The weather has been, well, immoderate since I gave my setup a first try. A deeply discounted chuck roast led me to quit worrying about the weather and try again.
The setup is a Smokenator 1000 equipped Weber Kettle, modified to allow Fireboard probe and a Pit Viper fan. Ambient temp for this smoke is 18F at start, about 22F during the day, plunging pretty hard after sundown to 16F. The roast was marinated in red wine, worchestershire, onion salt, and pesto overnight, pulled from the fridge 2 hours before smoking. Fuel was KBB, with cherry wood chunks embedded in the unlit coals, lit coals added per the Minion Method as usual for the Smokenator. No water in the water pan this time.
This is the roast at about 100F internal.
Here it is when pulled from the fire at about 190F internal
And here's the final product after resting in a 200F oven for an hour or so:
Here's the Fireboard screenshot of the smoke:
You can see I stalled out for about an hour and a half at 147F. I worried, wondered, then raised the pit temp to 250 and wrapped the roast per Meatheads' instructions. Bumped through the stall nicely, but then the ambient temp made recovering from briquette additions more problematic. Overall, though, I'm quite pleased with the ability of the Fireboard/PitViper Combination setup to control pit temps even in these trying conditions.
Summary: It works, and works good. Oh, and the chuck roast was a crowd pleaser!
Regards.
The setup is a Smokenator 1000 equipped Weber Kettle, modified to allow Fireboard probe and a Pit Viper fan. Ambient temp for this smoke is 18F at start, about 22F during the day, plunging pretty hard after sundown to 16F. The roast was marinated in red wine, worchestershire, onion salt, and pesto overnight, pulled from the fridge 2 hours before smoking. Fuel was KBB, with cherry wood chunks embedded in the unlit coals, lit coals added per the Minion Method as usual for the Smokenator. No water in the water pan this time.
This is the roast at about 100F internal.
Here it is when pulled from the fire at about 190F internal
And here's the final product after resting in a 200F oven for an hour or so:
Here's the Fireboard screenshot of the smoke:
You can see I stalled out for about an hour and a half at 147F. I worried, wondered, then raised the pit temp to 250 and wrapped the roast per Meatheads' instructions. Bumped through the stall nicely, but then the ambient temp made recovering from briquette additions more problematic. Overall, though, I'm quite pleased with the ability of the Fireboard/PitViper Combination setup to control pit temps even in these trying conditions.
Summary: It works, and works good. Oh, and the chuck roast was a crowd pleaser!
Regards.
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