Competition Practice using PBC

[Nate]

I have a competition coming up with categories of: Chicken, Pulled Pork, and Ribs. The trick is going to be that the cook time could be as short as 6 hours. I just got the PBC about a month ago and have not had a chance to practice to much or compete using it. I am taking the Kettle with SnS as a backup and to help power through if need be.

Setup:
~Used hinged grate and put Pork Butt on the grate part (the cut of meat wouldn't allow me to hang it as I didn't have butcher twine to hold it together and it had a major weak spot)
~Pork Butt went on and ran for 4 hours then I wrapped it at 158* to help power through and get done in time
~Ribs were hung and on for 2 hours, pulled, sauced, and then put back on for another 30 minutes
~Chicken was split into two halves (because we will receive whole chicken to cook) and cooked for 2 hours

Some observations:
~My PBC settled in at a lower temp than I was hoping for. Ran 250 and I was hoping for 275-300. I cracked the lid a few times to get it back up there
~ I lost the fire and coals on the side of the PBC where I was hanging the ribs and chicken (and brats for fun). The side where I had the Pork Butt on the grate kept some coals but they were pretty well spent after 4 hours and the temp had dropped off to low 200s and would recover.

Results:
~Pulled Pork: Came off of cooker at 201 and was only able to rest for about 30 minutes. Overall it was better than average. There were enough good pieces to use for a turn in box. Sampled with a couple of BBQ sauce mixes (mostly blues hog original and the vinegar style version)
~Chicken: Cooked up well. Pulled the dark meat and shredded it. Used a Blues Hog Original and Vinegar Blues Hog mix
~Ribs: Turned out very well. Bend test was spot on and the pull when biting was just right.

Overall pleased with the results for the first time cooking all those things at once on the PBC and doing it in a hurry to try my best to replicate what the event timing should be. Hoping for some good results at the comp.

[Thom Emery]

Good luck
Main thing is remember to have fun

[Nate]

BBQ'd_Nuke , I ran the 8lb butt on the PBC and was done in around 6 hours at 203 internal temp... can't remember avg pbc temp but was probably around 275-300. Crutched it around 170*. I tied for first in pulled pork so I can't complain too much.

[BBQ'd_Nuke]

Well good deal then. I guess I'm coming from a different viewpoint since I don't crutch my butts. Mine usually take 8-9 hours.

[BBQ'd_Nuke]

And congrats on first place!

[jecucolo]

I have cooked several competitions with the pbc. It is quite challenging! Congratulations!

[Nate]

jecucolo , any tips, tricks, pointers, strategies, etc... ? I'm open to suggestions. What scared me a little was one side of my coals burnt up fast. It was the side where the ribs and chicken were hanging.

[fuzzydaddy]

I should not have looked at your photos Nate since I'm now wanting to fire up one of my cookers and I've got nothing to put on them. I'll take some of your practice meat any day!

[Nate]

Thank you sir! I was pretty pleased with it being first time i had done ribs or pp on the pbc.... and that i was trying to keep the entire cook inside a 6 hour window.

[jecucolo]

I been lucky so far my pit did not have any problem loosing coals.. It stayed hot the whole time. I have cooked brisket, chicken and ribs. I placed 8th once in chicken. I'm pretty new to the whole smoking thing. I have realized there are some real good "off the chain" pit masters out in the competition world. My strategy has been to schedule evey move i make -up to how many times I open the lid. My schedule has turn in times, how far the walk is to turn in food, every ocd thing I could think of. It helps but you have to have some real "chops" to place. Quite a humbling learning curve.
I enjoy it for the time with family and learning a new skill.i learn something new each time and you gotta cook to learn.

[Nate]

Thanks! Luckily this is a little unsanctioned backyard style comp for a county fair so my beating hopefully won't be too epic lol... i have made a schedule based on my practice run and allowed a little time for error. Thanks for the encouragement and advice!

[Jerod Broussard]

Nice practice run!

"Practice?!! We talkin' bout Practice??!!"

[Breadhead]

Isn't that a basketball term...😎

[BBQ'd_Nuke]

Yeah, that was Iverson...

[CeramicChef]

Very nicely done! Kudos and congrats to you here. I wish you well in your competitions! Have fun and enjoy.

[Nate]

Thanks Chef!

[fzxdoc]

That sounds like so much fun, Nate , using the PBC for competition like that. I bet everything tasted great on your test run. You should have had a party afterwards so you'd have help eating up all that food.

About the coals burning out--the average temperature of the PBC stays pretty constant no matter where the hotter coals are. Certainly it's hotter on the vent side for the first couple of hours then the hot spot shifts to the side opposite the vent for the next couple of hours before it all evens out. Even though the fire looks "out" its still got plenty of punch. With a full load of coals in the basket, there's no reason why you won't get 250+ for 8 hours, and with an overfilled basket as much as 12 hours.

