Self-proclaimed Pit Masters of SH- I've got some questions

I do all of my low and slow cooks/smokes on an XL Big Green Egg. Butts or chicken definitely the easiest cooks to start with.

Once you get the pit, you need to run it up to whatever temp you’re cooking at and maintain it with zero proteins in sight. A trial run. Once you’ve got that under control, go grocery shopping.

There a lot of trial and error with low temp cooks. The protein drives the cook time. Not every pork butt will shred at a 202° internal temp, every brisket won’t be ready at 205°, some might be 198, others 210.

Keeping it simple makes a better tasting overall experience. I you may be over thinking it all but you will gain knowledge on how how like your food done. I don’t mess with brines at all but basting in butte,salt and pepper especially on poultry’s. Ribs gets a liberal amount of your favorite rub. Bbq sauce kills it IMO

First and foremost I am not a pitmaster just someone who enjoys cooking and eating good food.

Pork butts are definitely the easiest IMO. Chicken can be slightly more tricky since they are smaller, I feel like, they can dry out on shorter notice but as long as you’re keeping an eye on them you should be fine. I’m a huge fan of brining chicken. It makes a difference in the moisture of the meat IME. I’ve never done the pan technique you described but I don’t see that being necessary especially if you brine them. I’d say you’re spot on with the wood choice, I’ve found that other people prefer a more subtle smoke flavor so mesquite/hickory can be a bit much for chicken and sometimes pork depending you their palate.

Most importantly take notes on what you do for future cooks and have fun.

I've been cooking over a pit for 25 years. Here is a good place to start

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forums/

Cook how you like to cook. Eat. If it's not great cook differently next time.

Start with pork shoulders or pork loins. I like doing bacon wrapped pork loins stuffed with sautéed onions and jalapeños along with some cheese. I pull the pork loins at 145 and put on the charcoal grill at 350 just to crisp the bacon. You can also throw meatloaf on the smoker to add a little flavor to it as well. You'll find out the meat has more flavor after sitting in the fridge for a day or two.

Ribs are also easy. I do a dry rub and smoke at 225 for 5-6 hours until it passes the bend test. I hate wrapping ribs in foil because they are too tender and remind me of my mom's crock pot ribs from 20 years ago.

I do chicken and turkey at higher temps so the skin is crispy. I've never been a low and slow fan for poultry.

Start with pork…. Extremely forgiving and really hard to mess it up….

I’ve cooked on everything from Gateway drums, Myron Mixon gravity fed cookers, Insulated cabinet smokers, ole hickory rotisserie, pellet poopers and everything in between.

For chicken, use apple wood, not as harsh of a smoke onto it. Cook the chicken to 175*…. Be prepared to explain to the ill informed, the chicken is not in fact undercooked because it’s pink, it’s a natural process in cooking chicken.

For pork, here’s what I do:

Inject your pork butt with what ever profile you would like,for me I utilize a ginger ale, apple juice, and maraschino cherry juice mixture

utilize what ever rubs you would like to use that meet the flavor profile you’re looking for. Big poppa smokers and Simply Marvelous have some amazing rubs. I would suggest their cherry rub, spicy apple, and sweet money, layer them and it will give a great depth of flavor.

Get your smoker to the temp you’re looking to cook at, I cook at all different temps, from 225-275, all the way up to 400*, but only for a short period for chicken. For pork, I’d just run it at 275* and let it ride.

I believe on your smoker, you’ll have 2 grates/ levels you can cook on. Put a foil half pan with approximately 2” of water, recommend heating the water up beforehand so you’re not adding cold water and dropping your pit temp, put in on the bottom shelf, it’ll kind of act as a heat sink and adds humidity in your cooker. You're going to want to do this approximately 1 hr before you’re looking to put the meat on the smoker, it’ll allow the pit to come back up to temp in time. I normally add the water when my pit reaches 225*

Once your pit comes to the temp you’re looking for, and has stabilizes you can add your meat. About 1/2 hr before you plan on putting the meat on, that’s when I’d add your wood chunks, 3-5 is more than enough for the cook. Understand, you’re putting cold meat onto a hot smoker so the temp will probably drop by like 50*, don’t worry about it, you already have your fire set, so it should come back up to temp. Limit the time you keep the lid off the smoker to limit temp spikes.

Cook the pork until you get the bark YOU like on the meat, generally between 165-175* is where I normally decide to do my wrap. When I do my wrap, I’ll pull the pork butt out, and place it into an empty 1/2 hotel pan. I then take sugar in the raw, I prefer this over brown sugar because it dissolves better and has a higher burn threshold, I take a stick of pure butter, slice it in half length wise and place it on top of the pork butt. I then, take a mixture of half and half of whatever bbq sauce I want to utilize and maple syrup mixed together, and then pour about 8-10 ounces over the pork butt trying to cover it. Take a sheet of aluminum foil and place it over the top, and back in the cooker to finish cooking. I also utilize a meat probe to monitor the temp of the pork, so that way I don’t have to constantly keep opening the lid to see what temp the meat is at. Once it’s about 205-210*, it should be done, but understand, you’re cooking to TENDERNESS, not TIME or TEMPERATURE!!!!

I know it seems like a lot, but it’s not, just need to plan things out accordingly. If you want any tips or tricks, I’d be happy to share more, I’ve competed on the competition KCBS BBQ circuit having 8 grand championships and 2 reserve grand championships under my belt, so I’d like to think I might know a thing or two.

Other tidbits of advice, get yourself a notebook and record all your cooks. Just like when shooting and trying to keep all the data for the parameters of the rounds you expended, you want the same for your cooks. This will become your bible as you continue cooking. You can see what went wrong or right, and what you liked and what you didn’t. Make it as detailed as possible, especially your timeline, it helps you to backwards plan your cooks.

If you don’t want to babysit your cooks, this is amazing and makes things really easy and takes the guesswork out of fire management, plus it has meat probes as well as controlling the temp of your cook and sending you alerts on your cook:

S Roche said:

I've been cooking over a pit for 25 years. Here is a good place to start

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forums/

Click to expand...

This^^^

Also join this site, lots of useful info and great bunch of guys that are more than willing to help you out

Big Green Egg owner here. All good advice! My contribution would be to recommend natural hardwood charcoal and not briquettes. Green Egg charcoal is some of the best I have found, but also some of the MOST expensive. I have found it to burn the best with dependable results. If I’m doing a pork shoulder I use Green Egg charcoal, if I do chicken or Mac and cheese or something else, I use one of the less expensive hardwood charcoals.

JM4590 said:

Big Green Egg owner here. All good advice! My contribution would be to recommend natural hardwood charcoal and not briquettes. Green Egg charcoal is some of the best I have found, but also some of the MOST expensive. I have found it to burn the best with dependable results. If I’m doing a pork shoulder I use Green Egg charcoal, if I do chicken or Mac and cheese or something else, I use one of the less expensive hardwood charcoals.

Click to expand...

Agree, forgot to include that…. Kingsford produces a lot of ash, although it is relatively cheap if you buy it on sale. B&B charcoal and Jealous Devil are really good charcoal. As is Royal oak if you can get your hands on their competition blend. Also, get yourself a chimney starter and utilize tumbleweeds or other items to get your charcoal going, do not use lighter fluid. You can also utilize a weed burner to expedite the heating of the charcoal as well.

I smoke on a Primo Kamado and a Treager. Like others have said, use hardwood charcoal, not briquettes, and never ever soak your wood in water. Lots of good advice above. I would add that with pork butts/shoulders, I like to not smoke pieces larger than roughly 4#. The ones I get at Costco are usually north of 12# and I cut them into smaller pieces. That way I get a higher bark to meat ratio, it doesn’t take as long to get it done, but still has a great bark and smoke ring, and it’s not dry on the outer edges. When you smoke a large piece, when the center is done, the outer edges are dried out, even if you wrap it. I don’t inject it, but I do pull it when it’s around 165, usually about 4-5 hours of smoke, and wrap it in foil with a couple tbls of apple cider vinegar and put it back on until it’s done. It always comes out juicy and doesn’t need injections.

