Fast butts on the FE

Allriiiiiiiiight! Finally, some AFFIRMATION. I was over at the "other" BBQ site and was hearing guys taking 15-20 hours to cook 8 lb butts and I chimed in with the info that it took me only (are you ready for this?) NINE HOURS to cook 35 lbs of butts (4 of them 7 to 8.5 lbs apiece.

Some guys went for the "it's done when it's done" theory (a good one), but others suggested my butts weren't "done" yet. Oh, but they were. Pulled them off in 9 hours flat with an internal of 195. Let them rest for an hour in foil and then pulled them with two forks like I was tossing pasta.

I attribute this to a couple of things: The design of the FE which is nice and tight and insulated and heat-regulated, and the fact that I never opened the door from start to finish to mop---being told that mopping isn't necessary with the FE. I agree, although if I were in a competition I might still mop.

Good job Duck!

KD, you're just all about alternative theories aren't you

We like alternative theories, even if you don't like sauce thickeners.

They ARE done with it's done. That's copyrighted by me by the way, but what that says if they're done at 1 hour per pound and you're happy, so be it.

You just can't Q by a cookbook set time like you can in an oven baking a cake.

I've found, in general, that from previous cookers, all CS's, including the FE, cook a little more controlled, maybe it's because of the insulation.

Which is weird if you think about it. If you cook them at 250 in an offset pit and 250 in an FE...isn't that 250, regardless.

And it's great to have the forum to get this conspiracy theory about 2 hours per pound out in the open...

I cook butts all the time. A few weeks ago, I had one that stalled at 165* for almost three hours. Then it went to 200* fairly quick. Sometimes you get a stubborn piece of meat.
This reinforces the theory that "it is done when it is done".

quote:

Originally posted by SmokinOkie:
[qb]I've found. . . .all CS's, including the FE, cook a little more controlled, maybe it's because of the insulation.

Which is weird if you think about it. If you cook them at 250 in an offset pit and 250 in an FE...isn't that 250, regardless?[/qb]

I think you've hit on the point, Smokin. 250 on an offset is NOT 250 on an FE. I have both cookers and I've NEVER finished an 8 lb butt in 9 hours. More like 12-15. And I tried to stay at 250 but, as with all uninsulated stick burners, I had to constantly tend the fire, sometimes stoking it, sometimes backing it off. And, of course, all the time the temp was going up and down, but "averaging" 250. And all the tending required constant opening of the firebox, and also opening the cooker to rotate the meat, etc etc.

Nope. 250 on the FE is 250, give or take minor variations, for the whole undisturbed cook. Not so with the offset.

At least that's MY alternative theory.

I have cooked butts on almost everything. Ryan and I have a 30 x 8 Klose offset, another small mobile and 5 WSM's. They have all cooked butts. This FE is really quick! Faster than a WSM and faster than a Klose mobile.

I've found in a Smokette that when the box is full, it cooks quicker than when the box only has a small load. Is it possible that the greater meat mass helps maintain a stable temp, and therefore cooks quicker than a CS or FE that has greater temp fluctuations?

my rules of thumb have been 12 hrs. @225 for butts and 18 Hrs. @ 225 for shoulders. Eddy and I cooked a shoulder and got a little better than 25% time reduction @ the 250 setting. Butts have consistantly taken 9 hrs. @ 250. How much of the reduction is because of the temp difference and how much is the cooker I don't know. Would be interesting if someone with the 225 setting could tell us how long it takes.
Seems to me the question is if 9hrs@250 or 12hrs@ 225 produces the best product. I admit that Eddy has shaken my belief in the "gospel of low and slow"; however look a papashaka's brisket technique.

Smokin, do you have any rights to "It ain't over til it's over"?

Fred, isn't that a song title

and that makes 3000 posts....

at least it was funny

At least I didn't mention fat women singing..

Could be that the FE's temperature is fluctuating 40 degrees or more every so often (I haven't plotted temperature vs. time yet). Thus, 250, isn't really 250. I haven't noticed these types of temperature fluctuations in my WSM.

Fred, aren't "butts" and "shoulders" the same thing? In Oregon you have pork butt or pork shoulder (they're exactly the same and come from the front shoulder area of the hog, above the leg) and you have the "picnic" which is the front leg portion, below the shoulder.

No, a shoulder is the butt and the picnic. You have both a portion of the blade bone and the leg bone.

The temp at the 250 setting on mine was fluxing from 230 to 250. Plus the temp probe is at the hottest level in the box. But when I cook on my other cookers, the recovery time back to 225 can take quite a while. I really think that the fact that I'm cooking hotter and don't open the door accounts for most of the time difference. If I'm behind on charcoal burner the first thing I do is stop basting and leave the cooker shut. The first option is not to raise temp.

If you cut up a shoulder, you'll have a butt and a picnic.

A butt, is the butt end of the shoulder.

On my CE/FE the setting between 180 and 275 (I assume this is the 250 setting) ran temperatures between 239 (low) and 291 (high). That's greater than a 50 degree swing that occurs several times an hour.

If you haven't tested your FE with temperature probes, you may not realize what is happening during the cooking cycle.

Another BBQ team we compete against has a plotter to record temperature vs. time. I will try to get this sometime this year and test the swings of these units.

Don't get me wrong, I love my FE, though it has larger and faster temperature swings than anything I have used before.

Fred, you wrote... Plus the temp probe is at the hottest level in the box.

Where is your probe, the top of the unit?

It is opposite the exhaust. I said it was hottest because i got that idea from Eddy, but I just looked a smokin's temp plot and it doesn't bear that out.

If you want to check temp try to do it with a pretty full load. You should see the bottom be the warmest then.

If you want to check temp try to do it with a pretty full load. You should see the bottom be the warmest then.

Eddy,

Once I thaw out from this winter, I'll do a reenactment of a competition cook and plot temperature swings during the entire cook. This will give me a chance to document the affects different amounts of meat have on different shelves.

Have you done this?

I am a firm believer in knowing my smokers like the back of my hand.

We have a large vertical cooker that I have scewed up and overloaded an intermediate shelf. Before I knew it, the top was 70 degress cooler than the bottom. Eddy and I have discussed putting 6 shoulders in the FE for a competion cook. I have had my doubts because of circulation
issues, but when he kicks Big Bob Gibson's ass at MIM, he will prove me wrong as usual.

Fred, that would be great to do that.Barry experiance cooking with the pit will be your best bet. I have never been one to cook by the thermometer very much. I like to use refrence points and times and then let the product tell me what it needs to finish. Heat is you freind at the finnish. If it's not done, crank it up is what i like to do.

For sure meat cooked at higher temps has better flavor.

as some of you know, i use a home-made smoker (no off-set). its fairly large. i smoke a case of butts at a time (8-10 pcs.). i use hickory chunks, mesquite chunks, and apple pellets. for me, i have found that apple pellets really increase the rate of cooking speed. with them, i am done in average of 9 hrs. without them, it takes 12. however, cooking them faster reduces the density of the smoke flavor. so i guess there is something to the phrase 'slow and easy'

Fred Smith...
I have the 225*F setting on my FE100 and always use that temp to cook butts. A case of 8-10 butts goes in then as Eddy suggests after 8 or 9 hours I would crank it up to 275*F and it would always be done alost exactly in 12 hours. There are times I want to extend the cook time so I'll leave them the temp at 225*F longer or just go to 250*F then 275*F or even back to 250*F again. I am trying to have them done just before opening my business and will not put them in the FE100 at the same time yesterday evening! But if I do like Eddy suggested in an email to me of how to cook with the FE100 then they are done almost exactly 12 hours later as stated previously!

Peter