I wish you lots of luck for Competition Day. You're going to blow them away with the flavors of the various meats you'll be smoking.

Kathryn

[Nate]

fzxdoc Kathryn,

It was weird and I should have taken a picture... I will do my best to describe it.

The intake vent sits directly in between where the two holes are for the bars on one side. When I put my charcoal basket in I placed it the handle on the charcoal basket ran in the same orientation as the bars would. I then placed the hinged grate in the same manner so one side could hang ribs and chicken and brats and the other side could hold the pork butt.

The strangest thing was that the side of the charcoal basket that had the ribs, chicken, and brats on it... the coals were just gone... and the side the Butt (fat cap down) was on still had a mound of coals going... There was literally a dividing line right where the handle for the charcoal basket was at... I don't know if so much juice from the chicken and ribs went down that it accelerated the burn or what?

I attached a picture of the setup that you may be able to see... But it really was like one side had a quarter of coals left and the other side had nothing... it wasn't a closest to the intake vent or farthest from vent thing.
In the picture the vent would have been on the right side of the picture on the bottom in between the bars. The bottom of the picture where ribs and chicken are hanging is where the coals disappeared.

[fzxdoc]

Wow, that IS weird! I've never seen a PBC burn like that in all the many, many cooks I've done on it. It's something for the record books! You must have had a super fatty chicken.

[BBQ'd_Nuke]

Was the chicken patted nice and dry? I've had 48 lbs of meat in mine at the same time and I didn't have that happen. I had 3 racks, 2 briskets, and a pork loin together and the coals burned nice and even.

[CandySueQ]

I would guess it had to do with how air moves in the cooker, plus that fat flash consuming coals. Chicken fat is actually "fiery-er" than pork fat in my experience. More pellet cookers have burnt out from chicken fat than from pork and beef fat.

From cooking on the Gateway last weekend (ribs only), I noticed the same kind of burn pattern. Right underneath the ribs the coals were gone. There was still heat on the edges. I really like that the hang holes in the PBC let you run a temp probe in the cooker. There's no way to do that in the Gateway.

[Nate]

Thanks Candy. That info helps and will make me be a little more conscious of what is going on in fire and to monitor it more when opening the lid when adding, wrapping, etc..

[RonB]

Your test cook looks mighty good Nate .
Have fun.
Learn something.
Make new friends.
Spread the word about this site.

Ron

[Nate]

Thanks... Pit Boss sent me some handout cards about AR that I'm going to pass out at this comp and a few other backyard cooks I'm scheduled for this year.

[fzxdoc]

fzxdoc Kathryn,

It was weird and I should have taken a picture... I will do my best to describe it.

The intake vent sits directly in between where the two holes are for the bars on one side. When I put my charcoal basket in I placed it the handle on the charcoal basket ran in the same orientation as the bars would. I then placed the hinged grate in the same manner so one side could hang ribs and chicken and brats and the other side could hold the pork butt.

The strangest thing was that the side of the charcoal basket that had the ribs, chicken, and brats on it... the coals were just gone... and the side the Butt (fat cap down) was on still had a mound of coals going... There was literally a dividing line right where the handle for the charcoal basket was at... I don't know if so much juice from the chicken and ribs went down that it accelerated the burn or what?

I attached a picture of the setup that you may be able to see... But it really was like one side had a quarter of coals left and the other side had nothing... it wasn't a closest to the intake vent or farthest from vent thing.
In the picture the vent would have been on the right side of the picture on the bottom in between the bars. The bottom of the picture where ribs and chicken are hanging is where the coals disappeared.

Nate , I had a chicken cook last week (2 chickens, split and also 6 sausages in my hanging sausage basket) and I had the exact same thing happen with the coals as you did. Two split chickens on one rebar and two split chickens plus the sausage basket on the other.

As you're standing in front of the vent opening, the coals on the right side were completely burned away while the coals on the left side were maybe 50% burned if that. Thing is, it had nothing to do with the chicken fat. That whole side burned hot from the get go, even before I added the chicken. It was if it was the only side getting any oxygen. The other side was burning coals, but not at the rate of the hot side. Plus it was the other side that had the dripping and sizzling fat from the sausages, so I would have expected it to be burning hotter. But it wasn't.

The only difference between the two sides were the meats hanging over them (one side with sausages and the other without) and the fact that I had a 4 oz chunk of cherry wood burning on the hot side. Surely that chunk of wood had nothing to do with that side burning hotter. I've never seen hot spots due to the position of the wood before.

I used Kingsford Performance charcoal and kept the temps 325+ for the whole chicken cook.

