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

[Jfrosty27]

One word: YUM.

[Sid P]

Great write up as usual, Dave, and I’m glad you came up with the "right" answer . I don’t have the SnS kettle, but the SnS itself punches way above its weight class. I love mine.

[DaveD]

Well, they don't call me "Master of the Obvious" for nothing, ya know...

[rwalters]

Nice cook! Maybe I missed it, but how long was the total cook and did you have to reload the SnS kettle? What brand/type of charcoal did you use?

[DaveD]

Hey, I thought I included that info, but clearly did not! I used B&B charcoal, and did not need to reload it. Total duration was 8.5 hours on the cookers, another 90 minutes of rest.

[Panhead John]

B & B charcoal briquettes, the best for long cooks, IMO. I don’t like lump and never use it. Briquettes make for a more predictable cook, IMO.

[WayneT]

Great experiment and documentation Dave. This is a great reference standard going forward. Next time, please report temps to at least 1 decimal point for greater accuracy.

[Panhead John]

Wayne, he is getting a little sloppy on his documentation, I noticed it too.

[WI Bubba]

Great write up! Thanks for sharing.

[holehogg]

Have had such a change of heart about science ever since DD's arrival in the pit. I sure many of us are disappointed we never became scientists .... I mean look at all the fun they have getting to do all these experiments ;-).
Seriously, it's always interesting when you post comparison cooks.
Keep them coming Sir, for science sake.

[DaveD]

Thank you very kindly! If anything I'm doing (re)kindles interest in science, I'm delighted. Glad you're enjoying!

[WayneT]

Science, the art of knowing. Art, the science of creating.

[DaveD]

From a comment on page 1 of the thread from smokenoob that deserves its own post...

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)

- Tastebuds calibrated same way as everyone else's: A lifetime of eating.

- There were actually two judges - my lovely bride and myself. But no definitive outcomes can be concluded from any single experiment, of course, and as noted this is but the first in a series of many such experiments. More data are needed!

- 6-sigma must await having that larger database in hand.

- Wind was nearly nonexistent, and I'm not going anywhere near "sucking up second butt".

[Rob Johnston]

Looks great. Thanks for sharing!

[glitchy]

Looking at the write up and pics, I see a couple things you should try. First, with the design of your vertical and the drip tray, I would move the pork up a couple shelves from the drip tray. Looks like you were cooking on the first tray above it. In my mind the smoke has to go around the drip tray and food might get more smoke further away from it as it would have more space to flow back to the middle.

Second, I know the idea is to have as few variables in an experiment as possible, but I hate cooker versus cooker tests where the same cooking temp is used for both smokers. I think for a fair test, both need to be run at their optimal performance and for most pellet grills 250 start to finish isn’t their best. Run the pellet on smoke or 200 for a couple hours before raising the temp.

[DaveD]

It wasn't as close to the pan as the camera angles suggest -- a good 8 in/20cm above the pan. Very easy to move it up higher still of course. And my SOP with the pellet smoker is just as you say, use the low-T "Smoke" setting for an hour before going to target temp. But yeah, for this I wanted identical treatment.

I've had the p-smoker for a bit over a year now and it is extremely stable at every temp I've run. 200, 225, 250F all no problem at all.

[glitchy]

DaveD The idea is that 250° is probably the dialed in optimal temp for the SnS. For most pellet grills, you’re going to get better smoke if you did while cooks at 200-225°. So, you’re giving the SnS an unfair advantage. Not that I think it would have changed your results dramatically.

[DaveD]

Second, I know the idea is to have as few variables in an experiment as possible, but I hate cooker versus cooker tests where the same cooking temp is used for both smokers. I think for a fair test, both need to be run at their optimal performance and for most pellet grills 250 start to finish isn’t their best. Run the pellet on smoke or 200 for a couple hours before raising the temp.

To resurrect this thread briefly, I think glitchy is right, there is something to this idea of not having done the "smoke" step on the pellet-smoked piece. I have done that step, an hour or a bit more on just Smoke before going to target T, on almost everything else I've made with it.

So, what I'll do is run another butt experiment where I do include that step on the pellet smoker, and we'll have a basis for judging the effect of just that step. I still have plenty of leftover from this cook, vac sealed and frozen, so we'll be able to compare them side by side in due course. Aside from any impact from the storage time on those leftovers (hopefully minimal), we'll be able to isolate the effect of the Smoke step.

For SCIENCE.

[glitchy]

You can probably make a decent guess on how much difference it will make by whether the bark was darker on previous pork but cooks where you’ve used it. On something like a butt, I usually run smoke for a couple hours, then 225 for a few hours, then bump to 275 after it’s taken most of the smoke it’s going too.

[Clawbear57]

Thanks DaveD I'm still new to cooking. I only have a charcoal grill and a ZGrill smoker which doesn't had a PID controller. I'm trying to learn about other cookers,

[DaveD]

Still pretty new myself! Been at it in a real way for only a year or so. Sure have learned a ton here, I'm sure you will too.