper if things got to hot.  When the sausage reached 154 degrees I pulled out.  I let it cool while I turned the heat back up to finish the pork side.  When it reached 180 I pulled it out.  Even thou the pork side has the ribs, back bone and the skin on it there was still lots of meat to go around.  There was the top area where the chops are cut from, the side meat (sometimes called string meat), and the tenderloin.  This was like a small pig pickin for 8. 

Thanks for everyone posting here because it is Beef Ribs next.  I will let you know how they turn out.

[Oldman]

Install4u
Greetings and welcome to the forums. How do you plan on doing your beef ribs?

Olds

[threerivers]

Now that there's funny - I don't care who ya are!

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