Oops. Forgot A Foil Hole.

That's funny. You might as well open and poke the hole. It wont hurt anything. Besides, I'll bet you're dying to see what it looks like....good luck.

Welcome to the club! You're not the first and definitely won't be the last. Take notes and learn from your mistakes!

Let us know how it turned out.

I opened the door with the intention of doing it, but realized how much was involved, and how I'd lose every ounce of heat that was in there, so I decided to leave it.

This thing is taking forever, though. 13.5 hours now, for a 5 lb Butt, and it's up to 190. Does that seem about normal?

Every butt is diferent. I have had 5 pounders go 14 hours and some done in six. All depends on the fat content and how long it spends in the plateau.

Have you calibrated your therm? Always a good idea to do it if in doubt. Make sure it's near 32˚ in a glass of ice and near 212˚ in boiling water.

Good luck!

I have had 5 pounders take 2 hours per pound and 8 pounders done in 12 hours. You never know.

And THAT's one of the many lessons learned in the "lessons learned" thread at the top of the Open Forum. Funny, we've all made mistakes, but some of them are doomed to be repeated.

How did it come out?

Yes Smokin' some of them are doomed.

I still manage to forget to poke that lil hole about every 2 or 3 cooks. And this is the honest truth.......I'm not even intoxicated when I start. I'm just that dumb!

Anyway, Heavy Duty, being 1 who makes that mistake often has forced me to come up with a quick solution. I have a hanger with the end bent over so I can fit it under the wood box w/o actually moving anything. I just poke a hole and move it around to enlarge it to the size of the smoker's drain.

Or perhaps you pull the pan out and come up from underneath and poke the hole. No need to open the door at all. Poke the hole and quickly put the pan back.

If you used an "L" shaped piece of wire, you could use the short side (maybe 1/2") to pull down the edges of the foil into the opening if need be.

quote:

Originally posted by GLH:
I have had 5 pounders take 2 hours per pound and 8 pounders done in 12 hours. You never know.

So what do y'all do if you're cooking multiple pieces of meat? Do you buy a probe thermometer for each?

I put the biggest 1 or 2 pieces on the bottom, another 1 or 2 pieces above them. I put the temp probe in the biggest piece and go until I reach my target temp.

I do pretty much the same as GLH, except I put the probe in the smaller pieces...I find they will sometime overcook before the larger piece comes to temp...

Once the smaller pieces are done, I simply reinsert the probe into one of the larger pieces...