Overnight Bronco Cook

[Reds Fan 5]

OKJ Bronco pitmasters: Finally have time for a brisket or pork shoulder and don’t want to get up at 4am. I don’t have a fan/controller.

Concerned about both fire safety around the house/patio and fire management while asleep.

Any experiences, advice?

[bmillin]

Define overnight. How long do you want to go on one load of charcoal? What are your ambient temps?

[Reds Fan 5]

6 hours sleep. I can get 8+ hours from a load of charcoal in the Bronco. Overnight temps here should be mid-low 70s

[J-Melt]

Do you have a digital thermometer that will alert you if anything changes too much temperature wise while you sleep?

[Reds Fan 5]

Yes

[tstalafuse]

I did a butt this past weekend and was able to get 16+ hrs at 225 with the outside temp being in the upper 40s to lower 50s in the Bronco, so you should be able to get plenty of cook time for an overnight cook. The good thing about the Bronco is that once you arrive at a stable temp, it pretty much just goes into autopilot. Yes, it will wander some, but I wouldn't worry about that too much. Use your probe to let you know if it is getting more than +/- 10 degrees from your target cook temp. As far as fire safety, keep it several feet away from anything flammable (our building code says 10ft) and you shouldn't have any issues. I have never had problems during the cook with sparks getting out of the cook chamber once the lid is down. As a precaution, keep the garden hose handy or a fire extinguisher by the back door.

[J-Melt]

I usually trust my grill to not catch fire with my leave in probe telling me that something is way off. In my kettle, I always have it a 20 degree or so variable on both directions and figured it would go off if a fire started.

[DTro]

I have done a few overnight pork butt cooks. Give yourself more time than you expect you will need. Don't worry about the exact temperature of the Bronco. Instead, set a very broad range. I shoot for 250 degrees but set a range of 220 to 280 degrees. Temps will swing through the night and you don't need to worry about them. I was only awoken once when the temps dropped down to 220 due to an unexpected passing shower. I have the smaller Bronco and have gotten 14 hours from a full basket of B&B briquettes and char-logs. Enjoy your nap!

[jfmorris]

I smoke overnight all the time, using my kettle, my kamado or my offset. The offset is a pain though as it requires tending the fire more often, so I rarely do overnight with that one anymore.

As long as your Bronco is in a fairly fireproof area, I would not worry much about it. The risk of fire and/or sparking charcoal is mostly when lighting a chimney. I have yet to be smoking low and slow, and see sparks go through my cooker, past the meat, and out the top. If grilling with the vents wide open - maybe. Smoking - no. Smoking, on the Bronco - you are running a minion setup with the coals slowly smouldering and burning out from the middle, with little to no open flame down there. And its at the very bottom of the cooker, probably under a diffuser as well.

I shoot for smoking at about 250F, and set my Smoke temperature alarm to wake me if the grate temp goes above 300F, or drops below 200F. If you wake up before the fire gets out of hand, so that you can go bump a vent closed a little, you will be perfectly fine.

[hoovarmin]

What jfmorris said I agree with completely.

[Steve R.]

As long as you give it adequate time to settle in before going off to bed, you should be just fine. The only time I have had trouble holding low and slow temp is if I get in a hurry and put the meat on while the cooker is still getting warmed up.

[Reds Fan 5]

Thanks for the helpful responses. I am Bronco veteran and comfortable dialing it in and confident in its ability to hold temps. Just never slept through half of a cook!

[klflowers]

My Bronco is on my wood deck on a fire resistant mat. I have done an overnight cook, no fan, just a maverick xr50 thermometer set up. No problems at all. Once she gets to temp, she just runs. It was a fall cook, so kind of cool, maybe mid 6os.

[hoovarmin]

This 👆

[Steve R.]

Yep. If you can run a WSM, you already have the basics down for the OKJ Bronco, only maybe a little easier to run.

[Reds Fan 5]

Overnight cook underway. Costco choice whole brisket. Dalmatian rub with mustard binder. KBB, oak chunks. Bronco dialed in at 225. Curious how this will go. Maverick says IT is already 123 degrees in the thickest part after only an hour. Can’t imagine it’s cooking that fast at 228.

[Steve R.]

Lots of fat to be rendered in the point, so you're good. The flat is the important part to monitor.

[Reds Fan 5]

Damn it. Went to bed at 11:30. Brisket rolling along at 228 grate temp, 123 IT. Woke up, checked it at 6:20am. Grate temp 137, IT 130. Plenty of charcoal left, just didn’t ignite. Great bark. Smells great. I don’t think it had been below 225 long. Put brisket in oven at 225 while smoker gets back up to temp.

I must have slept through the Maverick alarm or it didn’t sound.

Pretty much the scenario I worried about doing an overnight cook. Fortunately the brisket is for dinner

[JLR]

If you got your bark, then the oven works. You lost some time so if you need it today you might have some problems. Otherwise, it should be fine.

[Reds Fan 5]

JLR the brisket is for dinner. Not entertaining so flexible on when to serve. I’ll run it hotter and wrap.

[HawkerXP]

Nice save!

[Reds Fan 5]

Thanks! Let’s hope it’s ok. Rolling the dice a bit on food safety. The bark and aroma are amazing so hope it works.

[HawkerXP]

Can't wait to see it.

[Sid P]

I don’t think there’s any way you got to 123° in an hour. Was it high 30’s when you started?

[Reds Fan 5]

That’s what I thought. I don’t remember where it was when I started.

More concerned now about the overnight smoker temp drop.

[Sid P]

I think you have a bad probe or other thermometer problem. If your grate temp was always 137+, your brisket couldn’t fall back to 130. Have you tried switching the probes, or do you have a different meat thermometer?

[J-Melt]

I would concur about a bad probe. I had a Maverick that I ended up replacing with the Smoke from Thermoworks. I ended up realizing that my grate temp was actually way lower than the maverick ever told me, resulting in consistently too long cook times.

[Sid P]

What temp in the oven? I’d be up at least 275 to make sure there’s time to rest it appropriately.

[Reds Fan 5]

225 but it’s going back on the smoker and I’ll run it hotter.