Christmas came early for my trashy self this year. My wife got me a pit barrel cooker early so I'd have time to practice on it for the holidays since I'm on the hook to cook a brisket and pork butt for our Christmas Eve get together. I've cooked a brisket and a pork butt separately on a weber kettle with a smokenator and they turned out great. I didn't crutch either of them, just cooked through the stall and wrapped for the rest. The family likes a good bark. Since this will be my first dual-meat cook I have a few questions for the experts here:
1. What temperature are you all getting the best results? Following the pbc website's lighting instructions I'm getting a steady 225-235. I just read the thread here about lighting the cooker and getting a temp spike to maintain 270-290.
2. Reading Jerod's brisket posts I notice he hangs the briskets for a while then puts them on the grates. What does this do? What happens if you hang a brisket or a butt the entire cook? If it barks up better on the grates, how long do you hang and how do you know when to put it on the grate?
3. Is the difference in cooking time such that I'd need to start the brisket ahead of the butt or is there enough leeway in the time you can rest the butt that you all put them on at the same time?
4. Have you ever had to add charcoal on the pit barrel during a cook? If so, did you just add unlit coals to the basket or did you remove everything and go through the entire lighting process again?
5. Any guesstimates as to what time to start this shenanigan for a 6:00pm mealtime? Using the weber kettle I'd probably have start at 10pm the night before.
So far I'm loving the pbc's capacity. I did four chicken halves as soon as I pulled it out of the box. Did two racks of St. Louis ribs the next day for practice everything turned out pretty good and man oh man the smoke. I didn't use any wood and the smoke smelled so good I had neighbors out there nosing around.
1. What temperature are you all getting the best results? Following the pbc website's lighting instructions I'm getting a steady 225-235. I just read the thread here about lighting the cooker and getting a temp spike to maintain 270-290.
2. Reading Jerod's brisket posts I notice he hangs the briskets for a while then puts them on the grates. What does this do? What happens if you hang a brisket or a butt the entire cook? If it barks up better on the grates, how long do you hang and how do you know when to put it on the grate?
3. Is the difference in cooking time such that I'd need to start the brisket ahead of the butt or is there enough leeway in the time you can rest the butt that you all put them on at the same time?
4. Have you ever had to add charcoal on the pit barrel during a cook? If so, did you just add unlit coals to the basket or did you remove everything and go through the entire lighting process again?
5. Any guesstimates as to what time to start this shenanigan for a 6:00pm mealtime? Using the weber kettle I'd probably have start at 10pm the night before.
So far I'm loving the pbc's capacity. I did four chicken halves as soon as I pulled it out of the box. Did two racks of St. Louis ribs the next day for practice everything turned out pretty good and man oh man the smoke. I didn't use any wood and the smoke smelled so good I had neighbors out there nosing around.
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