1st cook on my new FEC100 - help?

From what I get from your message, you seem to be using the burn-in time to cook a butt and a brisket. Word of warning, the cooker needs some time to darken up the inside of the smoker so as to even out the cooking temps.

But if it was me, I would put the butt and the brisket in and run the FEC at 160* for the first six hours and then raise the temp up to 236* for the remainder of the time. On brisket, I wrap around 165-170. I don't wrap butts but if you are going to, wait until it makes through the plateau and gets to 170.

Hope this helps.

You can try both ways of wraping or not. I never wrap my briskets or butts, and only wrap ribs for contests.

quote:

Originally posted by RibDog:
From what I get from your message, you seem to be using the burn-in time to cook a butt and a brisket. Word of warning, the cooker needs some time to darken up the inside of the smoker so as to even out the cooking temps.

Thanks for the advice...burn in time? Who has time for that? I won't pay too much attention to temperature swings since I'm in such a rush to practice....meat goes on at 10PM...I'll watch it til' midnight, then what I could never do at a contest....sleep.

so how is the 100 im getting in th mood to by one---will i like it--ive got a treager(7)yrs and a custom rottis-stick and char-coal--im not in the mood to say up all nite to babysit butts all nite---are there any hot spots on this type--------------thanks uncle vern

Think of your Traegar with good insulation,so much lower fuel consumption.

Think of temp swings down around 4 degrees,quick recovery,when opening the door.

You hot spots won't be a big deal,and mapping your different racks is good info.

As you know,anything but a crockpot will have some kind of hot spots.

quote:

Originally posted by uncle vern:
so how is the 100 im getting in th mood to by one---will i like it--ive got a treager(7)yrs

I've been told the temp swings will mellow out after I 'burn-in' the inside. When I fired it up a couple times empty to check temps, the heat was fairly even top to middle (I only had 2 digital probes) While cooking (semi)loaded, the top fluctuated from 20˚ to 25˚ hotter than the digital readout and the middle shelf ran 30˚ to 35˚ lower than the top. The probes were located ½” above the shelf and 2” away from the meat (left side).
I have a (7) shelf system and cooked a 7# butt [top shelf], (select) 12# Brisket [2nd shelf, 3rd slot down] & CAB 5# flat [right under the flat, 4th slot].
Smoked 10 hrs @ 174˚ then 3 hours @ 250˚, wrapped , then another 3 hrs @ 250˚. Put it all in a cambro for 1-1/2 hours. The butt was almost perfect, the flat was perfect for tenderness but not enough smoke ring, the whole brisket was better on smoke ring but not quite as tender (well, all Sam’s had was select, I expected as much! and the internal temp wasn't quite as high as the flat)
I’d hoped for more smoke ring and even cheated a little by putting a few small chunks of apple wood and charcoal on a home-made stainless shelf near the fire pot. I’m happy considering this was my first time on the FE…. And… I actually went to sleep after the first 3 hours (I had be sure the barn wouldn’t burn down and wanted to add a piece of apple wood)
Question(s)….
How much cooking needs to be done to ‘burn-in’ or season the FE? Will the temp swings and difference in temps top to bottom mellow out? Is there a better way to season the FE other than doing brisket & pork?
Oh...it's really efficient, I don't think I burned 10# of pellets in 15 hours! I'll pay more attention next time....And I'll have a few more digitals to track temps.
I'll post pictures when I get time to make the .JPG files smaller.