Loading Smoker

I don't think there is any general way to load a smoker. Each one may be different due to the heat distribution of the smoker. I cook chicken on top, butts and brisket on second or third and ribs on fourth. I do also mix them around sometimes depending on what temp we are cooking at.

From my understanding, the only one you really need to worry about is the chicken not dripping on anything, and even then, some people say that doesn't matter as the temps should be high enough to kill any germs. A lot swear by putting pork on top so the pork fat drips on everything else to add flavor...

Whichever is done first goes on top. Don't want raw anything dripping on whatever is below it if the below meat comes off first.

Some restaurants use rotisserie smokers where everything rotates and drips on each other including the one I used to work at.

I always put chicken on the bottom. For reasons listed above. Other than that, its fair game for me.

Everyone has different thoughts and preferences on such matters. Thus here is how I load my Vault if doing a assortment of meat. Beef on the top rack, pork on the next 2 lower racks and chicken on the bottom rack. No scientific reason for why I do it this way. It just seems to work well so I stick with it. One thing I do really like about this method is that brisket drippings on chicken is awesome!!

For reasons of safety, yes, be careful with raw chicken juices....


think in terms of being NEAR the end of a cook & having the raw juice drip onto something (beef, say) that's about to come off done & the chix liquids don't get a chance to cook thru well enough.....might be OK, might be dicey....

Let's be careful out there !!!!

And, now we have one vote for & one a'gin beef juiced chicken....this could get interesting......:biggrin1:

If you watch chicken Rest.that rotis thier chicken they start them at the bottom and move up as they cook some and add more to the bottom with drippins dropping on lower ones.When bar gets top its done.

SGH said:

Everyone has different thoughts and preferences on such matters. Thus here is how I load my Vault if doing a assortment of meat. Beef on the top rack, pork on the next 2 lower racks and chicken on the bottom rack. No scientific reason for why I do it this way. It just seems to work well so I stick with it. One thing I do really like about this method is that brisket drippings on chicken is awesome!!

Click to expand...

Same here.

Beef
Pork
Chicken

SGH said:

Everyone has different thoughts and preferences on such matters. Thus here is how I load my Vault if doing a assortment of meat. Beef on the top rack, pork on the next 2 lower racks and chicken on the bottom rack. No scientific reason for why I do it this way. It just seems to work well so I stick with it. One thing I do really like about this method is that brisket drippings on chicken is awesome!!

Click to expand...

Beef dripping on anything makes it awesome.

From a foodservice perspective this is how we are trained....at least when storing.

Swim- top shelf Anything that swims goes on top
walk- middle anything that walks goes in the middle
Fly- bottom If it flys it goes to the bottom.

Reasoning? Each must be cooked to a certain temp in order to kill bacteria. In other words if raw beef juice gets on chicken, all the bacteria will be killed from being cooked to a higher temp. Etc....

With that said, i like the answer above about working from the top-down in the order that things need to be removed. What i do is section the cooker top to bottom left to right. Example: all pork on the right, then brisket, then ribs, then chicken. The reason I do it like this, is so the seasoning and flavors all stay the same. i don't want my pork seasoning on my pork, etc.

Just my .02

happy Q'en
Phillip

My time lines allow me to foil each item before I place the next meat on or above. However, a foil pan between each rack to catch the drippings will allow you to do whatever.