Egor's 43# learning cook

[Gizmo]

WARNING - This thread is going to be very boring!

However, many of you have expressed an interest in building a cooker similar to Egor so I thought I'd post today's numbers from the cook I'm doing to teach me more about how he works. Hopefully I can get him to "hit his stride" when needed.

I always set a clock at Noon when I put on large cuts of meat which was 6:30A CDT this morning - it's 7:05A right now. I will note my times throughout the cook today with THAT clock reading because it will allow you to see where the meat is in the process.

Noon - 27F ambient temp outside, 15 to 20 mph wind, severe dark, CC at 280F and meat core at 38F. Put on 43 pounds of meat - 2 full brisket packers and 2 large bone-in butts. Added 1 #10 can of Kingsford competition briquettes and 2 splits of hickory to bed of coals.
12:12 - CC down to 205F from putting on meat.
12:17 - CC up to 223
12:25 - CC up to 322F - closed draft back to recommended 16 sq. inch opening (from the 32sq. inch it was at)
12:30 - CC at 357F - cut stack to half
12:35 - CC at 282
12:40 - CC at 270F - opened stack from 1/2 open to 2/3 open
12:41 - CC dropped to 265 and turned around - 270 by 12:42 - DANG this stack is touchy.
12:44 - CC appears to be stable at 271F ….. for now ….


Stay tuned…..

[Gizmo]

12:46 - CC temp sagged to 257 - Fuel maybe? …. added 3 splits hickory
12:52 temp back to 273 - looks like a single #10 can of competition briquettes will peak and begin to drop in 45 minutes…..
1:00 - CC at 304F - dialed draft back to 12 from 16 sq. inch opening.
1:09 - CC at 309F from 315F at 1:03 - getting close to finding the sweet spot…..

stay tuned….

[Gizmo]

1:10 - 315F - moved stack back to 1/2 open
1:16 - 297F
1:30 - 255F - added one #10 can briquettes and 2 splits hickory…. draft back to 16 sq. inches and stack to 2/3

more to come …..

[Gizmo]

1:45 - 190F - the new fuel covered the entire top of the basket and apparently smothered the fire - Stirred it - stack to full open and draft to 32sq. inches

2:00 - 255F - coming back nicely
2:10 - 310F - moved draft to 16 sq. inches and stack back to half
2:15 - 268F - opened stack to full
2:21 - 286F

I've about decided Egor likes a 1/2 hour feeding cycle rather than an hour….. kids…. sheesh!

[Gizmo]

2:30 - 306F - draft to 12 sq. inches - added 3/4 of a #10 can of briquettes

this might be the sweet spot ….

2:32 - 289F

[Gizmo]

4:30 - running in the high 200's so far - draft at 16 sq. inches and stack at half - adding 3/4 can of briquettes every half hour and a split of wood as needed. Probed the meat and they're running 145F core at 4-1/2 hours so they're right on pace compared to other cooks…..

[Clover Ridge Smokers]

[Rev.Mike]

sounds like youve just about found the sweet spot

[Puff]

Great series of posts ...Thanks. Regarding the sweet spot you are searching for, is it the temperature the cooker wants to burn at for a specific draft setting, time or FB flame?

Some of these questions may be lame, but.

How long are you looking to cook the meat for? Is it simply internal temperature or CC temp?

Always interesting and fascinated!

Btw....saw a great piece on the migration of some kind of cranes in your town on nbc the other night. I knew some where in my head this Kearny Nebraska was someplace I'd heard of before

[Gizmo]

Thanks guys!

I did finally find the sweet spot. In weather like this it was a moving target today.

I started at 27F with 15 to 20 mph wind and by the time I finished the snow was really coming down creating about 2 blocks visibility, 30 mph winds and 21F.

Nature is a mother and she was pulling Egor down harder than I gave her credit for. Turns out he wanted twice the fuel I was used to on Edgar (my last RF design that I had a chance to really get to know).

By mid afternoon I had the stack wide open, draft at 24 inches and a full #10 can of competition briquettes every 30 minutes. WOW!
Compare these numbers to the ones I was using at the beginning of the cook.

But once I found it it didn't change the last 4 hours of the cook.

Puff for me the sweet spot is when I know where the stack and draft need to be and I know how much fuel and how often to feed the FB to give me a reasonably stable CC temp of 250F or a little higher. Once I've found the sweet spot, then moving the CC temp up or down is pretty easy to do.

I usually cook pork butt to about 190 and check how loose the blade bone is and pull it when the bone will wiggle free easily. One butt came out so-so but the other one was perty darn good - I'll use that rub again for sure.

I like to run brisket to nearly 200F then check the flat for tenderness and pull it when it finally gives up the fight. These 2 briskets took 15 hours to finish - a personal record - whew! I'm sure this was because I spent over half the day searching for the right combination of settings and my CC temps were everywhere except where they belonged.

The good news: best brisket I've ever tasted.
I could hardly get my swelled head back through the garage door into the house. Nearly broke both arms patting myself on the back - it would have been embarrassing if I hadn't been cooking alone at the time.

DANG! Nobody should have this much fun!

[Puff]

Excellent work as usual, much congratulations. From the time I first saw your posts and eventually understood your plan for Egor, I started to believe this was the type of cooker for me. It's making it easier to give up my oil tank. I've had it burning empty to just play with learning how it works and it's as addicting as the building.

I'm getting started next week on my Egor. Be prepared for all those crazy questions ...again

So glad to hear of your success

[Gizmo]

Thanks Puff, I'm glad you could use the info….

[Puff]

Any changes I need to know .....haha

[bluecatfish]

Looking back over the Egor building thread I noticed that Egor was all 3/16 inch metal except FB door was 1/4 inch. Did you notice any heat distortion in the metal during the long cook? Thanks for a very informative post.

[Gizmo]

No distortion of any kind. And that goes for Orvis too.

[Rodcrafter]

That is awesome Gizmo. You must of had quite a crew there to help you eat all that Q. Good job!

[Gizmo]

Bagged, labeled and frozen for the relatives when they drop in….

Of course I had to ship out samples first but ……

[Grabber70Mach]

Wow, it's all I can come up with. My head is spinning so bad today I just can't comprehend all you wrote.

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

[Gizmo]

Warning! If this thread causes suicidal thoughts or tendencies please report this immediately to your doctor…..

[Smokeone]

Doctor!

[Grabber70Mach]

Move along now nothing to see here. We'll besides great Q, no doctor needed here.

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