I really want to be cool like all you BBQ guys.

[Bobby_M]

I got myself the low-end chargriller with side box and thought I'd be able to smoke a butt overnight and only tend to the fuel every 2-3 hours but uh, no. Fail. I got some learnin to do.

 

[onthekeg]

There are some things you can do to that unit I have seen. I have a UDS as well as a CTO but never had a chargriller. With a little modifications you can get that unit to perform 100% better.
www.thesmokering.com has some advice.

 

[rycov]

this may be sacrilege, but if i'm cooking over night and don't want to keep up with the wood. i'll smoke the night before for three or four hours (till i'm drunk and ready to sleep) then take the but up stairs and put it in the crock pot over night. from what i read the meat will only take so much smoke before its saturated. if you don't have a crock pot the oven works too if you wrap the meat in tin foil. like i said it may be frowned upon by the bbq gods, but it has given me good results

 

[JetSmooth]

this may be sacrilege, but if i'm cooking over night and don't want to keep up with the wood. i'll smoke the night before for three or four hours (till i'm drunk and ready to sleep) then take the but up stairs and put it in the crock pot over night. from what i read the meat will only take so much smoke before its saturated. if you don't have a crock pot the oven works too if you wrap the meat in tin foil. like i said it may be frowned upon by the bbq gods, but it has given me good results

Hand over your man-card. Crock-pots are for cheese dip and keeping chili warm.

 

[rycov]

haha. i do like cooking on the grill better, but i also like sleep. if i was cooking for dinner and i was awake early enough in the morning i would prefer to cook all day on the smoker. mmm, beers and smoking meat all day? probably my favorite thing to do. but i know that if i try to cook all night i will eventually not wake up and let the fire die.

enough excuses, man card handed over, sorry i let you guys down.

 

[isurf]

Slow and cold. I've never left anything in a smoker overnight unless we are in a competition. In that case time allowed and quantity of meat go hand in hand. That said, start early in the day, prep your coal bed and go. Low temps around 200 f. Just stop by the pit ever so often check the temp.

 

[dataz722]

this may be sacrilege, but if i'm cooking over night and don't want to keep up with the wood. i'll smoke the night before for three or four hours (till i'm drunk and ready to sleep) then take the but up stairs and put it in the crock pot over night. from what i read the meat will only take so much smoke before its saturated. if you don't have a crock pot the oven works too if you wrap the meat in tin foil. like i said it may be frowned upon by the bbq gods, but it has given me good results

If you are going to do that then at least do it in the oven on its lowest setting and not the crock pot.

 

[EdWort]

Use lump charcoal and add wood chunks for smoke. You will have less tending to do.

 

[EdWort]

Slow and cold. I've never left anything in a smoker overnight unless we are in a competition. In that case time allowed and quantity of meat go hand in hand. That said, start early in the day, prep your coal bed and go. Low temps around 200 f. Just stop by the pit ever so often check the temp.

I do pork butts on the Big Green Egg overnight all the time. I use a BBQ Guru E-Temp Pit Minder which keeps my egg temp at 210 for the 20+ hours to smoke 32 lbs of pork for some awesome pulled pork.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

Bobby, I have that exact Chargriller and the mods do help. As is, it's very hot at the firebox end and not very hot (at grate-level) on the stack end. The instruction manual says to use whole logs but I haven't tried that yet (I wouldn't know where to get good meat smoking logs anyway). TBH, I haven't smoked on mine much and still have some learnin' to do as well but some carefully placed HD alum foil can help it quite a bit.

 

[dataz722]

Yeah, they will also need some babysitting but doing the mods will greatly reduce it.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/thread/58778/char-griller-smokin-pro-with-firebox-mods

 

[arturo7]

As alluded to earlier, the meat takes all the smoke it's gonna take during the first 3-4 hours. After this you can put it in your oven over night around 220F. Do not, do not, again, do not wrap it in foil.

 

[EdWort]

As alluded to earlier, the meat takes all the smoke it's gonna take during the first 3-4 hours. After this you can put it in your oven over night around 220F. Do not, do not, again, do not wrap it in foil.

