Marathon Thread....Too Big Too Quick??

[BBQ4FUN]

I posted my results of my first butt smoke a couple weeks ago. Lets just say it was awesome. Now after my brother and his wife were here to enjoy the good food, they are coming over again this weekend for another cookout. I invited another couple that are good friends. Meanwhile while we are working today 2 of my employees say..."Can you cook a butt for me"? So instead of doing 2 butts for me and our gathering, I'm doing 4 butts for us and them. I had one successful smoke of a pork butt. Now I'm getting nervous because everyone is expecting nothing but the best. :becky:

So.... The wife and I got our shopping list all in order tonight. ABT stuff (this will be a first) Fatty stuff (another first) Home made slaw. I do have a little helper supposed to show up Friday.... DigiQ DX. And Plowboys BBQ Yardbird Rub 14 oz., Plowboys BBQ Bovine Bold Rub 14 oz.

I'm planning on getting up at 2AM and having the meat on by 3. Allowing 12 hours for the cook of the butts. Eating between 5 and 6PM. Fatty is for breakfast Sat. morning. Will do the ABT's after I take the butts off to rest.

Well I think I have rambled on enough for now. I will post pr0n as the day progresses. STILL NERVOUS!!

[PatAttack]

No need to be nervous. Sounds like you have a good plan. Be sure to take pics.

[landarc]

Good luck, nothing wrong with ambition

[Crazy Harry]

Have fun and good luck. You will do a good job.

[Phrasty]

Dont stress it man! Do exactly what you did last time and keep it simple! Just keep an eye on beer consumption on these long cooks! :thumb:

Sounds like a killer spread! I'll be looking out for your post... no pressure! :wink: :heh:
Remember you always have us to fall back on! I'm sure it'll be great Brother!

Cheers

[RevZiLLa]

You already know how to do this :D

[syndicate559]

yeah, don't sweat it. Go in with confidence. You'll be fine. Fatties and ABTs are pretty hard to mess up, in all honesty. Pulled pork is pretty forgiving too. What are you cooking on?

[bigabyte]

Good luck. Don't let time get in the way if it starts to. Just be cool and do what you gotta do to crank out the best product you can.

[BBQ4FUN]

yeah, don't sweat it. Go in with confidence. You'll be fine. Fatties and ABTs are pretty hard to mess up, in all honesty. Pulled pork is pretty forgiving too. What are you cooking on?

Cooking on the UDS. DigiQ DX supposed to be here Friday. Get that installed and hoping all is stable after the first couple hours. I pretty much got it down to stable without it already...but I'm a tech junkie so I just had to have it. :-D

[Callahan-que]

It sounds like you've got a plan and you already done one so no need to worry. You've got the hardware and you know what your doing. Have fun with it, enjoy!

[Meat Burner]

BBQ, not sure what the marathon reference is but just relax and it will be okay. Don't overthing it bro.

[colonel00]

Exactly as others have said, just be cool and it will turn out fine. Plus, take confidence in the fact that butts are very forgiving and can handle higher temps and temp fluctuations. The most important thing is to cook them til they are done. If it takes foil due to time constraints or preference, so be it. Also, plan to let them rest for a good while before pulling. I usually rest for an hour or two minimum.

[Norcoredneck]

Good your starting early. Remember coolering is your friend. finish early cooler, clean yourself up, pop a beer and enjoy. Pull butts out of fridge as early as possible. 4 cold butts is a hell of a load to overcome.

[Harbormaster]

Nothing to worry about. You have the greatest BBQ resource known to man right here.
Not me, The BBQ Brethren.

[Rookie'48]

Let's see Des Moines to Clinton is .................. nope, I wouldn't make it in time for the wife's family get together. You've got all of the advice that you need ^^^^^ .

[Smoking Gun]

Good your starting early. Remember coolering is your friend. finish early cooler, clean yourself up, pop a beer and enjoy. Pull butts out of fridge as early as possible. 4 cold butts is a hell of a load to overcome.


^ This. It's going to take a lot more heat/energy to get 4 butts to 195 than it did for 1. Norco is a UDS expert so he knows more about the amount of fuel it will take but in my SNP I usually have to adjust the tuning plates to keep temps even across the grate on big smokes. A cold 10 lb butt soaks up a lot of BTUs.

[BBQ4FUN]

Rubbed and getting happy.
55870

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[BBQ4FUN]

Can't wait till 2am!!

55892

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[BBQ4FUN]

And we're off.....

Seems like everything is working like it's supposed to. Thinking fatty will be ready to pull around 6:30/7:00. Nice having a piece of mind with the DigiQ DX2 that I will be able to take a little nap. :-D

[Norcoredneck]

Well how about an update?

[BBQ4FUN]

Bright (well not so bright) and early. 5 butts and one fatty.

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk276/baja101/Big%20Smoke/100_1279.jpg

Had to have some of this to get me going.....

