My first smoker (ECB), my first pork butt, oh what a story

[JasonF]

So Saturday I fired up my new ECB that I'd been waiting to try out. I had burned a bunch of Kingsford in it on Friday night to break it in, and it ran just fine. The internal thermometer on the lid never got too far in to the "ideal" range, but I figured that was because I had the charcoal pan on the ground (rather than up inside the unit) and the cold ever-blowing wind was probably swirling around inside with the heat from the charcoal- not a big deal.

So Saturday, I load up some lump charcoal in my chimney starter, get it fired up and ready, prep the grill & the meat (which had been rubbed 48 hours prior and waiting in the fridge, then allowed to stand at room temp for about 45 minutes).... I dump the first load of hot coals from the starter in the pan (which this time is mounted properly up in the ECB), rig the water pan (is this thing really needed??) and the cooking grills, and I set an oven thermometer on the cooking grate, closed the top and walked away.

I came back 20 minutes later, stoked the charcoal by adding a handful or two of new coals, then checked the thermometer- barely 140. Crap!

I tried for an hour to get it hotter, but I could never get the temperature over 150 degress at the cooking grate in the ECB.

Some questions:

1. What if I don't use the water pan, and instead, move the lowest cooking grate down to the pan level, and rest a shallow drip pan there to catch any drippings (rather than letting them fall directly down in to the coals)?? Then I could move the upper cooking grate down to the lower grates level, where it would be closer to the fire, and probably a bit hotter.

2. I moved the smoker as far out of the wind as I could, but unfortunatley it was whipping up pretty hard on Saturday, and pretty cold (my bowl of water that I throw wood chunks in to soak them as I cook froze over during my little adventure!).... and I had nothing I could wrap the smoker with to insulate it with (such as I've seen in some pictures from other people).... was it perhaps just too cold & windy to use the ECB with no way of insulating it or protecting it from the wind?


So after almost 2 hours of trying to get the smoker up to temp, I bailed on it and fired up my Weber kettle. Yeehaw! Finally, temps over 200! :) I put the meat on, mopped it, and went away for an hour. I did the normal procedure of add hot coals ever 90 minutes or so, and mop for the next oh so many hours, but it seemed like the meat thermometer didn't want to get above 160... finally 10 hours after this adventure began (at 1pm on Saturday), I pulled the butt off the kettle when the internal meat temp was between 170-175 and I was going to bed (and I wasn't going to tend the fire all night I was so upset with it at that point!)..... I sliced open the meat, and WOW!!

Wonderful aromas filled the kitchen! Steam poured off the meat as I unwrapped the foil it rested in the past 2 hours.... my wife came to the top of the stairs to ask if I was coming to bed soon, and quickly came downstairs to inspect my handy work when she could smell it across the house!

I sampled a little as I sliced and wrapped everything up and put it in the fridge, and yum, yum, yum!! I know what's for dinner tonight!! :D

[BigAl]

Looks good, what cut and kindof meat is it?

Tips: Next time put HOT water in your water pan at the start. Water pan is to stablize temp insde cooker and in my case adds moisture, it's dry here. And don't soak your wood chunks in water per the real experts on this site, makes white smoke instead of blue.

[BigAl]

ops, did not read title!

[willkat98]

150 in the ECB? Wind definitely was a factor, but I need to axe you some questions.

1. How much fuel you using? 10# (or roughly half a 20-22# bag of Kingsford) should be in the pan. Put 10# in there, then remove enough to fill your chimney starter. Once grey, add to coals in pan. wait for the rest of the pan coals to turn grey (in windy conditions, will be about 15 minutes).

2. I have a question based on your #1 suggestion of whether water pan is necessary (it is, and agree with Al on using hot to boiling when outside temps down). From the way you describe it, I just want to walk through assembly so we are both talking the same thing.

Charcoal pan is placed at the bottom of the ECB, supported by either lower pegs or I think the leg assembly. Water pan is seated on the pegs midway up the chamber. The first cooking grate is place right on top of the water pan. The second cook grate is placed on the pegs right below the top. Lid rests on these pegs also.

Is this how you assembled it? I was a little confused by how you worded it above.

Soooo. If you did have the thing assembled right, and you did have the right amount of fuel, then it was purely wind related. Get a box. Any big box will do. I use one from a kids car seat. Just open the bottom, and place it over it like a sleeve.

2Fat uses a 55gal drum with the bottom removed.

On days when wind isnt a problem, sometimes you will want a little wind to heat the coals up. Shouldnt need to stir on the ECB for a good 3 hours. Stir up the coals, then pull out an old hair dryer. Give it a quick blast of oxygen (not too close or ash flies all over.) Just a breeze in there. (Think Greg uses a leak blower)

In my ECB, once I remove wind from the factor, I am usually complaining that she runs too hot.