I like oak, pecan, and cherry wood wise.

I go way, way simple.


I use a chimney starter and old newspaper crumbled underneath. I use that to like some bruiqettes. Once those are going, I transfer and pour them into the side firebox and add a few chunks of mesquite wood. Not smoking chips. Actual quartered pieces of a mesquite tree.

24 hours prior to that, I thawed out and put rub on a brisket. My favorite is Spice Hunter no salt Cowboy BBQ Rub.



Size of the brisket determines the time. 14 lbs and heavier, I smoke for 12 hours.

9 pounds or less, I can smoke in 5 hours. I put an aluminum bowl of water in the main chamber to avoid too much dryness.

I let the starting hot heat sear the meat and then let it go with a few chunks of wood now and then.

As for chicken and pork, I still prefer dry rubs and those I can just cook quicker with mesquite flavored charcoal and those I cook more thoroughly. I will start out over the coals for chicken or pork and get them seared.

Then move off flame and flip a few more times.

For steaks, both beef and venison, I sear once each side, then off the heat once each side and then get it off the grill.

Sounds simple, but spend a few bucks on a high quality instant read thermometer. Probes are ok for aliens and deviants, but an instant read is the way. Also, don’t get too wrapped around the axle about an exact temp, but use the probe on an instant read to test for doneness. You will kind of develop a feel for it. I’d say get you a cheap cut of meat (pork loin is a great way to start) and fly right at it. Final word-you will find pit bosses to be like long range shooters. We all have our opinions and are willing to die on that hill. Good luck with the grilling.

i have a lang stick burning smoker ive had for 10 plus years i usually smoke on, have a traeger for when im lazy. i smoke a whole chicken in a tin foil pan with a stick up butter up its ass, seaseon it and lay sliced onions on top . after it gets the color i like ill wrap it till its done. comes out great. ribs i start with rubbing them with mustard and season them smoke till they start creeping up the bones then wrap them after i pour some honey and bbq sause on them for about another hour. sticking working on my brisket, last one i screwed it up. boston butt is probably the easiest. inject it and season it and let it go

Best thing a buddy told me was to let your smoker run where it runs depending on the conditions of the day... he said "within reason" obviously. You dont want it at 180 but you also dont want it at 480...

He said some days his will run 225 and other days its closer to 325 and anywhere in between. Once you start fucking with the smoker air inlet and exhaust constantly you run a much bigger chance of snuffing your fire out, getting thick heavy white smoke vs. thin light blue smoke, etc... He puts out killer bbq consistently and has a very nice, thick steel offset that drafts very well. He always runs the exhaust wide open and only uses the inlet to control temp. Airflow is the key. Charcoal helps keep temps more stable, but doesnt produce as good of bbq.

I do dry rubs on chicken thighs. They have so much intramuscular fat that you don't really need to add more liquids.

You could also go with something like a Traeger or RecTeq pellet grill and essentially have the easy button for most things as far as keeping temperatures where you want them.

I don't have an SMC, but I do occasionally smoke on my Weber Kettle.

It will take a bit to figure out the nuances of your system. How much fuel (wood) to add, how often, how to adjust the top and bottom vents for temp control, etc.

The downsides to the Weber is that they are made out of very thin gauge metal, so they do not maintain temp as well as higher end smokers, and aren't efficient on fuel. There's a lot of thermal transfer happening through that thin gauge metal. Not a deal killer on short to medium smokes, but something to be mindful of. Would probably be a lot of work to do a longer smoke like a brisket on it though. I get some pretty big temperature swings on my Kettle when I have to remove the lid to add more fuel - it looks like the SMC has a dedicated fuel door, which should mitigate that somewhat which is nice.

Also be mindful of how you add new fuel when smoking. The initial smoke that comes off of wood can be pretty harsh and acrid, so best if that smoke is not introduced to the meat. If you can start new wood on a fire pit or grill next to your SMC to burn off that acrid smoke before adding it, that would be pretty helpful.