It was the weirdest burn I've ever had, and if you hadn't described it on this topic, I would still be scratching my head over it. The only difference between your burn pattern and mine is that the hot sides were opposite--your hot side was on the left, and mine was on the right as you're standing in front of the vent. Just as you described, it seemed as though the basket handle was at the dividing line.

I had two smoker probes in, one close to the vent side and the other on the opposite side. Those temps read within 20 degrees of each other, maximum, but most of the time they were within 2 degrees of each other.

I threw out about 1/4 basket of unburned coals the next day, all from that cooler side of the basket. The other side of the basket was totally ash.

Kathryn

[Nate]

Ok well at least I know I'm not the only one now. I haven't had it happen again yet but I will let you know if it does.... If it becomes a trend I may run it up the flag at PBC and w/ Noah to see if they know anything about it.

[fzxdoc]

Nate The good thing was that it didn't affect the cook. I switched sides with the chickens about halfway through just to be sure, though.

Kathryn

[BBQ'd_Nuke]

Maybe you do this already, but I make sure to use one of the rebar when I dump my chimney in to spread the lit coals out evenly on top of the basket. Might help if you don't already do that....

[John Tanner]

I've had my PBC for 4 years now and I use it all year long up here in the Great White North. The only issues around temperatures fluctuating from cook to cook that I've experienced are from trying different briquettes from different manufacturers. Within a cook, the PBC has been ridiculously consistent from the start of the cook to the end and I usually get 8 hours minimum out of a full basket of Kingsford original and depending on the time of year and the outdoor temperature, I average 275 to 290 on my Maverick--I'm good with that range--throughout a cook.

You need to make sure you get a layer of lit coals on top, make sure the air intake is set (1/4 open here in Toronto) and the rebar's are in place and the lid on tight. Let the fire settle, then stir the coals to knock loose ashes to the bottom, add whatever wood you want to add, then add your meat and close. Every hour...hour and a half or two hours, gently stir or knock the coals or coal basket to knock the ashes to the bottom (I use an old broomstick) and of course, add more wood if you want.

It does NOT matter if the coals appear to be burning in one spot or not, the heat rises through the barrel and cooks the food and the active, burning fire moves around the fire basket. After a cook, I would say I always have almost 100%--I don't mean 95 or 96%--of the coals burned......there's just the odd piece of coal and the rest is ash. If that's not happening for you, there's something strange going on and it should be related to oxygen or the type of charcoal you're using. I strongly recommend knocking the ashes during the cook, it works for me.

[fzxdoc]

The problem with knocking the ashes off during the cook, John Tanner , is that it can stir up some ash, and ash is pretty bitter-tasting. Some folks wipe the ash off their food, but I don't because I think I'd be wiping smoke flavor off as well. So I avoid ash deposits on my food at all costs.

So far my PBC consistently finds its sweet spot at 275 and holds that temperature well throughout a long cook. Like you, I use the PBC year-round and its temperature runs rock solid, rain or shine, winter or summer. I use Kingsford Original for all cooks except poultry, for which I like to goose up (pun intended) the PBC to 325-360 degrees and use Kingsford Professional for that.

I don't find the need to knock the ashes off, but wouldn't hesitate to do so if the PBC temps start to dive. It's good to know that you have success doing that. Thanks for the tip!

Sometimes I wish there was more clearance under the fire basket or a way to clear the ash that builds up under the fire basket because I think that air flow is most likely impeded by that buildup.

Whenever I add hot coals, I always remove the meat first and give the ash time to settle back down before putting the meat back in.

Like you, my coals are completely burned by the end of all my PBC cooks except perhaps a small coal or two, but sometimes not all of the wood is.

That's what made this one particular chicken cook so weird. To have exactly half of the basket reduced to ash while in the other half, about 1/4 of those coals remained (burned down but not to ash) was something that had never happened to me before. When I remembered that the same thing had happened to Nate, I just had to come to this topic and tell him he's not alone!

Kathryn

[John Tanner]

Honestly, I'm really gentle when I stir the coals! ;-) I've never had an ash problem.

Did those briquettes that didn't burn right down get a lot of "drip" from the food that slowed or stopped the burn? That seems strange.

[fzxdoc]

Nope, John Tanner . The smoker was pretty balanced with two chicken halves on each rebar. The only difference was one rebar also had my modified sausage basket filled with 6 sausages. I thought it might have been food drip at first, but the fire burned that way from the get go, and stayed the same even after I rotated the chickens. It was one weird cook.

Kathryn

[CandySueQ]

I'm loading my drum into the van to hang ribs for contest tomorrow! I was really pleased with my test rack, looking forward to seeing results Saturday.

[Nate]

Good Luck Candy! I'm getting ready to pack up the PBC tonight so I can go meet a buddy at a local festival. We are doing a little practice competition cook for a bigger cook off that we are doing on Oct. 8.

[CandySueQ]

Have fun!