225º Is Now "Old-School"?

[Razor]

I was on the Virtual Weber Bullet site last night and came across a post where a person was having problems keeping temps low in their WSM. Reading through the comments I was a little bit surprised when I saw this;

Why do you want to cook at 225 ?

IMO, ya get better smoke from charcoal / chunk barbecue , if you cook at higher temps, like 275. The wood burns cleaner.

IDK of many people these days, who still cook at 225 or even lower than 250.

Did I miss the memo? Is 225º now old-school?

[Attjack]

Hot and fast is the trend.

[Andrrr]

I’ve really only ever done 225 but I’m going to start trying hotter because.... well, it’s faster and I don’t always have the time or energy for the really long charcoal cooks.

[DeusDingo]

most people are finding that there really is no difference in the quality of BBQ you get between the two temperatures but there is a significant time difference

[jfmorris]

I've started doing more cooks at 275 than 225, but do think that I can tell a slight difference between a butt done at 225 versus 275, but its slight enough to where I'll take the time savings more often than not. I only cook at 225 now if the schedule works for it. I.e. put the meat on at bedtime for dinner the next afternoon.

[scottranda]

Precisely! Depends on my time table.

[Nate]

225 is required for great bbq is a MYTH... I had a great thread about it but it went to the slaughterhouse and was killed...

Honestly when it came to stick burning I had to fight my cooker to keep it sub 275... but it ran like a champ and much more consistent without as much tinkering when it was running at 275...

My minimum temp now is pretty much 250 - 275... like jfmorris said... there may be a very slight difference but I don't think it is discernable to the average joe who is eating Q and doesn't have one plate of meat labeled that it was cooked at 225 and another saying 275 in front of them... I also think you can compensate for this by a nice hold in a faux Cambro.... Anymore I would rather cook at the higher temp and use the time savings for a 2 hour or so hold in the Cambro...

Also a lot of other factors.... humidity, cooker, altitude, cut of meat, blah blah blah blah… not sure you the cooker temp can always be the definitive reason something did or didn't turn out as you wanted it.

But then again in the words of the philosopher Billy Joel, "You may be right, I may be crazy"

[Andrrr]

That meme got me. Too funny.

[Dan Deter]

If I hadn't strained my back this morning I would have fallen out of my chair laughing at that meme

[Huskee]

I too avg 250 lately. If my cooker swells up to 275, so be it. If it drops to 210, so be it. I choose not to stress about that, because like you say it all works out in the end anyway, why make it stressful chasing the 'perfect' temp? Never have I eaten my ribs or brisket and thought 'this was cooked 50 deg too high/low.'

[parkerj2]

I think someone would be lying to you if they said they can tell a difference between meat cooked at 225 vs 275.

[Troutman]

Well, I'll let you know what I think. In the last oh say 100 years we've had this shift...let me graph it out so you can understand where I'm going with this ......


Now try not to get bogged down in the detail too much.....I think maybe there is a better way to explain it with this graph......


....or NOT. I give up, ya'll just cook at whatever temp gets you fed. Trout is out.

[Troutman]

I blame it all on Trump !!!

[smokenoob]

I need to find my button that says "We have charts & graphs to back us up so f*** off"
you could wear it proudly!

[Troutman]

smokenoob where'd you come from, out of the Florida swamps?? Good to hear you're still alive !!

[Thunder77]

I have found that in my kamados, it is difficult to get any smoke at all at 225. Also, the higher humidity in a kamado easily allows higher cooking temps. I shoot for around 250-270 in the Primo. The only complaint i usually get is that there wasn't enough food.

[Oak Smoke]

+1 here. The same reasons I now cook brisket at 300.

[fzxdoc]

I think I've cooked at 225 maybe twice in my BBQ life. I honestly couldn't tell the difference in taste, texture, or moistness. Just convenience. So why cook at 225, which also takes a toll on my beer tolerance (my one-beer-per-cook limit stretches as the cook time increases), I ask myself. The meat is better, and so am I, at cooks above 250°.

Seriously though, it's all about knowing how to prep the meat, when/if to wrap, meat removal time, cambro time etc. much more than it is about cooking temp, IMHBBQO.

Kathryn

[Huskee]

Easy solution: 3 beers per cook!

[fzxdoc]

Oh gosh, Huskee , I'm such a cheap drunk that I wouldn't be able to find my smoker with two PitMitts after the second beer!

K.

[Steve R.]

225 is just a number; one that is even less relevant without the context of what cooker you are using. With the stickburner I formerly used, chasing 225 was a fool's errand, since it really ran best at 250+. I will occasionally set the PartyQ on my kettle to 225 before I go to bed just to ensure it takes long enough for me to get a decent night's sleep, but that's about the only time. I would much rather just "get it done" and then hold in a faux Cambro or warm oven longer at the end.

[Huskee]

Good info. I agree! I can get lower temps on my stickburner using shorter pieces of wood, (less fuel= less heat) but I think a lot of them want to be in the 250-275 range comfortably. It's all just a number like you say!

[klflowers]

My WSM dictates my temps. Sometimes it wants to run at 225, sometimes at 275. I just set it for somewhere around there and let it go until the meat is done. I got you people to thank for that - before AR, I worried about 225 and fiddled with the vents and suffered from a lack of sleep and an overabundance of alcoholic beverages until you guys straightened me out.

[mnavarre]

I'm confused about the "suffered from...an overabundance of alcoholic beverages" part.

[klflowers]

mnavarre, I suffered later in the mornings

[kenrobin]

I completely agree.... trying to chase 225 is an unnecessary exercise of frustration. Most times its best to let your cooker do what it naturally wants to do & being somewhere in between 225 & 275 is perfectly OK!

[Bumby]

It could just be fiction...but I start most of my cooks on my pellet smoker at 225. If the cook is going slower than I want after a couple of hours, I may increase it. At that point, most of the smoke that is going to penetrate has already done so.

[mrteddyprincess]

From what I have read about pellet smokers, there's more smoke penetration at lower temps, so it's a good idea to start low, get penetration, then crank it up. That's what my Traeger buddy does and it seems to work well for him.

[surfdog]

mrteddyprincess That’s how I’ve started using my father’s Traeger. The best pulled pork to come off that thing was in intervals starting at the lowest "smoke" setting.

[Razor]

So if you go +50º as some here say do you know how much time it saves? For example I've been figuring 1.5 hours per pound at 225. At 275 can you say 1 hour per pound? (As an average of course.)

[Oak Smoke]

Let the meat tell you when it's done. I use a a bamboo skewer, when it feels like butter as you probe it, it's done. The other thing to watch is internal temp.

[Polarbear777]

If it scales at all, it would likely be against thickness not weight. However it’s more complicated than that because the stall will be different.

[jfmorris]

I would say that’s a close guess, based on my experience doing 8# butts at 225 versus 275. At 225, it seems they would take 12-14 hours. At 275, closer to 8-9.

[Pequod]

Can’t remember the last time I cooked at 225. I’m in the 275 camp.

[Craigar]

A very fitting avatar for the season!

[Pequod]

I figured I’d cut to the chase and insert the soap before I accidentally utter the "queen mother".