As far as the nuances between different meats and how to cook them, I find a good dedicated smoking book helps for that. I have Aaron Franklins BBQ book, and it's been super helpful in that regard.

Enjoy! Smoking is a lot of fun. There's certainly a learning curve to it, its a bit of an art. But its a very enjoyable way to cook once you start to get the hang of it.

LuckyDuck said:

Whelp- the SMC came in today and I started putting it all together when I got home from work and then Murphy entered the equation. I ended up being one nut short (I can already hear the jokes and laughter now) of being able to finish putting it together. Of course the nut is needed to support a load bearing bracket for the internal racks so that kinda has me in limbo at the moment. Crazy how a 5¢ part just derails everything.

Anywho- I contacted Weber's Customer Service and explained the situation and we'll see what they come back with. If nothing else, I'll just pick up the part at the local hardware store on Friday. I oscillated between just doing that tomorrow or contacting Weber (I was kinda bummed out) but figured it only benefits everyone else if I let them know that they're coming up short (for whatever reason) in the parts necessary to assemble their products so that it can be fixed for future customers so I went that route.

So that's where I'm at presently (stalled), but had a follow-on question for the Hide here, I've been going through the 2 forums that were recommended by members in this thread (https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forums/) & (https://www.bbq-brethren.com/) the latter of which I'm seeming to jive with the the most this week. But as to the question- aside from the missing part, I'm noticing that the fuel door is... well far from flush. I've looked into this 'phenomenon' with the SMC and it mid as well be the equivalent of a post here from someone that recently purchased a borescope rushing to the forums to explain their shock in their barrel condition with the majority of the posts from learned participants in the conversation asking "but how does it shoot".

I'm tending to lean on the... fire the smoker up and go from there mentality myself before throwing more money at it by purchasing products like "lava lock" seals or a replacement door from somewhere like Cajun Bandit before even giving the smoker a chance to prove it's worth but with regards to the door at least, I'm noticing a good 1/2" or so gap on the upper corners of the door and the lack of fitment does slightly irk a part of me just from a construction standpoint. The drums do seem to fight tightly though (with regards to the seal posts I'm coming across). Kind of a ramble there but just trying to explain my initial impression is all and to finally get to my question- does anyone here run into a similar observation either with their smokers or with a friend's and if so- could you please share your thoughts on whether any of those... not concerns necessarily but rather observations warranted any corrective actions that yielded positive results? Analytically thinking, without experience (which is dangerous grounds to be standing on) I can see where some argue the efficiency element as far as the charcoal burn as well as the extra... protection I'll call it from having a better seal against drafts on windy days but while that sounds logical to me, there seems to be a lot of very experienced smokers saying it's insignificant.

Hope that all makes sense but happy to clarify if not... Otherwise, this is where I'm presently sitting at until either Weber gets back to me or I run down to Home Depot... the final internal bracket I can't attach at the moment is the two holes just to the right of the door.

View attachment 8520494

-LD

Click to expand...

It is insignificant, not unless it’s totally warped way out of proportion, don’t give it a second thought, as the metal heat and contracts, it’ll change a little anyways.

Unless that nut is needed to hold the charcoal, I would burn it in right now as you wait for the nut too arrive. My experiences with Weber have been very pleasant whenever I have issues with my grills. I’ve had burners and stuff needing replacement after like 10 years and have called them up, fully expecting to pay for a new one, just wanted to make sure I had the correct one, and they sent it to me for free. Same with the grill grates. I had an issue while using my kettle at a competition where another competitor’s pop up got blown over, knocking it into my kettle, and causing it to fall over and dented the lid. Contacted Weber to get a replacement, and you guessed it, they sent me one for free. This had nothing to do with their quality and they still stepped up and went way above and beyond.

You can cook some amazing pizzas on that pit as well, and you can get “Grill Grates” for it as well, and it does a really good job on steaks too.

Lots of good stuff in this thread, I'll add a couple of good links.

