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"knocking off the dust" OK, so my system crashed a while back and all my fancy crayon drawings went with it. If you can follow my thoughts I will put in words what the pictures portrayed. It comes down to airflow from the vents to the baffle plate intake and what path that air takes. To get the most...

I have experienced most of what you are describing. For me it was a series of 4 adjustments. 1) I now make sure I have my charcoal basket centered and not all the way back in the FB, I'm going to contribute this to too much direct heat slamming against the FB end of the cook chamber. 2) I laid in a ...

Quick weigh-in as I found the exception to frujit wood. I was convinced that Persimmon smelled good when it was cut so it would make a good smoke. Wrong .... Wrong ... did I mention I was WRONG. Persimmon while yes it is a fruit tree will get bitter and overpowering quick. I had some good runs where...

Solo what ever happened to your experiment ? I still got them packers in the freezer and a box full of seasoning but my job has taken on a nasty twist. Corporate downsizing has left me gainfully employed but now I am part of a 5 man lab instead of 12 and we are running 3 shifts 24/7 which works out...

Gonna chime in on the misting ... all I ever get from those misting occasions are extended cook times because the misting is killing my external temps on the meat. I've committed to picking out a good rub to get the flavor desired and then I let the meat baste itself. In the case of ribs and chicken...

I think where people come up with stale smoke is when they dont have a finely tuned cooker I run dual stacks mounted on the outside equal to just above the lower rack but all the diminsions and ratios are straight from the calculator. The only time I have ever experienced "stale smoke" was when I o...

I call them the tasters, they are done before the rib racks so I pull them off and munch away during the rest of the cook ... add some hot sauce to them and enjoy with a beer

That rub made a great looking bark.

TASTY lookin

Nothing like a success story after a lot of planning and hard work. Sounds like you had a blast

I like the idea of having the butts done in advance. No need to stress over different cook parameters, 27 slabs will keep you busy enough. I'd suggest getting smoker 100 degrees over target temp to compensate for loading that much poundage. Hope you have a great smoke!

you could inject it hot immediately before putting on to smoke. The injection will set quickly with the cool interior of the shoulder meat so you wont need to worry much about marinade running everywhere. I would try 3 parts bacon fat to 1 part cider vinegar with your seasonings added in (add some b...

a 2% accuracy is pretty much the accepted standard for thermometers at least for any we order and use in the lab. The bad part with that statement is that if one probe is running -2% and the other is averaging +2% then side by side it is going to be frustrating. OK, I'll cut the paper on temperature...

8 slabs scheduled for tomorrow morning, maybe wings if the neighbors want some. Knocked out several cases of sauce today.

The soot is a product of incomplete combustion. Setting the temp at 200* and letting the cooker do the work didn't allow it to burn hot enough to burn up the nasty stuff resulting in the soot :yth: If his racks were heavily coated and it was oozing from the FB then he might been cooking like this f...

I would think that I live in the very heart of sweet tea USA and I have never heard of anyone down here making a brine from sweet tea. I didn't think you could make a brine without salt, there is no salt in tea and if I made salty tea that just doesn't sound appealing or tasty in the least.

SOME CALL IT WORK BUT THAT'S LIVIN IT UP IN MY PARTS

LOOKS LIKE I GOTTA FIRE UP OLE POPS NEXT WEEKEND, Y'ALL WENT AN WOKE UP THE TASTE BUDS FOR Q

I can only image if you soak them overnight and then spice them a few hours before you need them. Stick with your hour soak limit, with vinegar there can be too much of a good thing. You will totally change the texture of your food with a 12 hour soak. Maybe go crazy and try garlic vinegar next tim...

Rick, I have never successfully gone 1.5 hrs without having a coal base too low to work with but those have all been by accident, 30 & 45 minutes are my best cycles depending on outside temp and type of wood. Even though the CC seems to hold temp over that 1.5 with maybe a slight drop taking place, ...

That really sounds like you are not feeding the fire often enough. As a rule I am usually seeing half burnt sticks when I am tossing in the next round of wood. You might need to back off on the intake of air and increase fuel frequency. That should allow for a bigger fire base without going crazy on...

FATNECK wrote:I just soak 10lbs for a hour. About to pull them out and threw some spices on them. Ill chill them for about 5 hours and lets see how they turn out.

stuck at work on 12's this weekend ... good Q talk always keeps me energized

Do you leave the bird in cider vinegar for 5 hours? Nah, I just splash them down generously and make sure every part gets wet then I pour off all the vinegar and add my seasoning while the wings are still damp. I guess the bonus here is that not only do the spices stick but they beak down fairly qu...

Late entry here but I'm all for letting the birds sit at least 5 hours. For no other reason except that my dad and uncle always did I toss all my chicken pieces in Cider Vinegar and drain off all the excess so they are just damp. Then I take 3 parts of my Smokehouse Rub and 1 part Sea Salt and coat ...

I too did the bounce thing on long cooks and found the same thing. Many times I needed to almost rebuild my coal base which forced me to overfeed and fight high temps in the process. No more basket bouncing for me when using wood as I ended up with just what you said small "bits that had to life to ...