The FEC is Coming! The FEC is Coming! It's Here!!!!

Congrats on getting the FEC. I hope to get an FEC100 by the end of summer.

That's great Ron. You will have it broken in and seasonsed just in time for summer. And if it goes like when I got mine, you will wonder how you could wait so long for it.

Enjoy!!!

What's the first thing you are going to cook?

I'm thinking about a pork butt or two (after all, if god wanted us to cook just one he wouldn't have made them in a two pack Of course, I'll have to toss in a couple of fatties to keep the butts company.

Ribdog, our first competition is on Memorial Day weekend (Westmont, IL) so I have a lot of practicing to do between now and then. If I don't feel comfortable by then I can always toss the WSMs into the trailer and use them, but I want to use the FEC since that's what I bought it for.

Oh yeah, we ordered a trailer yesterday. I gave up on the idea of putting on in the garage and my neighbor told me about the place where he stores his camper and their price is more reasonable. We ordered a 6X12 V-nose cargo trailer with some upgrades (HD ramp, windows, heavy walls). We should have it in about three weeks so we'll use it bare for the first couple of comps and then start tricking it out (folding beds, some cabinets, etc.) over the summer.

Sounds like you are going to have a nice rig. Be sure to post some photos when you get up and running.

That sounds real nice, Ron. You should have a good leg up on the contest with the FEC by then. Plus you have us here to help you before then.

Get practicing!

Congrats! You'll certainly love it!

Of course I was the LAST delivery of the day! I never realized just how many trucks (or cars that sound a lot like trucks) go past my house!

The truck finally pulled up at 6:00PM. It took the driver a few minutes to get the pallet into the garage and then it only took my wife, daughter and I a few more minutes to unwrap the FEC and get it off of the pallet. I'm going to pick up a two pack of butts tomorrow morning and cook tomorrow evening and overnight.

Here are a couple of pictures of my new toy...

Ron,

Make sure you fire it up before you start putting rub on the butts and such. Don't tempt fate. Fire it up and make sure it holds temp.

And have fun!

Yeah... I'm planning on firing it up during lunch tomorrow. Thanks!

Yep,and like Ribdog says,some of them like to have pretty wide temp swings the first few hrs of the breakin and then stabilize perfectly.

You may need to open the door and dump some heat a couple times,while it is stabilizing.

Tom-Fl

I want to say it runs a little hot at first. But trust me. It iwll lock into a temp and stay within 3 degrees of it.

Nice shiny pit Ron. Forgot how good they look when new!!!

Enjoy the toy!

Scottie

Did you read the sticker on the front? Strange it has nothing to do with your FEC100.

Also, if you go to Sam's, you can get the smaller sized foil pans in the commercial pans section. Two of them fit side by side in the grease pan. When one fills, swap them around.

I fired her up yesterday afternoon and played with the controls for a while. I started at 224 (not 225 ) and watched the temp climb. It went up to 232 and then back down to 218 and then settled into a range to 220 to 228. I let it burn for about 90 minutes when my wife had the idea of reheating our leftover pizza (made on my BGE the other day) in the FEC, so I kicked it up to 350 and once it was at temp I put in the pizza for 20 minutes, so I guess the first food in my new FEC was leftovers

I picked up two butts at Sam's and they are in the pit right now. I am following what I think will be my competition timing, but shifted so that "turn in time" will be dinner tonight. I put the butts in at midnight and got up at 3am just to make sure things were running smoothly. They were. I checked again at 6am and the back yard smells great!

More to come later...

quote:

Originally posted by Ron_L:
... and the back yard smells great!

I noticed that with the FEC you can really smell what your cooking! As compared to my offset, which didn't really emit much smell. Guess thats what happens when you have a grease drip tray above a heat source. Fantastic! Now my (and yours!) neighbors will always know when we're Qing.

quote:

Originally posted by Ron_L:
I put the butts in at midnight and got up at 3am just to make sure things were running smoothly. They were. I checked again at 6am and the back yard smells great!

More to come later...

This is a FEC... Learn to get some sleep... Quit peeking!!!


Scottie

ps I just use a full aluminum pan inside the hotel pan. THen I throw it out. Trying to clean up the grease with just usung foil in the drip pan is too messy for me.

quote:

Originally posted by Scottie J.:
This is a FEC... Learn to get some sleep... Quit peeking!!!


Scottie

ps I just use a full aluminum pan inside the hotel pan. THen I throw it out. Trying to clean up the grease with just usung foil in the drip pan is too messy for me.

I just looked at the controller

I did put a foil pan in the grease pan to aid in clean up.

The butts are in the cooler now waiting for dinner. I foiled them earlier and snapped a quick picture.

I just use a full size pan in place of the hotel pan. Never had it fall off. Except when I caught the raccoon pulling it off!

quote:

Originally posted by RibDog:
I just use a full size pan in place of the hotel pan. Never had it fall off. Except when I caught the raccoon pulling it off!

Funny you should mention that! Some coons just messed with my drip tray this past weekend! I thought some person had been moving my smoker around(aka touching my stuff) which is a big no no, but saw the tell tale paw print on the stainless in pollen outline.



How were the butts Ron?

Funny you should ask



They came out great. Nice and moist with great bark. They were maybe, possibly slightly over cooked, but not so much that it affected the texture. The smaller of the two pretty much fell apart when I took it out of the foil, but it wasn't mushy.

Those look great Ron. What rub did you use and what were the internal temps if I might ask. I'm still learning!

Internal temp was 198 when I put them into the cooler and they rested in the cooler for about three hours. The rub is a little blend that I am playing with for competitions

Thanks Ron