Pork Butt in SM0 25

Read Pork Butt 101 and the many posts under "pork butt". This will get you started.

You'll need to put a grease pan under the smoker to catch grease and liquids. There's a hole in the smoker floor to allow the grease to escape. Get heavy duty aluminum foil and cover the woodbox cover and the bottom of the smoker (poke a hole in the aluminum over the smoker drain). The foil makes for easy clean up.

Do people actually eat the seasoning butt?

I figured the seasoning was to burn off oily film inside smoker and get some smoke build up forming to seal things up. I always thought the first butt was raccoon food at best.

I ate the seasoning butt, and I'm still here.

quote:

Originally posted by Todd G.:
Do people actually eat the seasoning butt?

I figured the seasoning was to burn off oily film inside smoker and get some smoke build up forming to seal things up. I always thought the first butt was raccoon food at best.

Why?

No reason not to eat it. It's all stainless, and it's not like you're trying to burn off creosote like you would in an old smoker you bought and want to reseason.

I actually know people who clean it down to the stainless EACH TIME because they want to start that way.

I would recommend first putting a big chunk of hickory in with no food and setting it on 225 and let it go for approx 5 hours. This will burn off all the residue from the manufacturing process. Also stick a couple of probes in to see where your hot spots/temp fluctuations are. Then go 'hog-wild' with the butt. Just my opinion.

Sometimes, folks just like to burn it empty a few chunks of wood at max temp setting,to see how everything works..It takes a few fatty cooks,to get it started on breakin' in.

An empty run lets you check your wall outlet,power supply,if the element is getting you smoke.

See if your drip pan fits underneath and if the smoke is goin' in the bride's bathroom window.

I'm a little reluctant to try to do my temp mappin' on an empty,clean stainless cooker.

There isn't that great a rush,and I find they are more consistent when at least half full ,and have had several cooks to start coating the stainless walls.

If the cooker looks pretty clean,pork butts are mighty forgivin',and usually edible-no matter what.

Some folks like to make up a few pounds of fatty hamburgers,as another approach.

Think how many of us have cooked on the crud covered grates at some picnic ground.

Nobody that died has posted,yet.

I was thinking of the oil that mine was coated with inside. Based on its smell I don't think it was food grade. More like machine oil. It's probably gone in the first few minutes of heat up, but I'd let it burn off before I cooked people food in the smoker.

Yep Todd,as you know ,much of cooking is experience and judgement.

Of course, the old comp cooks' attitude is"I ain't eatin' it,the judges are".

If the max Temp is 300F, why would you not season it for at least the last couple of hours at 300F?

They are designed that the first 20 minutes they run wide open. This is to ignite the wood if running at lower temps. There is no need to run at 300* IMO. The seasoning time is to burn off the oil and any other residue during manufactoring. Some people will put a small bowl of water in during the seasoning period so the smoker will run a little more to heat up water. They are very insulated so they won't run very much during the seasoning peroid(4 hours). Mine only chared the wood,but it did cover the walls of the smoker with smoke. Never had a problem with the wood burning after that.