HawkerXP I've gotten roughly 7 and 9 hours on my first 2 cooks with the basket filled evenly to the top. Ran a little hot the first time around.
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Did a brisket flat last night on PBC and did a straight up 5.5 hour cook... no wrapping or anything. It was pretty amazing. I used some pecan wood chunks, kingsford blue charcoal and added maybe 15- 20 coals at about 4 hours. Other than that I left it alone.Comment
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That's such a great photo, Bob Hawkinson . For such a simple design, there's a lot going on that an experienced PBC user can see. I bet that brisket was tasty!
Kathryn
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Kathryn,
Wow! What an amazing document! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!Comment
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Siggy Yes it is! We'd love to get an intro from you over in the Introduce Yourself channel when you get a minute. https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...troductions-aa Thanks!
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Hi, Siggy , and welcome to The Pit. I'm glad the information on this topic is helpful to you. I keep updating the first post from time to time, so it's always expanding.
Enjoy cooking on your PBC. It's one sweet little smoker.
KathrynComment
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That was a lot of work fzxdoc . Mine is still in the box. Weather has just not been co operating here in NE IL. Thank you for this guide and Merry ChristmasComment
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Thank you, Baker Dan , for the holiday wishes. I hope this guide proves to be of help to you when you start cooking on that new PBC of yours. You've got a lot of fun and good eats ahead!
Best wishes,
KathrynComment
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Great list, tons of info - thanks so much for this! Being fairly new to the PBC, my only bit of grumpiness about it has been new stuff and experimentation... the videos on the PBC website are great, but if you're looking for new ideas its not the easiest info to find sometimes. Well, until you're lucky enough to stumble onto AR that is! :-) This thread will be a big help towards "mad scientist" mode for me. LOLComment
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I just got a PBC and live in Anchorage AK. I plan to smoke some pork butts and or brisket this weekend. We have a forecast temp in the teens to the 20's F with humidity in the 60-85% range. I have not used this cooker yet but have read through the reviews and info I can find. I have a few basic questions.
Do you have any recommendations for cooking in the above conditions?
I have seen time estimates from between 5.5 hrs to 9.5 hrs for a full packer brisket (mine are 13 lbs in the package and are prime grade). That is a pretty big time variance and was wondering if there is something I can control causing that difference.
From what I have read it looks like the full load (8lbs) of coal in the PBC will do about 7 hours. I can't find anything on how/when to add coal to the PBC for a longer than 6 hr cook time.
Any information is appreciated.....or even if you can point me to where I missed any of the above information.
Thanks!
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lbowe1979 , the biggest variance in the cook times is the temperature of the PBC itself. That's why, when I wrote up the information, I tried to include variables such as PBC temp, final meat temp, and whether the meat was wrapped (Texas crutch) or not.
Once you trim that 13 lb full packer brisket according to Meathead's recommendations, you will most likely have a 9-10 pounder or so. You'll know in plenty of time, especially if you choose to dry brine it overnight.
Cook time is more dependent on thickness than on weight, though, so bear that in mind.
When I do long cooks in my PBC, I overfill the basket to start with--a nice rounded pile of charcoal, then take out 40-42 briquets for the chimney. I use the lighting procedure outlined in the Light My (PBC) Fire sticky topic (15-10-10), because I like to smoke my briskets at 270 or so. I've done them at 225 in the PBC, starving the fire of oxygen by closing the lower vent and doing a 15-10 fire lighting procedure instead, but can't say they were any better. They just took longer. Plus I don't like choking down the fire in my PBC. It's meant to run at its sweet spot and I don't like to mess with that.
I get cooks with an overfilled basket at an ave PBC temp of 270 or so that last on average about 10 hours.
To refill your basket should the need arise, remember that it probably won't be necessary until after you've wrapped the meat, which is good. Just put your briquets in the chimney, light about 15 minutes or so, remove the meat temporarily, and pour in the hot coals.
