Cooking Times & Temps

Well,I don't cook on a 500,but have watched them work with great admiration.

We do cook on FEC 100 s.

Size/weight will probably be your guideline.

Is your stickburner reading 200º at the cook surface?

The 500 will cook right on the setting,with somewhat of a convection effect.

Depending on if your loinbacks are 20 0z,or 2 3/4 lbs,will change the system a lot-but seems like 3-4 hrs will put you in the ballpark.

Large breast fillets probably work at that temp in under 1 1/2 hrs,but larger pieces will probably take more temp,or time.

Butts will tend to run more like 1 1/2-2 hrs per lb,to get to pullable.

At 200º pit temp,it would depend on if you were trying to get to a chopping,or slicing internal temp- if you need to foil.

I would guess that unless you need to cook at 200º,they will suggest you cook at a little higher temps.

Foiling might then be a question of speeding up the cook.

Some stickburners like to foil to prevent oversmoking the bigger meats,but the FEC s burn so cleanly that it isn't necessary.

Go up to the FEC forum and shout for Fast Freddie.

He is giving a 500 a pretty good workout.

Seems to me there used to be a Hot Thomas and a couple other decent bbq joints around Watkinsville.

You related to any of them?

Hope this gets you started,until someone else stops by.

I've got the FEC500. And I had a Kingfisher before it. And I always cooked 225-250. And my cook tinmes were 8-9 hours for butts w/ foiling. And 5-6 hours on spare ribs w/foil. And 3 hours on chicken.

With the 500 I'm cooking the chicken at 240 and getting good crisp skin at 2 hours. And butts at 6-7 hours w/foil. And 4-5 hours on ribs w/foil. I like the reults using foil. I did somespares without foil and they needed about 6 hours, but they were very thick.

I have a new CS 260 and am experimenting with my old offset smoking methods now on the new smoker. I used to foil wrap butts after five hours and then finish in a 225 oven to keep them moist. My first two butts in the 260 came out dry with no foil (I wanted to see what the smoker would do without foil). Do you all foil after a few hours of smoke, or do you foil right away? I am trying again tomorrow with foil after five hours of smoke.

I have a FEC100 & 500 and I never have to use foil. All my meat comes out moist and juicy.

On butts, I agree with FF. I do not like to use foil if I can avoid it. On ribs, if I am cooking comp-style, I do use foil for part of the cook but that is just part of the method that was imparted to me by DrBBQ. If I am cooking at home, I do not use foil on ribs.

And I agree with FF in that everything stays nice and moist. Just got through cooking four butts overnight and they are juicy as can be.