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Hello all, my first post. I have a bandera and made the baffle, door gasket, wheel, new door thermometer, and charcoal basket mods. How much charcoal should I go through on a 12 hour brisket. I am trying to guage if I've "tuned" the beast up properly. I used about 30lbs on a previous cihicken and rib cook. It took about 7 hours.
This weekend I am planning brisket, pork shoulder, beef and pork ribs smoke fest with lots of freinds and dont want to mess up. I plan on the brisket and shoulder for 12 hours with foil and a cooler and adding the ribs to cook about 7-8. Sound right? Thanks for your help.

Dave Zook
 
1) Are you using wood to supplement your charcoal ?
2) Have you only cooked on it once ?
 
That seems like an awful lot of charcoal for 7hrs. I buy the two 24lb combo bags from Sams and it takes about 1/3 to 1/2 a bag to fill my basket, which gets about 6 hours. After that it's about a chimney an hour. Now that is using Kingsford. Are you using lump instead? That burns hotter, but a lot faster.
 
Also thanks for jumping in and getting your feet wet but if your party is the second cook you might just drown. At leat that was my experience and a experience it was. More like a farking nightmare.
 
I use chunk hickory and it really sends the temp up when I add it.
This will be my 4th time cooking in it with two good and a bad experience. It sure seems like I use a lot of charcoal at least comparing to what I read in here. I used wally worlds charcoal 60% larger briquets. Maybe Kingsford is the way to go?
Thanks
Dave
 
Right out of the chute.. ya gotta go winth kingsford. The first time I used Wally worlds it did the same to me.. vaporized. I dont think I'd use more than a 1/2 of a bag in 7 hrs, but i supplement with alot of wood and logs. Best bet is go with kingsford and wood.


Second, unless your using a probe thermometer dropped down the chimney and measuring temps in the middle of the chamber, I would be willing to bet you were running hotter. If your going by the door thermometer, be warned it can be off by as mush as 50 degrees. You may have thought you were at 250, but really pushin 300 or better inside the chamber, away from the door. I would not trust the door thermometer unless I've calibrated it against a probe inside.


if you gonna be doin all that meat for guests, heres some rules of thumb...

Brisket: count on an hour per lb in heat, then a few additional hours in the cooler. foil at 185-190 and stick it in the cooler at least 2 hrs. It can stay as many as 6-8 safely. keep the thermometer in it to make sure it dont drop below 140.

Pork butt 1:15/lb.

Whole chicken, 45 mins-Hour/lb...... legs or thighs 3-4 hours, breasts no more than 2 hours.

baby back ribs 4-5 hrs, spares 6-8 hrs.


the brisket and butts are more tolerable to higher temps, so try to stay in the 225-240 range for the ribs, put the larger cuts towards the bottom chickens in the middle and ribs towards the top. it be ok if the brisket or butts see 275 for a little while occasionally.

have fun this weekend.....
 
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