A good temperature monitor is a must for your smoker. Ones with 2 channels for the smoker and the meat are good. An instant read thermometer is also good to have. The Thermapen One is an industry standard.

Read everything at Amazing Ribs.

https://tvwbb.com/ and T-ROY cooks on YouTube are great resources for the Weber smokey mountain.
I have a 18.5" that I use year round, I put pan in with some water for pork butt, ribs, and brisket, it'll run between 200 and 250F, I pull the pan out for chicken, burgers, sausage, etc. and it'll run around 350F.
As with all Weber products the temperature control sucks when they're new and clean. I've found that cooking a bunch of burgers/sausage/chicken on them under direct heat with a lot of smoke tends to get them all sealed up a lot faster. It all tends to work a lot better on the 18.5"models, the 22.5" tend to have a lot more flex in them and never really seal up great, that goes for the smokers and the kettles.

FXDWG said:

https://tvwbb.com/ and T-ROY cooks on YouTube are great resources for the Weber smokey mountain.
I have a 18.5" that I use year round, I put pan in with some water for pork butt, ribs, and brisket, it'll run between 200 and 250F, I pull the pan out for chicken, burgers, sausage, etc. and it'll run around 350F.
As with all Weber products the temperature control sucks when they're new and clean. I've found that cooking a bunch of burgers/sausage/chicken on them under direct heat with a lot of smoke tends to get them all sealed up a lot faster. It all tends to work a lot better on the 18.5"models, the 22.5" tend to have a lot more flex in them and never really seal up great, that goes for the smokers and the kettles.

Click to expand...

Yeah, these items will definitely seal up a bit better after some use.

It will likely never be great for temp stability, which is just one of the trade-offs you have to make when going with a Weber. Poor seals and thin gauge metal can only go so far.

@LuckyDuck, I would just use it and see how you feel after about ~10 uses or so. There's a big aftermarket and upgrade community with Webers (specifically Kettles, but for SMCs as well), and if that's your thing, it can be a fun road to go down. I've made a few modest mods to my Kettle which I've really enjoyed and made my Kettle a better performer.

I would start off slow and use the SMC as is. Get some smokes under your belt. Learn how to control temps as is, fuel management, managing your proteins and your cook, etc. Then upgrade as you feel needed once you get more comfortable with the SMC and smoking in general and have a better understanding of your needs and wants.

Start with pork loins or shoulders. A simpler approach results in a more enjoyable tasting experience overall. You might be overanalyzing everything, but you will learn more about how to prepare food.

IMO it's a trial and error thing, you will try some stuff you really like and some you don't care for as much and will kind of develop your own style/ techniques.

I also find lots of the inter-webs cooking times are very misleading, could be way longer or could be way shorter. Obviously you are cooking to a temp but it's helpful to be able to ball park a done time for the meal.

If you’re worried about controlling temperatures, this product makes it fool proof. I believe you said you have a ThermoWorks digital thermometer and they’re nice and quick with their inputs. Same with their meat probes, but personally would go with something like below. Both PID controllers will control the temperature of the pit and at the same time, allow you to not have to babysit the cook. It’s nice when you’re starting out smoking, but the ability to go places and control every aspect of my cooks is equally awesome as I’m not tied to smoker the entire time, especially overnight cooks. Bonus is, both controllers allow for additional meat probes to be added and to be utilized for multiple meats, especially if you cook a couple of pork butts at a time. It makes the learning curve so much faster.

Taylorbok said:

IMO it's a trial and error thing, you will try some stuff you really like and some you don't care for as much and will kind of develop your own style/ techniques.

Click to expand...

It's definitely more of an art than a science, that's for sure.

Another note for the OP - read up on "the stall" and how to deal with it. It's very real and will make you batshit crazy if you don't know what's going on. In some conditions it can stall for hours.

@LuckyDuck

Murphy's Law - Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

Peter's Principle - Murphy was an optimist.

CheStadium said:

Another note for the OP - read up on "the stall" and how to deal with it. It's very real and will make you batshit crazy if you don't know what's going on. In some conditions it can stall for hours.

Click to expand...