Don't add cold coals to the basket--it will create some really nasty smoke, potentially. Not good, especially on unwrapped meat.
If your meat is not wrapped and still hanging, remove it as well, even if you can wiggle around it and pour the hot coals. Pouring hot coals into the basket stirs up a fair amount of ash, and you don't want bitter-tasting ash coating your meat.
I live in the southern US, and it can get cold here, but not as cold as you experience. I don't notice an appreciable difference in cook time when cooking down into the 20s deg F as long as the wind isn't blowing. Colder/windier than that, it's anybody's guess.
Since you'll most likely be putting your cooked meat into a (faux) cambro for an hour or more, be sure to factor in that amount of time as well. Cambroing is pretty forgiving, so if you start earlier than usual to allow for the lower ambient temperature and the meat happens to be done sooner than planned, it will do just fine in the cambro for the extended period of time.
HTH,
Kathryn
Oh and P.S. for that prime brisket, take it to probe tenderness, just as you do with any long-cooked meat in the smoker. Some folks have reported that prime brisket is probe tender as low as 190 degrees, while others say they've taken them up north of 205 degrees. Just be aware that probe tenderness may occur sooner than the magic 2-0-3.
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We've got a Minnesota-based cold-weather PBC pro ( Spinaker ) that gets 10+ hours by using what he calls his OCD method for loading the coal basket. Have a look about halfway down here: https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...ence?pp=260724Originally posted by lbowe1979 View PostComment
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Thank you all for the above responses and tips! That definitely helps.
I had also sent a message to the PBC email about this and got the response that the external temp should be no issue. They seem pretty confident that a whole packer will take about 5.5 to 6 hours on the long end for the total cook time yet I have seen quite a few listing the longer times on this website using the PBC. I get the feeling that the info on this site is based more on experience and the info I got over there is based on their website. I think I will error on the side of too much time and make up the difference with the cambro like you pointed out.
Mbmorgan......I will definitely be trying that coal stacking technique!Comment
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Hi, I'd like to bring the conversation back to 8 racks of Babybacks on the PBC. I'm gonna assume that because of this amount of mass, I'm gonna have to crack the lid to keep temps up?
I did 3 racks a few weeks ago, finish time was about 3.5 hrs - what kind of time can i expect with this cook .. thanks - TimComment
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Probably so, SoCalTim . It depends on what temp you like your ribs smoked at. I prefer around 275°F, so you may have to crack the lid to keep the temp there. That mass of meat will most likely give off a lot of humidity, so cracking the lid will keep the air flow up and the fire hotter.
I've never done that many racks of ribs before in my PBC, but have loaded it down with other meats. Once I get a good light on the coals and proceed with the cook, some full-load cooks sail right through while others need closer watching if I want to stay in the neighborhood of a certain PBC temperature.
I know this doesn't answer your question specifically, but perhaps if you start a separate topic in the PBC forum someone will be able to give you a more concrete answer.
KathrynComment
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fzxdoc - cannot thank you enough for all the valuable information....i'm so excited to try some of these tips and techniques! Another question - what would your process look like if you wanted to do chicken + ribs on the same day? I've always done both at the same time and pulled the chicken off when it was done (1.5 hrs into cook). Not thrilled with results.
What seems better is use your higher heat method and do the chicken only first...then remove chicken when its done and let the pbc settle to a lower temp for the ribs cook. Would take more hours this way but seems optimal so you get the chicken cooked at the higher temps and ribs at lower temps. Thoughts?Comment
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I've done it before the way PBCDad describes since ribs take longer to cook, and chicken can be done in just over an hour at the higher temps. You may want to pour a fresh chimney of coals into the basket to help get the temps up after removing the ribs, depending on how long your rib cook lasted. Pull one rebar out for the chicken cook too.
Have fun with that cook, stickbit , and let us know how it turns out.
KathrynComment
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