Smokette Shelf Question

Why do you want to stay away from the bottom rack? I have smoked them on both levels and cannot tell the difference. Trust your temp monitoring device. I also do not know that you would necessarily get more smoke flavor on the top rack. Why do you think so?

I am curious as to your reasoning behind both points, bottom rack bad, top rack better.

I'm basing my assessment of using the bottom rack on the opinions of those posting on this forum; while it can definitely be done, my sense from the others on this forum is that the bottom rack is closest to the heat source and can tend to accelerate the cooking process over the other two rack positions - which can lead to drying out the meat... so while it can be done, my take is that it's not the "optimal" position if you're doing one or two pork butts.

As for the top rack getting more smoke - I made the comment becuase when I seasoned my cookshack (9+ hours) I found the most upper area of the smoker had more 'dark' stuff on the insides that the lower half - so I inferred from this that the greater smoke concentration came in the upper half... so the top rack may yield a slightly better smoke taste as compared to the middle or bottom rack. This is just an observation I made, and the reality may be that the difference in taste isn't distinguishable.

Anyway, I would still like to hear from other forum members on this observation - I've always understood that "smoke rises" - so in theory it makes sense to me that the upper half of smoker is going to give you the better smoke flavor... but from a cooking perspective, should I have both butts on the same shelf if they fit?

Yo Rod, just speaking from my personal experience here and certainly do not claim to be an expert, but in my 008 I always cook 1 butt on the lower shelf and 1 on the upper. The lower is obviously closer to the heat source, but since the smokette is so well designed, the heat source isn't running beyond what it takes to come up to temp and then cycles on and off to maintain an even temp, so I have not noticed a significant difference in cooking time on top vs bottom shelf.

Cheers!

BBQ_ROD, no big deal, just wanted to hear your theory. The more you cook in that smokette, the more you will find out it makes no difference the location of the meat, as long as it is inside the smoker. All that matters is what the temp of the meat is and how much longer til it's done. It will be good.

I just did 19 chicken leg quarters, filled all 3 racks. The temp was fairly consistent from top to bottom through most of the cook. Three hours and I checked with a couple of instant reads the temps were all 170 plus but the top 2 racks just didn't look as done as I like. I left them in all but one piece (sample)another hour and they looked great and tasted better yet.

In my smokette I can only use the racks in the lowest spot because something is welded offcenter or something.

I would advice to try the lower rack and if you have two temp probes put one in each rack and I think you will be suprised at the even cooking that happens inside there.

I have done 30 pounds of butt in mine on all 3 racks with the larger ones on the bottom, and they all came out great and at the same time.

dave

Here's my experience doing butts on the smaller Smokette.

You cannot put two butts (talkin' 7 lb-ers) on two seperate shelves in the Smokette, there isn't enough verticle seperation between the shelves. For me to fit two butts at once in the smokette, I need to stand them on end next to each other on either the lowest shelf or the middle shelf with the standards set in the low position. It is tight but they can fit. They smoke fine in this position, and I find 14-15 lbs of butt in the smokette will take anywhere from 18 hrs up to over 24 hrs with the thermo set between 225 and 240 degrees.

The bottom shelf in the smokette will definitely cook quicker when doing three shelves of ribs. My practice is to switch the top and bottom shelf at about the 70% of cooking time mark.

With the smokette only cooking one shelf, the position isn't that critical, but with a smoker full of meat, the position does matter in terms of relative cooking rate.

About 4 weeks ago, I cooked 2 8lb butts in my 008 at once. I put the side holders in their highest position (so the top rack isnt useable. Put in the bottom & middle grates. One butt on each grate, fat cap up. Put the probe in the bottom butt, added 4 oz hickory, set the temp at 225 and let it go. 15 hours later both had hit 192 degrees. I removed them from the cooker, double wrapped in foil and coolerized them for 3 hrs till dinner. They were perfectly done.

bob

when cooking two that dont fit on one rack i put the larger on the bottom and the smaller on the top. and place the top rack on top of the guide rail rather than in the middle of the rail. jan

I have done as many as 6 butts in the 6-7 lb range at once, with three plus three on the shelves. It is tight, but as long as there is some room around those fellas, it will work nicely. I find the bottoms do cook faster than the top. if one is bigger than the other, the big one down and smaller up will get good results. actually, any configuration will get good results just remember to pull each one when it is done.