big cook this weekend

Good luck. I'm sure it will turn out fantastic.

Don't forget the pictures

Your always having these big cooks...

Good luck, sounds like a good plan.

Wings can be tough, problem is cooking enough and holding. They get soggy when you hold them too long.

too busy for pictures, I'll try to take some. The ribs were amazing, just the profile I was looking for. Great smoke ring and flavor. Not falling off the bone or overcooked, just perfect. 180 for 1.5 hours and 224 for four hours for St Louis Ribs is my new template. The butts went in at 4pm yesterday. 41 pounds total, spread across four butts. A little EVOO with some McCormick sweet and smokey rub 24 hours before. I was out of mustard for the slater, so was forced to use olive oil. Smoked them at 180 for five hours and boosted up to 226. They're about at 195-200 now (noon) and I'm fixing to pull and cooler to serve at 4pm. I'll let the smoker cool eneough to clean the firepot, the two racks I had the butts on and pull the top layer of foil off the grease slide. Probally pull the grease shute out too and clean it quickly and get started on wings. We rubbed them last night with Italian SD and sprinkled some Cookshack Spicy chicken rub on them and filled four two-gallon ziplock bags with the separated wings. We'll see how the wings fly . I'll try to take some pics of the butts, but the ribs dissapeared before I could photograph them. Seems to be a trend with anything that comes out of the FEC.

quote:

Originally posted by Chaplain Bill:
... 180 for 1.5 hours and 224 for four hours for St Louis Ribs is my new template...

For what weight of ribs? Problem with a template is no two hogs can read the template.

Know the weight and it will work

sorry, the SLs weighed between 2.5 and 3.0 each. I also had some of the tips on the bottom rack. Russ, what's wrong with those Oklahoma hogs? Our South Carolina Hogs can read quite well. Must be the school system

Well, everything went well. I did take some pics of the butts that I'll add later. Wings were very good. I put 40 pounds of wings on seven flat racks and put them in a lukewarm FEC and smoked for an hour at 170 then boosted to 400. The problem was that the FEC would hardly get over 200, finally 235. Luckly, the firepot was providing good direct heat to the bottom-most rack, that it was done first and I just rotated down. They were loved by all. I've always had trouble getting the FEC over 350. I called Bill on wednesday and he's sending me an updated controller board and a new auger.

Anyway, lessons learned? Do the ribs the same way. Butts, pulled at 195-200, amazing as always! Also, I coolered them and only pulled two of the four. I took the rest out of the cooler 10 hours later and they were still too hot to hold. BBQ delight hickory pellets did great. Smoke ring over an inch thick down in the butts, all the way thru the ribs and very present in the wings. Great flavor.

Wings? Very good. As good as any wings I've (or anyone in attendance) had ever had. Need to get the FEC a little hotter a little sooner. Might have been the Big load with seven racks. Maybe the new parts coming will help.

you "can" also throw a handful of pellets in there to get the first up faster. The issue is the auger moves to get pellets going. I'm sure the new auger is the style with the middle open so it can push more pellets.

The manual method will help overcome any "lag".

Careful. Takes a little practice. Too much and you can kill the first OR make it REALLY hot