Yep, and the colder the meat is, the more smoke it will take. I like to take whatever I am smoking direct from fridge to grid for the best affect. Don't dilly dally and leave it out for a while before putting it in the pit.

 

[rycov]

If you are going to do that then at least do it in the oven on its lowest setting and not the crock pot.

i have done it in the oven at the lowest setting. the thing i like about the crock pot is that it doesn't let any of the steam escape and keeps all that fat in the meat. you should give it a try, it ends up being this really tender meat/butter hybrid. i've never had pork come out that tender.

 

[JetSmooth]

The Crock Pot also doesn't drive the heat in the kitchen up.

Errr. . . . I mean "Crock-Pot BAD!" ;P

 

[rycov]

As alluded to earlier, the meat takes all the smoke it's gonna take during the first 3-4 hours. After this you can put it in your oven over night around 220F. Do not, do not, again, do not wrap it in foil.

the foil (and the crockpot) will soften the bark and make it not as crispy, but if i'm pulling the pork anyway i find that i don't mind that. any other reason not to use the foil?

Yep, and the colder the meat is, the more smoke it will take. I like to take whatever I am smoking direct from fridge to grid for the best affect. Don't dilly dally and leave it out for a while before putting it in the pit.

i've actually heard to leave it out for a while so the heat doesn't shock the muscle fibers (or some ****) and it keeps it tender.

i'm still pretty new, so i've got some learning to do. i love bbq though and want it to be as good as possible. its all been really damn good so far! thanks in advance for any info guys

 

[dfess1]

Hand over your man-card. Crock-pots are for cheese dip and keeping chili warm.

agreed

 

[EdWort]

i've actually heard to leave it out for a while so the heat doesn't shock the muscle fibers (or some ****) and it keeps it tender.

That works if you are grilling steaks. I leave mine out for an hour before hitting the grill.

For low & slow smoking, the meats are not tender in the first place, hence the low & slow cooking. The low temperatures will allow the connective tissue (collagen) to render into gelatin and melt over time which is how brisket and pulled pork become tender.

If you use a meat thermometer, you will find brisket has a plateau where the meat will sit at 150-170 degrees for several hours. This is where the connective tissues are rendered, then once that is done, the temp will start to rise again and at 195 the brisket is done.

 

[wilceaser]

Bobby,
I have a used a Chargriller for over 8 years.
The Mods I made:
Large Charcoal Basket for the fire box.
Lined the cooking chamber with fire bricks and inverted the large charcoal grate/holder and placed it in the cooking chamber on top of the fire bricks.
This acts like a tunnel and helps draw the smoke and heat under the grill grates.
I also took some almuminum flashing, rolled it up and used it to lower the chimney to about 1" above the grill.
With the fire brick it takes a little longer to get up to temperature, I can start my fire and in about an hour I'm up to 220 to 230F.
The fire brick will act as thermal mass and help maintain your cooking temps.
I usualy start with 20lbs of charcoal in the fire box and 3 large chuanks for wood. I run a modified Minion Method (look it up), in that I use a little more little briquets to help get the fire up to temp.

 

[arturo7]

First time I did a pork butt I stuck a probe in it. I was amazed by how long the temp hung at 160. Once it finally broke through it wasn't long before it was done.

 

[passedpawn]

First time I did a pork butt I stuck a probe in it. I was amazed by how long the temp hung at 160. Once it finally broke through it wasn't long before it was done.

I've noticed the same. Next time I grill I'm logging the temps. Should be illuminating. I'll post with graphs.

 

[dataz722]

i have done it in the oven at the lowest setting. the thing i like about the crock pot is that it doesn't let any of the steam escape and keeps all that fat in the meat. you should give it a try, it ends up being this really tender meat/butter hybrid. i've never had pork come out that tender.

In that case why not just do the whole thing in the crock and dump in some liquid smoke? The final product between the crockpot and dry cooking method are very different.

First time I did a pork butt I stuck a probe in it. I was amazed by how long the temp hung at 160. Once it finally broke through it wasn't long before it was done.

