8 hour cook limit?

[Howdee]

I'm a newbee to this cooker but not to  cooking my favorite pulled-pork. Here in SC we cook whole hog, butts, etc upwards of 20 hours over slow wood coals. Some folks do whole hogs in about 6hrs. over gas but that just aint the same IMHO. Is there any reason these units are limited as claimed to 8hrs. other than the capacity of the puc magazine?

[nsxbill]

I just did two 6.5# butts last weekend.  I smoked the butts for 4 hours only.  The rest of the time, the meat was in the cabinet, heated to between 200-215.  They cooked for about 20-22 hours to an internal temp of 190 degrees.  At that time, the butts were removed, wrapped in foil, then a heavy bath towel, and sat in a Coleman cooler for about 3 hrs.  I opened the door about 8 hours in and rotated the bottom to the top, emptied the pan of expended pucks, filled with boiling water to get the temp up to my target cabinet temp again quickly.  That was it.  No more peeking until they came out.  Best butt I have ever had!

The folks at BBQ-Guru.com are making me a special controller right now that will allow me to set and forget, walk away from the unit, and not open it again until the meat is done.  It will bring the internal temp up to preset reading quickly(As quick as the lamp and puck heater will allow), then regulate the heat to keep the heat min 15 degrees(or whatever I set) higher than the meat temp.  I don't see a way of not opening the cabinet somewhere along the way to rotate the items being cooked, but other than that, the guru will free me up to do other things and not worrying about the need to go out and tweek the temp up and down.

Many of us use Maverick remote sensor to tell us what the smoker temp, and meat temp is.

I do not regret purchasing this, as best smoked meat I have enjoyed.

Bill

[Bassman]

Howard,
IMO, The difference is the Bradley seals in moisture as opposed to an open fire kind of smoker.No need for mopping or adding sauces. Just change the water half way through. I just smoked 4-5lb pork butts @220F with maple pucks and it took 13 hrs. to reach 185F.When I pulled the pork it just fell apart.Totally awesome[:p][][8D]

<i><font color="blue"><b>Jack</i></font id="blue"></b>

[bologna man]

Bill
Just a thought here what about drilling a 1/4 " hole in both sides of the cabinet, then put a spit through, then put the meat on the spit, that way no opening to turn the meat, I used a small piece of tape to indicate how the meat is turned. If you have trouble with the weight turning the meat to its heaviest point clamp a vise grips on to counter act the off balance. The reason I am saying this is that's what I did it works great, as for putting water in the pan I did this by removing the smoke generator then put water in the pan with one of the long spout watering cans and then replacing the smoke generator. I know this probably voids the warrantee but my unit is 4 years old anyhow.
Rod


Rod

[Oldman]

Howdee,

I've posted this before, but you are new and by now that thead is somewhere in site-heaven~~LOL!

I smoke my butts in a white T-shirt. I don't care for a heavy bark on mine. One half way through I flip my butts over.

This is the end results.


Cooking time vary here depending upon the size and the outside temp.
Olds

[BigRed]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by nsxbill</i>
<br />I just did two 6.5# butts last weekend.  I smoked the butts for 4 hours only.  The rest of the time, the meat was in the cabinet, heated to between 200-215.  They cooked for about 20-22 hours to an internal temp of 190 degrees.  At that time, the butts were removed, wrapped in foil, then a heavy bath towel, and sat in a Coleman cooler for about 3 hrs.  I opened the door about 8 hours in and rotated the bottom to the top, emptied the pan of expended pucks, filled with boiling water to get the temp up to my target cabinet temp again quickly.  That was it.  No more peeking until they came out.  Best butt I have ever had!




The folks at BBQ-Guru.com are making me a special controller right now that will allow me to set and forget, walk away from the unit, and not open it again until the meat is done.  It will bring the internal temp up to preset reading quickly(As quick as the lamp and puck heater will allow), then regulate the heat to keep the heat min 15 degrees(or whatever I set) higher than the meat temp.  I don't see a way of not opening the cabinet somewhere along the way to rotate the items being cooked, but other than that, the guru will free me up to do other things and not worrying about the need to go out and tweek the temp up and down.

Many of us use Maverick remote sensor to tell us what the smoker temp, and meat temp is.

I do not regret purchasing this, as best smoked meat I have enjoyed.

Bill
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">Hey BILL!
Can you share more details about your controller once you have it and test it out? This seems interesting since I do have to jack with the temp. levler on the front of my BS!  I have the dual Maverick digital temp divice and the internal probe always is different from the thermosat on the front of the BS.

Keep smokin!
BigRedRon

BigRED

[nsxbill]

Rod

The issue isn't the turning of the meat, it is the height of the meat in reference to the heat source.  The lower it is, the hotter it, as that is where the heat source is located.

Bill

[pedally]

actually, you can load 8 hours worth of pucks before you need to load anymore pucks.  You can cook indefinately as long as the smoker is plugged in and on, but after 8 hours, if you need more smoke, you need to put more pucks in the smoker.

[Smokin Joe]

Hasn't been a problem for me to smoke beyond the 8 hour limit...I only have to add additional pucks as the chute dispenses...I very rarely go beyond a 6 hour smoke though.  The remaining cooking time still occurs inside my Bradley.

Since I purchased, I have cooked a number of large items which took between 20 and 30 hours in total without any problem

Hope that helps.

Smokin' Joe Johnson
Caroline's Rub - Fine Spice Creations
http://www.carolinesrub.com

[MallardWacker]

I'm sure Kirk would love the business but using over four hours may be listed under "diminishing returns", maybe six on the outside.  Bill seems to have it down, my butts I only use 4 and have wonderful flavor.  It seems to be fairly consitant number is about four. HTH

SmokeOn,

mski
Perryville, Arkansas
Wooo-Pig-Soooie

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