Digital Thermo w/12+ Probes - Suggestions?

[ebijack]

I don't temp briskets, or butts, or ribs.
Poultry, yes. As I prefer minimum 180* IT.
I go by feel, color etc.
If your #15 brisket typically cooks for say 11 hrs. What ever.
That is your base line. Adjust time by size of briskets of when to check.
I like the process.
I prefer long hold times. This also aids in giving you extra time in case something went wrong, need extra time.
But that is me.

You want to know how even your cooker actually cooks. Again I would not use probes. Move one over 2" and you'll get a different reading in some cases.
You really need to place meat/objects where they block/change the flow of air/heat.
Load 8-10 thin cut ham steaks into your cooker. Spread out on as many grates as you want to use. For example.
Within 1 hr you should start to see where your hot spots are. Or are not.
IMHO, more accurate than a bisket test.

 

[Pig_Farmer]

Try Omega Engineering for some compact 16 channel temperature data loggers.

 

[SonnyE]

I would go the multiple unit route.
That way if something goes hooey, just move things around, or bring in the spare.

Man, what the hell did Great Grandpa do? :wacko:

 

[SmokinJohn]

Try Omega Engineering for some compact 16 channel temperature data loggers.

OMG. I'm going to tempt the gods and build mine.

My version would cost much less than those.

 

[bvbull200]

I don't temp briskets, or butts, or ribs.
Poultry, yes. As I prefer minimum 180* IT.
I go by feel, color etc.
If your #15 brisket typically cooks for say 11 hrs. What ever.
That is your base line. Adjust time by size of briskets of when to check.
I like the process.
I prefer long hold times. This also aids in giving you extra time in case something went wrong, need extra time.
But that is me.

You want to know how even your cooker actually cooks. Again I would not use probes. Move one over 2" and you'll get a different reading in some cases.
You really need to place meat/objects where they block/change the flow of air/heat.
Load 8-10 thin cut ham steaks into your cooker. Spread out on as many grates as you want to use. For example.
Within 1 hr you should start to see where your hot spots are. Or are not.
IMHO, more accurate than a bisket test.

I go by feel, color, probe tenderness, etc., too. Always have and have no plans on changing that. :noidea:

I greatly appreciate the discussion and anything that comes from it, but there are some assumptions that are rather inaccurate and keep diverting this from "how to get 12 probes" to "how to smoke a brisket". Let me try to reset.

I don't currently use meat probes. I don't currently use pit probes, either, let alone a controller. Hell, heat caused the backing on one of my dial thermos to come loose, so it doesn't work at all. Everything done in there is based off of one dial that reads a lower rack. That's plenty - I know exactly how that thing cooks. How it cooks with one brisket vs four. How it cooks with or without a diffuser or water pan.

Thermopop gets turned on maybe twice during a cook to see how it's coming along. That combined with look/feel gives a sense of when I can expect to need to check for tenderness, but a probe or thermo hasn't been the chief indicator of when to pull a chunk of meat. Nothing in this inquiry is meant to suggest that a probe will ever be the chief indicator. With full acknowledgement given to the fact that perfection is a perpetual pursuit, I'm not trying to figure out how to cook a better brisket with this particular inquiry.

Of course I will be learning how the new smoker cooks, what quirks it has, if there are any hot/cool zones, etc. I'm a little surprised at the aversion to good, accurate information in here. A $100 Thermapen is a must over a $20 unit, because it gives accurate information quickly, but some ham slices will tell you more about what's going on than an actual temp reading? Crazy. That thing will cook differently with 12 briskets in it than it will with 12 ham steaks.

I've done plenty well cooking without much data to go on, but I acknowledge that more info is always better than less info. At a point, the extra data quickly diminishes in value (making the cost to obtain it prohibitive), but at no point does knowing more make you capable of less.

At any rate, there are a few suggestions in here I can run with. I'll keep on checking my options, cooking by feel, and learning my equipment (as always).

Have a fine day.