Anyone cooked in the cold weather with the PBC? Just curious as to how it affects it. I have only cooked on a ceramic kamado in the cold and only a couple of cooks with the PBC in warm weather so I don't know what to expect. It is supposed to get to a high of 35F today and I have 2 racks of St Louis spares to cook. Rather than go with the sure thing I want to get more experience with the PBC.
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Founding Member
- Aug 2014
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PBC
Brinkmann Professional Single Zone Charcoal Grill (Not as bad as you would think)
ECB (Retired)
I did a turkey for Thanksgiving, the air temp was around 30ºF To crisp up the skin I wanted to keep the cooker in the 325-350 range. I had to feed it a lot of extra charcoal to do that. Your cooking time will probable be longer than normal at 35º but staying in the low and slow range for two racks you should be fine.
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I just did one on Thanksgiving on the PBC. I was in Central Illinois at my parents and there was 2" of snow on the ground. I did not hang it. It was an 8 pound bird and I also cooked a 5 pound boneless pork roast. I did not hang them but used the rack. Turkey cooked much faster than anticipated on the rack and the skin was crisp. All in all, with two racks of ribs hanging and the correct amount of charcoal, you shouldn't have any problems. If it seems like the temp is dropping, crack the lid. Hope this helps.
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Founding Member & Pit Barrel Cooker Queen
- Jul 2014
- 7688
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My toys:
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Weber Kettle Premium 22" named Kettle Kid, eager to horn in with more cooks in the future
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I did a 13.5 lb turkey on my PBC on Thanksgiving. The ambient temperature was 31 degF and falling.
I pulled one rebar for the entire cook to keep the temperature at an average of 331 deg F. That turkey (spatchcocked) was done in 1.5 hours! I was surprised. It was the best turkey ever.
Method: Spatchcocked, dry brined for 24 hours with PBC All Purpose Rub (rub and oil under the skin, rub mixed with baking powder--no oil-- on top of skin), rubbed skin with oil and lightly sprinkled with more PBC AP rub just before hooking and hanging in the PBC. Added oiled foil booties to keep the lower leg bones from burning, since the legs hung about 4-5 inches above the coals.
Here's how I did the temperature maintenance.- Kingsford Original full basket; took out 40 coals and put into chimney and lit one of those wax dealies under the chimney.
- Let chimney burn for 15 minutes (I'm at 3700 feet elevation)
- Took both rebars out
- Poured the hot coals on the cold ones in the basket and used a rebar to evenly distribute them over the surface.
- Let the coals burn with the lid off and the rebars out for 10 minutes.
- Put one rebar back in and hung the turkey. Added a 4 oz chunk of applewood. Put the lid on tight. Left the other rebar out for the entire cook.
- After 5 minutes the temperature was 300 degrees and started to slowly inch down
- Cracked the lid for 18 minutes until the temperature came up to 397
- Lid back on securely and over the next hour the temperature gradually but steadily decreased to 303.
- Cracked the lid again for 11 minutes; temp only rose to 319 but stayed very close to that for the next half hour. By then the turkey was close to being done
- Cracked the lid for the last 10 minutes to help crisp the skin. (and boyohboy was it crispy!)
- Total cook time: 1.5 hours
Suffice to say that PBC cooked like a champ despite the below freezing temps.
From this action shot you can see there were still plenty of coals left at the end of the cook:
KathrynLast edited by fzxdoc; November 29, 2014, 01:53 PM.
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I smoked with mine at 5 F here in Minnesota. It did fine, I cracked the lid just a bit to allow a slightly hotter fire. Still worked great. I was cook a whole chicken at the time. If you are going to do something that will take longer than 3 or 4 hours you may want to add some fuel if the lid is slightly cracked. Good Luck!!
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Founding Member & Owner of SnS Grills
- May 2014
- 4890
- Charlotte, NC
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Founding Member
- Jul 2014
- 1910
- Leesburg, VA. (Northern, VA)
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We have two weber kettle grills (one LARGE and one small/average), the SnS and the Weber Smokey Mountain 18" smoker. We use both natural lump charcoal and KNB for smoking and measure our temps with a Maverick 733, thermopen and MK4. Favorite beer depends on what is cooking (alt answer is yes).
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Founding Member & Pit Barrel Cooker Queen
- Jul 2014
- 7688
-
My toys:
Weber Summit Charcoal Grilling Center (WSCGC) aka Mr. Fancypants
Pit Barrel Cooker (which rocks), named Pretty Baby
Weber Summit S650 Gas Grill, named Hot 'n Fast (used mostly for searing and griddling)
Weber Kettle Premium 22" named Kettle Kid, eager to horn in with more cooks in the future
Camp Chef Somerset IV 4-burner outdoor gas range named AfterBurner due to its 30kBTU burners
Adrenaline BBQ Company Gear:SnS Low Profile, DnG, and Large Charcoal Basket, for WSCGC
SnS Deluxe for 22" Kettle
Elevated SS Rack for WSCGC
SS Rack for DnG
Cast Iron GriddleGrill Grate for SnSGrill Grates: five 17.375 sections (retired to storage)
Grill Grates: six 19.25 panels for exact fit for Summit S650
gasser
Grill Grates for 22" Kettle
2 Grill Grate Griddles
Steelmade Griddle for Summit gas grill
Fireboard Gear:Extreme BBQ Thermometer PackagePit Viper Fan (to pair with Fireboard Fan Driver Cable)
Additional control unit
Additional probes: Competition Probes 1" (3) and 4" (1), 3 additional Ambient Probes. 1 additional Food Probe
2 Driver Cables
Pit Viper Fan new design (to pair with Fireboard Fan Driver Cable)
Thermoworks Gear:Thermapen MK4 (pink)Maverick ET 73 a little workhorse with limited range
Thermapen Classic (pink too)
Thermoworks MK4 orange
Temp Test 2 Smart Thermometer
Extra Big and Loud Timer
Timestick Trio
Maverick ET 733
Maverick (Ivation) ET 732
Grill Pinz
Vortex (two of them)
18" drip pan for WSCGC
Ceramic Spacers for WSCGC in Kamado Mode: 2 sets each 1/2", 1", 2". The 2" spacers work best with the 18" drip pan. The 1+1/2 inch spacers work best with the 14 inch cake pan.
