Smoking in cold temperature

[SmokinJiro]

Hi all,
I have recently moved where I no longer can smoke in my shed.  My unit will need to be left outside in the cold for overnight cooking.  Will there be any problems cooking and raising the temperature inside the smoker with outside temp dropping down to 20's and 30's at night? 

Thanks!

[iceman]

Welcome SmokinJiro;
I don't see any problem at those temps as long as you can keep the elements away from the unit. Rain, wind, condensation, etc. Wind will mess with the temps and rain is a no no for sure. Keep us posted on your adventures. Hope your recent move went off without a hitch. :)

[SmokinJiro]

Great. thanks for the info.

Does anyone know approx how long it will take to smoke a 16 lb pork shoulder under these ambient conditions: high 50 degrees, low 34 degrees

Thanks!

... Just trying to plan ahead to make sure there's pull pork on the table during family gathering  :P

[iahkaferoaster]

Rain, wind, condensation, etc. Wind will mess with the temps and rain is a no no for sure."

Man I sure did not want to have to clean the garage so soon. ahhh :'(

I am expecting 45F-77F for turkey day with 3-5 mph winds . I have my BS on a semi-covered semi-enclosed patio. Any particular precautions I should take?

[pipsqueek]

I smoked an 18lb leg of pork 2 weeks ago after curing. Ambient temp was about 50 and it took 8 hours to get to 145 deg F with the smoker set at max and the vent open 30 percent. I then left the joint to stabilise wrapped in foil and a towel for 2 hours. Excellent.

I have been told numerous times in this forum that meat will not take smoke after the surface temp gets to 140 deg F, about 4 hours of smoking. I suppose there would be no problem finishing off in the oven after this in a more controlled environment.

[iceman]

I suppose there would be no problem finishing off in the oven after this in a more controlled environment.

Absolutely correct. Nothing wrong with finishing off a smoke in the oven to get it up to temp. ;)

[SmokinJiro]

hmmm... never thought of finishing off the cooking in conventional oven!  I might just do that!

btw, I tried smoking some cheese last night... after an hour (3 bisquettes) later, when I went to check on my cheese, I noticed that there were 2 bisquettes on the burner!!!  the #2 bisquette did not get pushed off into the bowl.  Has this happened to anyone?

note: I do have 2 bubba pucks after bisquette #3

thanks for all the help!

[iceman]

Sounds like you got a case of the ole "STICKY BISCUIT SYNDROME" there SmokinJiro :D ;D
aka "STICKY BUNS" :o
Just kidding. That's the first I've heard of that one. Are you keeping the burner plate clean each use? Could be you had a crumbling on the side of one of the pucks when it dropped and couldn't push the spent one off the plate. ??? ::) Hmmm.... Just another mystery in the wierd and wacky world off smoke.

[West Coast Kansan]

I have had two on the burn plate at the same time... just kind of an alignment off the center of the ramp. Never had them get up on each other in some un natural act kind of way. 

Na really iceman is right about the debris on the ramp. Will cause the puck to rotate and move over to the side, the next puck pushing the first or second turns the other direction and when the pucks are offset there is plenty of room on the burner... not that i am confessing to failure to brush down the ramp once in a while.

[Habanero Smoker]

hmmm... never thought of finishing off the cooking in conventional oven!  I might just do that!

btw, I tried smoking some cheese last night... after an hour (3 bisquettes) later, when I went to check on my cheese, I noticed that there were 2 bisquettes on the burner!!!  the #2 bisquette did not get pushed off into the bowl.  Has this happened to anyone?

note: I do have 2 bubba pucks after bisquette #3

thanks for all the help!

There may be another reason. Sometime back, someone posted this problem and a solution. It had something to do with the motor not completing it's full cycle. I believed he fixed it by cutting off the power when it was halfway through the cycle and them restoring the power. Do a search on "advance mechanism" or "puck advance" or "bisquette advance". I hope it is debris, because using the search feature on this forum really sucks.

[manxman]

because using the search feature on this forum really sucks.

I second that, it is very poor.

[Wildcat]

It is difficult.

[Gizmo]

You might also want to check the alignment of the burner plate to the ramp.  Who ever assembled my unit had the burner plate mounted on top of the ramp on one side and underneath on the other side making the burner plate slightly higher on one side.  Never had a puck hang up on it but it could have.  I changed it when I noticed this setting the unit up for a cold smoke.  Both sides of the burner plate are now underneath the ramp.

[West Coast Kansan]

The following are links to previous posts that (if I did this right) talk about two on the plate at a time.  Some of which i dont see as a problem when a puck gets started early and is no longer big enough to puch the puck ahead into the water. As said above failing to advance a puck is a different issue. The last link is a pretty good description.

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=2256.0

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=2145.0

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=188.15

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=732.0

[SmokinJiro]

well, thanks to all the tip,  I checked, scrubbed, leveled, and now the unit is on a flat surface, with clean surface (had bunch of dried up charred pork grease) with no uneven surface between the ramp and the burner.

4 hours of smokin' later, had 1 bubba on burner, 1 on the #2 spot, and a bisquette on #3 spot. I was happy. 

Oh ya, and everyone loved the pork.

Thanks for the tips everyone!