I cooked 5 cases of butts this weekend starting Thursday Night at 10pm. I had a Pig Roast for our local FFA. Saturday Night.
I did it in three batches. First batch I cooked 16 Butts and the other two were 12 per batch.
I cooked the first run at 180 for 4 hours then 250 til they were 190. It took too long. I wasnt finished with them until about 3pm on Friday.
I shut down the FEC, power washed the racks, and by that time all embers were out and vaccumed out the firepot, changed foil etc. and put the next batch or 12 on at 5pm.
Because the first run took longer than I thought it would, I researched the Hot & Fast while waiting for it to finish.
I cooked the second batch at 275 and put some smoke stick in a Stainless Steel cup for more smoke. I really thought I had plenty of bark on the first 16 so I didn't worry about bark on this batch since it would be mixed.
Butts were done at around 3am. Still slower than I thought it should have been.
Cleaned and changed foil and just brushed racks and reloaded at about 5am I put on the last run this time ramping up to 300 for the third batch.
It was windy but I had an elbow and was shielded from direct wind but the cooker really couldn't get above 275-290 even when set on 300.
Before you ask it was Cookshack Hickory Pellets.
Fire went out once about eight hours into the second batch. All I could see was a buildup of dust at the entry point of the auger which was restricting the pellet path. The firepot side of the auger was empty and path was clear.
I did notice some condensation on the inside lid of the hopper so there obviously was some moisture in the pellets I can only assume. I bought these pellets this spring and they have been stored inside my shop. After emptying the hopper and vaccuming out the auger cavity I shook my pellets out thru a collander put a handful in the pot and shot a litte hand sanatizer on them and lit with a match. I did this becuase I never shut down the electronics.
Smoker ran fine for rest of Second cook and all of the third.
Butts were great!
I used Cookshack Rib Rub on the butts and rubbed them about three hours ahead of cooking.
I Cambro'd them for a couple of hours then used the Ro-Man Pork Puller on them.
After I pulled them I sprinkled a good amount of Butcher's Honey Rub on them (for an extra layer of flavor)and added some Apple Juice and mixed them around and left them refridgerated in Bus Tubs until the Saturday Night Feed.
The Pulled Pork was served with Head Country and Uncle Gene's (Mustard Based Dipping Sauce) at the table. I don't believe in drenching pulled pork in sauce. that's up to the end consumer.
The School Cafeteria Ladies put the pork in steam ovens to reheat and they were moist and flavorful.
Needless to say the FFA raised $6,000 for this dinner and it was a success.
I used a Stoker to monitor everything from my ipad and iphone when I had to leave the house.
I can tell you that I think it would have been quicker and less stressful if my FEC wouldn't have 20+ degree temp swings constantly. I have a stoker temp sensor within 1/2 inch of the FEC sensor (Not Touching) and have calibrated my stoker temp sensor to local altitude (Water Boils at 211 at 1050' above sea level) And the cook shack temp varies around 10 degrees from two seprate oven temp sensors that I have used on the stoker.
I think something is lacking in the FEC's ability to anticipate and adjust tempratures. I have the same results from at least six cooks in different tempratures and meat loads.
All in All it was a success. But without secondary monitoring equipment and advance knowledge and information from forums on the behaviour of the FEC vs loads and conditions, it would have been a disaster for the Kids.
But then again a cook as biug as this one shouldn't be taken on by a novice cook.
By the way, I had my trusty Kingfisher Kooker BT on standby incase of a catastrophic failure in the FEC since I have yet to buy an inventory of emergency spare pieces.
This post was not to complain, I really like the FEC I just think mine has some issues that need to be acknowledged that are known to the company.
The FEC did 90% of what I expected it to do. The Stoker kept me aware of the other 10% that would have been a disaster if left un-noticed.
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