So give a little more info and we'll see who can over you some 2cents's of there own.

My ECB is now my portable smoker. Throw it in the back of the van, and always Q while on vacation.

[JasonF]

Bill-

Thanks for the awesome reply.

Yes, based on your description, it is assembled correctly (I actually bought it assembled off the floor of my Ace Hardware store). I did check the instruction book first, and I thought it looked properly assembled.

Also, I did have the racks in their right places per your description.

But, here's what I think may have been the problem (based on the input so far):

1. I didn't use hot water. I just ran it straight out of the tap, and it takes several seconds for my hot water to even kick in when it's only on hot- so it was probably very cold water in the pan. I'll bet that water was eating up a lot of the heat energy the coals were putting out..... lesson learned there for sure!

2. I didn't use that much (ie, enough) charcoal. I filled my chimney starter to the top with the lump charcoal, then dumped it in the charcoal pan and threw another 2 handfuls on top of it..... I was probably underfueled from the beginning.


Thanks for the input though, it'll definitly help me straighten a few things out for next time. Maybe if the weather is better (and if I can convince my wife, ha!) I'll fire up the ECB again this next weekend and try a butt again.... :D

[willkat98]

Even if you don't have a big enough box, I have cut one box open, and leaned up against it on the wind side, secured with bricks.

Anything to limite that wind.

I have even put a sheet of ply wood against my gas grill, when I need 8 feet across of deflection. This is useful when I am turkey frying.

I butt up against an open expanse, so wind is my biggest enemy year round.

[BigAl]

Another Tip: Take meat out of the frige before you start the fire and let it warm up to room temp. The last 13.89 lb brisket I did was at 34F when I stuck the digital probe in and the outside temp was about 30F. Takes a while and a lot of heat to get that large of piece of meat internal temp's up from it's refigrator temp.

[willkat98]

Good point Al. This is especially true when you add a couple of roasts at once.

When I load up the WSM, it can take quit a while to get the temps above 200 and stay there.

First 2 hours in the 180's is not uncommon for me.

The offsets are different. You can fark with the flames and bring up temps all you want, unlike the bullets.

[chad]

Congrats! I understand the frustration - my first pork butt was well cooked but I had to chop the pork since I didn't wait on it.

Now, granted, I don't have the wind/cold issue but the rules are the same. I agree with Bill and Al -- you needed to start with more charcoal - I use about 5-10 pounds in the fire pan and then light off a full chimney (minion method). Also, I use boiling water in my water pan (I use my turkey fryer - it's heating up the water while the chimney is getting hot). I rarely have a problem with low temps and keeping it hot enough is usually not a problem once things get going.

I have the "Gourmet" model with the slotted enclosed fire pan and so that may make a difference in how I manage my fire vs. the even less expensive ECBs (I think I spent $44) :D

Give it another shot. Once you get a good one out of the cooker it'll all become crystal clear!!

[Bigdog]

Yes, letting pork and beef warm up to room temp. is a good idea. Don't do it with poltry though.

[Solidkick]

Nice smoke ring! The boys have already given you great advise, so there's not much more to add. Some people do use sand in the water pan instead of water, but I'm not an advocate of it. Just heat up the water pan on the stove to near boiling before putting it in the smoker. Try adding some cut up apples or pears to your water pan for a fruity addition to the meat, or a couple of onions for that oniony flavor. smell really good while it's cooking!

All in all, though you may be just a little disappointed with the way your cook process turned out, your 1st butt in a charcoal/wood cooker kicks mine's A$$ to the curb.
I can cook a mean butt in the electric, but have yet to have success in the 'dera.

You've done well, young grasshoppa!

[Saiko]

One thing I have discovered over the years is that our worst que is still better than anything you can get at a restaurant. We are all such perfectionists by nature that while we are walking around muttering about how bad everything went, everybody else is chomping away on the best barbeque they have had in months, if not years.

One of my best turkeys I have smoked was with apple wood that became soaked after a heavy rain, and was the worse battle with temps I have ever had. I was alternating between a smoldering ember producing no heat to a raging inferno, and this went on for 4 hours. I was ready to kill myself when it was finally done, but damn if it wasn't the best smoked turkey I have done in a while.

[threesticks]

J-
Ditto almost all of Solidkick's post. The main thing here is you didn't have a boatload of starving folks over to eat.

Chuck (aka threesticks)

[BBQchef33]

you got a whole boatload of anssers.. so all im gonna add.. DONT soak the wood. Makes it smolder, makes white smoke, makes bitter smoke... yuk ...... soaking is for when your grilling, but for our purposes, you want theat woood igniting and turning into a glowing coal.