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk276/baja101/Big%20Smoke/100_1281.jpg

Fatty off after about 3 hours. This was my first attempt at a fatty. Everything seemed to go well except a VERY intense smoke flavor. Not sure what was up with that.

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk276/baja101/Big%20Smoke/100_1282.jpg

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk276/baja101/Big%20Smoke/100_1283.jpg

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk276/baja101/Big%20Smoke/100_1284.jpg

I will post more later when the butts are ready to come off. Thanks for looking.

[NorCal Q Man]

Looking good so far. Good luck!

[gazza]

Looking good mate, cant wait to see the butts

[Black Dog BBQ]

Nice pic.s of the fatty! Lookin good!

[BBQ4FUN]

The Digiq DX2 works so good I had time to go check my deer camera.

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[qnbiker]

I had one successful smoke of a pork butt. Now I'm getting nervous because everyone is expecting nothing but the best.Once it gets out that you cook good Q, everyone will be wanting some. If you don't learn to selectively say no or start charging, you will be a busy boy.

[BBQ4FUN]

Once it gets out that you cook good Q, everyone will be wanting some. If you don't learn to selectively say no or start charging, you will be a busy boy.

I hear ya. That's why I'm doing 5 butts today. Each of my 3 employees wanted me to do one for them. Been about 12 hours now and the bottom rack with the 4 butts on it is reading 184. Single butt on top rack reading 163. Just got the jalapeno peppers cut in half, devained and seeded. Soaking in cold water for 30 min before stuffing and wrapping. So far the day is going well. (I hope anyway) Oh and I got a nice nap in also. I'll say it again...thank God for the Digiq DX2.

[Pyle's BBQ]

Gonna be a tough deer season if that is all you got on your trail cams. :-P

[cameraman]

Are you sure you know what you're doing? I don't know, this sounds like a game plan for disaster. What if it rains? What if the fire goes out? Man those people will never talk to you again, especially the people who's butt you ruined. Oh this isn't good. Not good at all. :wink:

[BBQ4FUN]

Just pulled 4 of the 5 butts off. I really need them bear claws. Almost fell apart right in my hands. Resting in cooler. ABT's about to go on. The butt on the top rack was about 20* short of temp so that one is still on.

Pyle, I have had my cameras out for some time now. The one camera I'm just getting a lot of pics of a doe and triplets. The second one we put out a couple weeks ago we got 1 decent buck and a bunch of smaller ones. October 1st can't come fast enough. :-D

[BBQ4FUN]

Are you sure you know what you're doing? I don't know, this sounds like a game plan for disaster. What if it rains? What if the fire goes out? Man those people will never talk to you again, especially the people who's butt you ruined. Oh this isn't good. Not good at all. :wink:

Well I guess that is always a possibility but this time it worked out. Beautiful (not really) 90+* outside. And since this is the first time cooking for someone else I'm glad it's just my employees. :becky:

[cameraman]

I knew you could do it. Never had a doubt.

[BBQ4FUN]

Well I have to give props to the DigiQ DX2 and the Mavric ET-732 for making this first big smoke a huge success, not to mention a lot easier. Everything turned out great!! Had my brother and his wife over and a couple that are mutual friends. After supper I was told by our friends that I can cook for their wedding. LOL Glad everyone liked it. ABT's turned out good. One thing I cant figure out is it tasted to me like the ABT'b were smoked in a house fire. Same as the fatty this morning. Our friends said it didn't taste like that to them. Maybe double smoking bacon don't agree with my palate. Seems it was just me that had this issue. Everything aside, I classify this as a great smoking day and everyone was happy with the end result.

Now to pull 2 butts that have been hanging in the cooler for a few hours to freeze for a later date. :-D

[JMSetzler]

Well I have to give props to the DigiQ DX2 and the Mavric ET-732 for making this first big smoke a huge success, not to mention a lot easier. Everything turned out great!! Had my brother and his wife over and a couple that are mutual friends. After supper I was told by our friends that I can cook for their wedding. LOL Glad everyone liked it. ABT's turned out good. One thing I cant figure out is it tasted to me like the ABT'b were smoked in a house fire. Same as the fatty this morning. Our friends said it didn't taste like that to them. Maybe double smoking bacon don't agree with my palate. Seems it was just me that had this issue. Everything aside, I classify this as a great smoking day and everyone was happy with the end result.

Now to pull 2 butts that have been hanging in the cooler for a few hours to freeze for a later date. :-D

What wood were you smoking with? 3 hours seems (to me) like a long time for a fatty. Hickory and Mesquite get quite acrid in high doses.

[BBQ4FUN]

What wood were you smoking with? 3 hours seems (to me) like a long time for a fatty. Hickory and Mesquite get quite acrid in high doses.

I ran the fatty to 165 IT. I did use Hickory. I think I had 6 or 8 pieces scattered threw out a bags worth of KB. They were smaller than fist size.