To Halve and Halve Not: Kettle/P-smoker comparison

[DaveD]

Hey folks, today is my first direct comparison experiment between my new SnS kettle and my Pit Boss vertical pellet smoker. For SCIENCE. I cut the 7.4lb/3.4kg butt into two pieces (To Halve...), attempting to get equal halves, but one definitely came out larger than the other (...and Halve Not).

Trimmed most of the fat cap, dry brined overnight, trussed up to make them more equant, hit 'em with Memphis Dust a while before putting them on. Target temps are 250F/120C, IT target 200+F/93+C for pulled pork deliverables.






A very nice day here in northern Virginia. Double the smoke, double the fun! The P-smoker is using Cookin' Pellets Perfect Mix, SnS is on B&B charcoal and apple chunks.




And away we go... updates during the day.

[RonB]

I am lookin' forward to the results.

[radiodome21]

Me too I just put my SNS kettle together last night. That was a process 🙄 but now that’s is assembled it’s just taunting me to use it. And I need to make pork butt for 40 people next month so this is a very fitting thread.

[Panhead John]

Let me guess, the sweeper blades and its’ handle assembly? That was a PIA for me, you too?

[WayneT]

Great experiment Dave. I’m looking forward to following along.

[Jim White]

Smoke 'em if you halve 'em.

[DaveD]

EPIC. EPIC. EPIC!

[WayneT]

Had to read it twice. Nice pun!

[Panhead John]

Great post Dave! Looking forward to the results. My bet is on the kettle. Just a suggestion here, but I like to keep the meat a little further from the coals than you show in the pic. I actually try to keep it as far as possible from the SnS insert. Keeps one side from barking up too quickly.

[Panhead John]

You’re welcome bro!

[Purc]

I agree and I turn the meat around every so often just because.... I can't' prove it is better, but I feel better about it.

[Panhead John]

+1

[DaveD]

Everything is nominal a couple of hours in. SnS kettle holding rock steady at 250F/120C, and the kettle butt is up to 130F/54C, with the pellet butt at 124F/51C. The Meater+ app's remaining time estimate is 3:31 (Meater is in the pellet smoker piece), whereas half an hour ago it was 2:56, and the temperature trace is starting to show a shoulder for the inevitable stall.

I took PJ's advice above and have moved the kettle butt as far from the heat as I can, and also rotated it, as shown. (moved it further away after these pics)

One hour in:


Two hours in:



Dome thermometer reading within about 20F of the probe temp.

[rlozinak]

Looking forward to the results. But looks good so far

[DaveD]

Status update, all remains nominal, and we have passed through Stallsville on both pieces. SnS kettle remains bang on target, have made just one tiny adjustment to the bottom smokehole cover position. Here's the current profile from the Meater app for the pellet piece, and the upward inflection has continued, and the estimated remaining time has finally started to go down again (rapidly: it was 5:19 twenty minutes ago, and is now 3:40) after rising during the stall. Same behavior in the piece on the kettle, although I don't have continuous data on that one (might be time to add another probe set).



IT in the kettle butt is 176F/80C and in the pellet smoker 168F/76C. Color is looking good, and I might wrap 'em in a while. Have spritzed a time or three. Here we are at 3.5 and just over 5 hours in.

[DaveD]

At about 7.5 hours in, temps are on track for these babies to be done in another hour or so, maybe less, so they'll get 60-90 minutes rest before dinner. No wrapping necessary, they're cruising right along nicely now.

Here's the latest...

[Draznnl]

Love your comparison tests Dave.

[WayneT]

I think you need a disinterested, third party's objective opinion on this. Calculating travel time...

[DaveD]

Both pieces arrived at nearly identical temps and tenderness at the same time, amazingly enough. Right at 200F/93C, so I pulled them out, wrapped in butcher paper and onto a sheet pan and then covered with foil before going into the Cambro with the old sleeping bag on top. Will rest for an hour or longer, as long as we can stand it, then griddle up some burger buns for pulled pig sammiches and heat up some Nathan's frozen onion rings (which are really good!). Simple but effective.

After-action will be next...

Forgot to photo the piece from the p-smoker before I wrapped it... here's the one from the SnS:



Final temp profile for the one in the p-smoker:



Catch ya after dinner...

[STEbbq]

Here is what I want to know Dave. Can you borrow some super-fancy tools from your NASA buddies and use SCIENCE to figure out which butt is better?

😎

[DaveD]

My friend, I *am* the NASA guy using SCIENCE to proclaim the victor! I got this. Read on below...

[DaveD]

And I think my beer judging experience qualifies as organoleptic evaluation...!

[Sid P]

I thought Dave was going to use a mass smoketrometer (trademark pending) to tell us how many GOOD smoke particles there were per cubic centimeter of meat…

[DaveD]

Well alrighty then. I toasted up the buttered buns on the grate above the remaining coals in the SnS, and sliced off the money muscle from each piece so we could just nosh instantly. OMFG were they good. First impression: kettle piece tastes much better. Both just outstanding, tender, juicy, but the kettle piece was better.

Made up the sammiches, had 'em with the onion rings, and the second impression matched the first: The kettle piece tastes much better. Same deal, both outstanding, but a very noticeable difference. The smoke is much more prominent, and it seemed the smoke ring was deeper too, although that's not easy to verify in the photos.

So for this head-to-head, it was no contest. My lovely bride barely had any of the pellet-smoked pig, whereas I had one sammich of each, to have a fair comparison -- for SCIENCE.

Pellet piece:

Kettle piece. Bark is noticeably barkier.

Pulled pellet pig: (failed to shoot one of the kettle pull, sorry)

Aaaaaaaaand scene. Can you guess which sammich is which?


Highly successful experiment, all told. Excellent run product, well-documented process, clear interpretation. Just the first of many such comparisons to come...

[smokenoob]

Well that was One giant leap for Smokekind.
How were your tastebuds calibrated?
Are the results from one judge statistically significant?
Was 6 sigma involved?
Which way was the wind blowing?
Was the SnS downwind of the Pit Boss and sucking up second butt smoke?
(Inquiring pellet perfection owners want to know)

[Panhead John]

I’m just wondering if there were electrical fluctuations which could have caused the pellet pooper to have statistical differences in heat output….

[Sweaty Paul]

Great write up. Thanks for sharing. Love that you sacrificed and had two sandwiches!!