This is true

LuckyDuck said:

Gentlemen, once again I'm humbled by the wealth of knowledge/experience that you all freely shared here. I sincerely appreciate you all taking the time to chime in. It might just be my personality type but I wouldn't be surprised if this echo's across the SH community of being smitten with tackling a new project and wanting to understand every nuanced detail that you possibly can. As was previously posted- smoking does seem to be more of an art than a science and now that I have the space for it, I honestly can't wait to jump into this hobby.

@notacos4u your input in particular for this thread has been nothing short of amazing and I can't even imagine how anyone can see your previous post and not be immediately salivating. If so, that'd be beyond my level of comprehension. I greatly appreciate all that you've shared here.

-LD

Click to expand...

If you have any questions or want any tips, just pm me, you’ll learn when it comes to BBQ, it’s a giant brotherhood and we’re always here to help one another. I’m not super knowledgeable in regards to shooting and everything prs, that’s why I’m here, to pick others brains and learn in the process, and if I can help others with the things I do have knowledge about, I’m more than happy to assist. As you’ve seen in this thread, there’s a lot of knowledge people giving you some great advice. Just like everything in life, take the time to enjoy what you’re doing. Are you going to be an all star right off the start, probably not, but that’s part of the journey, take the tips and recipes others give you, and then tweak them to your liking.

That’s why I say utilize a notebook and track all the details, so that way you’ll know what worked, and what didn’t, what you liked and what you didn’t… Don’t go making huge changes though, incremental, that way, you’re not chasing your tail. Just be prepared, it is addicting, and you might ruin going out to BBQ places in the future, because as you grow and learn, you’re going to tweak your BBQ to your liking and your palate, and then you’ll go out and be like, I make way better BBQ than this. Oh, and when you decide to do a brisket, as some others have stated, that “stall” it is deceiving…. You’ll be like, holy cow, I expected to cook this thing for 8-10 hrs and it’s already at 165* it’s going to be done in a couple hours…. Nope, it’ll sit there and not move and you’ll be like, WTF…. Anyways, enjoy and as said earlier, if you want or need any advice, just reach out.

TLDR. Chicken gets cooked at higher temps and shorter times than pork. Low temps with chicken ends with rubbery skin. Pork and poultry are two different critters, worlds apart. Compared to pork or even beef, there is no connective tissue to break down in chicken. Pork is forgiving as the temps can splay wildly (windy day and no blanket) and a decent butt can be made. Personally, chicken is on the grate. Pork or beef is in a full size pan with a cooling rack under it to allow for air flow. Some liquid in the bottom of the pan. Texas crutch it when it stalls. Beef and pork for a minimum of 12 to 13 hours at 225-250. Chicken should take less with temps closer to 350-400.

LuckyDuck said:

The discussion here has been so great I just wanted to post a follow-up. The 8lb pork butt ultimately ended up being smoked for something like 14-15 hours, once it hit the right temperature on the probes I pulled it, wrapped it in butcher paper and kept it in the oven after letting it rest for about 2 hours @ 220F just to keep it above food safe temperatures. I then smoked a kielbasa and that turned out pretty dang awesome and I got a bit ahead of myself and tried to throw a whole chicken on the smoker. I was struggling to keep the smoker at the right temperature ( I was aiming for 270 but struggled to keep it around 230) so the 3 hour smoke ended up closer to 6 hours. Just my best guess, but I think that the ash from the pork butt was interfering with things and I was fighting the ash keeping the temperature lower than I wanted yesterday (at least that's my theory for my first go at it).

-LD

Click to expand...

go to your favorite discount shopping center. Purchase a cheap comforter and a mid size cooler. when your pork or beef is done. Foil wrap it and put it in the center of the comforter in the cooler. Will still be too hot to touch in several hours.

You’ll see the term FTC on some cooking forums. Foil, towel, cooler….larger cuts, anything needing a rest, holdover cooks. Heavy duty aluminum foil, beach towel, cheap ice chest. A brisket will hold 4-6 hours easily if wrapped when taken off of your smoker.