It's 12 am...do you know what temp your meat is???

[BBQchef33]

also.. mesquite alone on pork aint a great choice(opinion). Its a real strong smokey wood. Hickory or oak and fruit woods do better with pork. Mesquite is a beef wood, at best i add a few chunks occasionally on butts or ribs, but usually reserver the mesquite for beef cuts. And saiko is right on, go with charcoal as your proimary heat source and add chunks of wood for flavor. Do this till ya get better at fire control. Then start going more and more wood.

heres some rules of thumb. butts and shoulders 90mins per lb, 165 for slicing, 190+ for pulling. use the feel of the meat(TK's signature tong test is good) but start checking at 190. I wrap at 180.

brisket 60 mins lb. wrap at 180 if they are not done, but some briskets may be tender at 180. Foil at 180 and checdk every 20-30 min bu stickint the probe into the flat. If it goes in like butter, your done. Again, use temps to know when to start checking for feel, but dont use temos to gauge doneness.

 

[BigAl]

Me, I was driving through a strip mall and saw beautiful blue smoke on the other side of the parking lot. Went over and two guys were selling Q. I waited in line and got a good spare rib samage for $5.00 smoked over apple wood. Took about 5 min. to buy and eat

 

[Neil]

Me, I was driving through a strip mall...

Isn't that kind of dangerous? Understand it happens in Florida all the time
with all their geriatric drivers down there.

 

[Saiko]

I used a little less than 1/2 bag of charcoal...tried to stick mostly with mesquite chunks...smaller than the size of my fist.

I think this is your main problem. When I first smoked with my bandera (after using a WSM for a couple of years) I tried using those small wood chunks as a fuel source and had the same problem. They are so small and combustionable, that it's "all or nothing": You get a big burst of hot fire, then nothing. The result is very uneven temps that are either too high or too low.

Trying using charcoal as your ONLY heat source, not wood. Only add a couple of wood chunks at a time to the charcoal bed as a source of smoke. Using charcoal is nothing to be ashamed about, watch any barbeque competition on the food channel and you'll see tons of people using all-charcoal fires.

When you are ready to switch to all-wood fires, you are going to need bigger chunks of wood that can maintain a more constant temperature. Unfortunatley, the bandera fire chamber is small for a wood fires, so you can't use chunks that are too large either. For me, the perfect size is about the size of a Foster's beer can:

 

[jeffsasmokin]

will it over cook if I leave it in with the brisket will about 8 am (6 more hours) at a 175 - 200 degree temp? Should I foil?

Butts, brisket, loins, chuscks, I do them all the same

165, foil and back in the cooker, out at 190 and into the cooler for 2 hours or more.

butts will be like budda

That's the trick! Totally agree with Bill!

 

[racer_81]

Me, I was driving through a strip mall...

Isn't that kind of dangerous? Understand it happens in Florida all the time
with all their geriatric drivers down there.

I don't wanna think of Al and strip at the same time...... :shock: