Noticing longer cook times(Smokette) ANY HELP

The regular questions:
Extension cord?
Wall outlet?
Faulty thermometer?
Open doors too much?


Keep in mind that not all 9lb pork shoulders are the same.

Bob

no
fine/good
using 3
just once at hour 16


I think the thermostat is off. I will have to do a 10 hour empty cook and test out the temps on the hour I think

What temp did you set your smoker at?

Hold on there. Don't panic. I put a 6 lb Butt in at 6am
@ 225 and it's now almost 6pm. That's 12 hours. The butt is lookin good. I opened the door once and sprayed with apple juice and vinegar and tested with a fork. At 172 it was starting to pull apart. Give it time. You can't rush this smoking thang.

Ok, Tom or Smoken will chime in shortly, but "it is done when it is done" I talked to Tony in Customer Service about my unit and he wanted a 3 hour cycle to test out my unit. Once I tested like he asked the unit was good to GO. The short of it not all 9lb pork shoulders are the same and some will take longer to COOK. I had a 7.9lb 9lb pork shoulders that took 17 hours thus the call to Tony.

Please call Tony or Jerry �Customer Service (CS)� if you have any concerns. The number is 1-800-423-0698, 8am - 4pm, Central Time. The folks at CS would much rather talk to you and help than have a customer unhappy with the CookShack product. Tony is A-1 in my book, and I will hang by the product until the put dirt on me.

Cheers,

Bob

Something that we don't mention, as much as we should,is we aren't trying to boil a pot of water.

A pork chop should cook fast and I'm not disagreeing that you can get a butt to slice or pull by cooking high and fast[yes,we have all done it].

The object of the slow and low is to render fat and break down collagen in the muscle.

That "plateau" around 160�-170� in a butt is the slow process of making the butt "give up"and break down the collagen.

Just size,or volume, is not always the criteria.

A young 225 lb. market hog will have more tender shoulder/butt than an old 800 lb. sausage sow.

A sausage sow's 13 lb. butt,cut into two 6.5 s,will still be old and tough.

Many comp cooks like a 5-6 lb whole butt for timing and quality.

drbbq,a top comp cook,preaches "cook at 225�, until you guess it should be done and then cook 3 hours longer".

Just a couple of thoughts.

An 8 pound butt cooked at 250* for 12 hours is still 'low and slow'.

I have 2 temp. probes, 1 I put into the meat and the other I use to check the temp. of the smokette, so I can track the temperatures without opening the door. Every time so far, the smoker temperature did fluctuate up and down but the average temperature was what I had my smokette set at. The more meat I have in there, the less fluctuation I have, reading the forum, this is normal. Don't know if this will help, but at least it tells me that my smokette is operating properly.

Bud

Yep.

I've done a pair of 7ish lbs butts and they took nearly 24 hrs. Another 5 pounder took 12 hrs. My brother just did a brisket in 20 hrs. Don't get too alarmed at long cook times, that is normal. The trick is to learn and anticipate a long cooktime so you aren't sitting 1 hr away from a scheduled dinner for 12 with the butt still poking around at 170 degrees.

How does the Extension cord effect the temp?

If it isn't the same gauge as the house or cooker,it may reduce your electric .

That's the limit of my tech knowledge.

Tom
How can I tell the Gauge? My extension cord is a thick orange cord.

JW

The cord will be fine, just turn the smokette up all the way and the meat is done when it's done.

BTW, cooked a 7.5 pound butt friday on 250*. It was done to 201* in 9.5 hours. Bone pulled out clean. Meat shredded wonderfully with forks. Bark was nearly a quarter inch thick. Fat was melted out good.

Wire gauge is very often stamped on the wire itself - look for a number like 14, 16, or 18 maybe followed by the letters AWG. You'll get different stories from different folks on what is required. Here's one fact: The smokette is 500 watts. So using an extension cord rated for at least 500 watts or 4.5 amps would be a good idea. Plus, don't use a much longer cord than necessary.

My take on this: A good outdoor 25 foot cord, like you can buy at Sears for well under $15, is not going to slow down your cooking a bit. On the other hand, 2 or 3 frayed 6 foot 2-wire ones hooked together out in the rain might slow you down if they don't electrocute you first.