Two Joule Sous Vide devices
3 Lipavi Sous Vide Tubs with Lids: 12, 18 and 26 quarts
Avid Armor Ultra Pro V32 Chamber Sealer
Instant Pot 6 Quart Electric Pressure Cooker
Instant Pot 10 Quart Electric Pressure Cooker
Charcoal Companion TurboQue
A-Maze-N tube 12 inch tube smoker accessory for use with pellets
BBQ Dragon and Dragon Chimney
Shun Classic Series:8" Chef Knife
6" Chef's Knife
Gokujo Boning and Fillet Knife
3 1/2 inch Paring Knife
Richinlbrg, I first heard about adding baking powder (I use the aluminum-free kind) to salt (or in my case a salty rub like the PBC All Purpose rub) when dry brining from Cooks Illustrated which had some interesting methods to produce a more crisp skin on oven-roasted chicken. First they loosen the chicken skin from the meat and poke any areas of the skin that have fat deposits to let the fat out more efficiently during cooking. Then they add baking powder to their salt and pepper rub (1:3 baking powder to salt). Next let the rubbed chicken sit uncovered, breast side up, in the fridge for 12 to 24 hours to dry the skin out. The skin begins to crisp at temps above 300 deg F they say. They roast the chicken in a hot oven (450 deg F) until the breast is 135 deg F, then they amp up the oven temp to 500 deg for the remainder of the roast. I figured if it worked for chicken, it would work for turkey.
Dr. Greg Blonder, our food science guru, also has a post about using baking powder to help crisp up poultry skin here.
And Chef Kenji Lopez-Alt from SeriousEats.com also recommends using a baking powder/salt mixture on poultry skin to help dry it out so it will be crisp when roasted. Here's what he says:
Adding baking powder to a dry brine can also improves your turkey skin. Not only does the baking powder work to break down some skin proteins, causing them crisp and brown more efficiently, but it also combines with turkey juices, forming microscopic bubbles that add surface area and crunch to your skin as it roasts.
I like a 1:2 ratio (baking powder:rub) when I use the PBC All Purpose Rub. For a 13-15 lb turkey I use only a tablespoon of rub and half a tablespoon of baking powder for this step since I will be sprinkling on more rub right before I smoke it and I don't want the skin to get too salty.
I find that leaving the bird uncovered in the fridge longer than 24 hours makes the skin leathery, so I stick to 24 hours or fewer.
Our PBCs have a lot of humidity in them, so to counteract the rubbery poultry skin that can result in a cook, I like to add baking powder to the skin's rub, let it dry overnight in the fridge, and amp up the temp in the last ten minutes of the cook (after the bird reaches 150 deg F) to bring it home to 160 deg F with a crisp skin.
From a crispy skin viewpoint, I didn't always succeed but I always tried, and I must say I'm getting better at it. With this turkey, it was a home run.
KathrynLast edited by fzxdoc; November 30, 2014, 07:05 AM.
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Thanks,Steve. When I see posts I like, I copy them and paste them into a Microsoft Word document. It has headings for various meats, fire maintenance tips, etc. That way, when I'm ready to cook, say, pork butt, I just refer to the pork butt section for extra tips or great ideas that I get from everyone here.
Kathryn
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smarkley, when I want to bookmark something I hit "control d" and I can save it to a folder in Firefox I have set up food links. I can rename the link to whatever I want. You can also hit the follow button at the top of the post
Good stuff Kathryn!!!
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Originally posted by Deuce View PostExcellent post on your turkey cook Kathryn. Nice tip on the baking soda .
Sounds like either one would work.
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Founding Member
- Jul 2014
- 1910
- Leesburg, VA. (Northern, VA)
-
We have two weber kettle grills (one LARGE and one small/average), the SnS and the Weber Smokey Mountain 18" smoker. We use both natural lump charcoal and KNB for smoking and measure our temps with a Maverick 733, thermopen and MK4. Favorite beer depends on what is cooking (alt answer is yes).
Thank you, Kathryn! Explained well........and I understood it, too!! First I'd heard of this. Think I'll wait until my second turkey smoke to try it. Going to try my first turkey smoke this weekend.
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Founding Member
- Jul 2014
- 1910
- Leesburg, VA. (Northern, VA)
-
We have two weber kettle grills (one LARGE and one small/average), the SnS and the Weber Smokey Mountain 18" smoker. We use both natural lump charcoal and KNB for smoking and measure our temps with a Maverick 733, thermopen and MK4. Favorite beer depends on what is cooking (alt answer is yes).
I shall!! And then ask for help in correcting the issues. LOL. Although, the temp is 41, it is pretty windy, so the temp is a bit of an issue. Haven't go e to the blanket, yet.
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