Guy. This is in response to your questions. Never responded to a comment so I'm not sure if this will appear behind your comment or after PenskeFile.
I filled the charcoal ring completely full and then piled some of the charcoal from the middle to the outer edges (I created a small crater about 2 inches deep. I lit a full Weber chimney and let it heat for 30 minutes. When I poured it on the unlit coals, I spread it across the top 1/2-2-3 of the surface. There was a slight mound to the charcoal in the ring with the lit coals on. They were what I would call red hot -- bright orange in color and flaming. Temp went above 230 immediately and I quickly started shutting lower vents. Put meat on immediately and was able to stabilize at 230 within about 20 min by further tweaking the lower vents.
I use a Brinkman charcoal pan as the water pan so I did not have to worry about the water pan resting on or being too close to the hot coals.
After all the cooking was done, I opened all the lower vents and let it run wide open to use all of the charcoal and see how long it would last. I never added any additional charcoal, but did add more wood chunks at 7 in the am. I added cherry chunks before smoking the fatty and sausages.
So from starting the smoke at 10pm the night before, it ran until 6pm the next day at which time the Maverick finally dropped below 230. The main cook was with top wide open and bottom vents around 1/4-1/3 open and temp of 230. Once I foiled the pork, I opened one bottom vent 1/2 way and that took the temp up to about 250 for the next three hours for the pork and two additional hours for the sausages (I was going for 165 for the fatties). I was done cooking at noon and the coals had been going 14 hours. I opened the bottom vents all the way to see how long it would remain over 230. Temp quickly went into the 320s and stayed there before starting to drop between 4-5 pm.
Bottom line - with the charcoal ring completely full (or mounded), I would feel very comfortable in expecting 20 hours of cooking time (but I don't think I will ever need that). I was testing the max time so that the next time I cook overnight I would have some idea of how much charcoal I could remove and be sure to run overnight. My guess is that it would be one unlit chimney and one lit chimney. That should get me easily through the night and then allow me to add more coals as needed the next day.
I should mention that I have modified my WSM with the Cajun door and the gasket kit. Also use the hinge on the lid.
For Huskee: When I opened the 13 pound package from Costco, the pork was already in two pieces. I would guess about 7lb and 6lb. So I cooked two butts not three as you recommended. I trimmed all the fat off and tied with cooking twine. I was going to use some Salt Lick rub but after tasting was afraid it had too much pepper. I used John Henry Pecan Rub instead. Pork was great and John Henry Pecan Rub is great on ribs and chicken, but if I had to do it again, I would try your Huskee Rib Rub. The bark could have used more kick and once pulled, the pepper flavor would have been spread throughout the pork. Lesson Learned.
John
I filled the charcoal ring completely full and then piled some of the charcoal from the middle to the outer edges (I created a small crater about 2 inches deep. I lit a full Weber chimney and let it heat for 30 minutes. When I poured it on the unlit coals, I spread it across the top 1/2-2-3 of the surface. There was a slight mound to the charcoal in the ring with the lit coals on. They were what I would call red hot -- bright orange in color and flaming. Temp went above 230 immediately and I quickly started shutting lower vents. Put meat on immediately and was able to stabilize at 230 within about 20 min by further tweaking the lower vents.
I use a Brinkman charcoal pan as the water pan so I did not have to worry about the water pan resting on or being too close to the hot coals.
After all the cooking was done, I opened all the lower vents and let it run wide open to use all of the charcoal and see how long it would last. I never added any additional charcoal, but did add more wood chunks at 7 in the am. I added cherry chunks before smoking the fatty and sausages.
So from starting the smoke at 10pm the night before, it ran until 6pm the next day at which time the Maverick finally dropped below 230. The main cook was with top wide open and bottom vents around 1/4-1/3 open and temp of 230. Once I foiled the pork, I opened one bottom vent 1/2 way and that took the temp up to about 250 for the next three hours for the pork and two additional hours for the sausages (I was going for 165 for the fatties). I was done cooking at noon and the coals had been going 14 hours. I opened the bottom vents all the way to see how long it would remain over 230. Temp quickly went into the 320s and stayed there before starting to drop between 4-5 pm.
Bottom line - with the charcoal ring completely full (or mounded), I would feel very comfortable in expecting 20 hours of cooking time (but I don't think I will ever need that). I was testing the max time so that the next time I cook overnight I would have some idea of how much charcoal I could remove and be sure to run overnight. My guess is that it would be one unlit chimney and one lit chimney. That should get me easily through the night and then allow me to add more coals as needed the next day.
I should mention that I have modified my WSM with the Cajun door and the gasket kit. Also use the hinge on the lid.
For Huskee: When I opened the 13 pound package from Costco, the pork was already in two pieces. I would guess about 7lb and 6lb. So I cooked two butts not three as you recommended. I trimmed all the fat off and tied with cooking twine. I was going to use some Salt Lick rub but after tasting was afraid it had too much pepper. I used John Henry Pecan Rub instead. Pork was great and John Henry Pecan Rub is great on ribs and chicken, but if I had to do it again, I would try your Huskee Rib Rub. The bark could have used more kick and once pulled, the pepper flavor would have been spread throughout the pork. Lesson Learned.
John
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