Over the weekend I prepared 11.5 lbs. of spare ribs for a dinner for 22 people. This was the most I have ever cooked in the Smokette. I normally just cook about 2 lbs. for my wife and myself. When I cook the 2 lbs. the temperature in the chamber gets up to 225 in a normal time of let's say an hour or so. However, with ll.5 lbs. it took 4 hours just to get to 200 and that was with the help of partially shutting the vent hole. I never did get it up to 225 even after 6 hours. I don't believe the outside temperature or wind conditions were a factor. The ribs were done at 6 hours which is about 1.25 hours more than the 2 lb. batch. They came out absolutely delicious.
Now I know my thermometer is accurate. It was positioned about 5 inches down from the top and about 2 inches from the back wall. And the steam was just belching out of the vent hole-much more so than I have ever seen before. The heating element was on 100% of the time. But it still couldn't get the temperature to its setting. Is this the result of all of the liquid dripping from the ribs onto the hot fire/wood box and instantly turned into gas (steam) and then being rapidly carried out through the vent hole and therefore carrying the calories of heat outside the oven almost as fast as the heating element was replacing the heat calories?
While the ribs came out perfect in just a little time more than normal, the reason I ask the question is that I just recently developed some new rack holders myself which hold 5 racks with the lowest one significanly above the fire box. I was hoping to use 5 racks at some time to basically double the amount of lbs. (23) that I had in this time. Would that many lbs. overload the heating capacity of the oven so that it may not get over 150 or 160 degrees for most of the cooking period? If so, could I get the model 50 heating element (1100 watts vs. 500 watts) and use that if I were called to cook these larger amounts often?
I have cooked 12 lb. briskets before, but I have not watched the internal temperature of the oven until maybe 8 hours later (I cook them over night). And I don't recall that I have seen as much liquid come out of the brisket as I did of the ribs and the corresponding amount of steam also.
Just wondered if anyone else has encountered this issue?
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