Yup, its known as the stall. I have seen it take anywhere from an hour and a half to over 5 hours to get past it. That is the point that all the stuff that makes the meat tough breaks down.

 

[rycov]

That works if you are grilling steaks. I leave mine out for an hour before hitting the grill.

For low & slow smoking, the meats are not tender in the first place, hence the low & slow cooking. The low temperatures will allow the connective tissue (collagen) to render into gelatin and melt over time which is how brisket and pulled pork become tender.

ah. noted

In that case why not just do the whole thing in the crock and dump in some liquid smoke? The final product between the crockpot and dry cooking method are very different.

because liquid smoke doesn't taste the same as real smoke to me. look, i'm not arguing that i'm right. just that i've done it this way and it worked well. i was wondering if you guys knew of any other difference than the bark gets soft (which i understand is a problem in it self), and if that was why you said not to use foil (or crock pot). i'm the noob here, and i know that. just asking for advice

 

[dataz722]

because liquid smoke doesn't taste the same as real smoke to me. look, i'm not arguing that i'm right. just that i've done it this way and it worked well. i was wondering if you guys knew of any other difference than the bark gets soft (which i understand is a problem in it self), and if that was why you said not to use foil (or crock pot). i'm the noob here, and i know that. just asking for advice

To me, the meat is really mushy and doesn't really have the good pork flavor when is cooked in a crock.

 

[rycov]

ok. is that the reason for no foil too?

 

[dataz722]

ok. is that the reason for no foil too?

To an extent but the foil is more about bark though.

 

[rycov]

because it gets soft? i did notice that the times i've cooked completly on the smoker vs the times i've done it in the oven (always used foil) and crock pot the bark was soft (i guess no longer bark). that does leave something to be desired. the best part of pulling the pork is picking off the crispy seasoned skin on the out side. does it still have that nice bark with the oven method (sans foil)? thanks dataz i should re-evaluate my priorities as far as sleeping at night vs smoking.

 

[Bobby_M]

Bobby,
I have a used a Chargriller for over 8 years.
The Mods I made:
Large Charcoal Basket for the fire box.
Lined the cooking chamber with fire bricks and inverted the large charcoal grate/holder and placed it in the cooking chamber on top of the fire bricks.
This acts like a tunnel and helps draw the smoke and heat under the grill grates.
I also took some almuminum flashing, rolled it up and used it to lower the chimney to about 1" above the grill.
With the fire brick it takes a little longer to get up to temperature, I can start my fire and in about an hour I'm up to 220 to 230F.
The fire brick will act as thermal mass and help maintain your cooking temps.
I usualy start with 20lbs of charcoal in the fire box and 3 large chuanks for wood. I run a modified Minion Method (look it up), in that I use a little more little briquets to help get the fire up to temp.

My current mods include two digital thermos at grate level and I made a half assed heat shield and tuning plate by raising the cook area charcoal rack so that it's higher than the firebox opening and then covered it with HD foil. I cut slits in it to let the heat/smoke come up to the meat at various distances from the firebox.

I also removed the brackets that hold up the cast iron grates in the firebox so that the grate drops about 1.5" lower. I put my fuel on that rather than making up a new basket or shelf.

I think I over fueled it initially thinking that I could control it with the damper. A layer of lump charcoal and then two thin red oak logs. After I got the temp down from 325 to 235, I put the meat on. Any time I saw it get near 200, I threw a fist sized chunk of Hickory on. It would hold to 230F for about 30 minutes and then start fading.

I think the only way I'd do overnight smoking is to get an electric cabinet smoker. From now on, it's up earlier in the morning.

What I did do was pull the meat off the smoker after the roller coaster ride it went through and put it in the oven at 225. It was plenty smoked by then but the 6 lb butt was still at 155F core temp.

 

[bob1852]

I think the only way I'd do overnight smoking is to get an electric cabinet smoker. From now on, it's up earlier in the morning.

My WSM will hold steady at 225 for 16+ hours with no tinkering...

I love it.

 

[rycov]

so you guys go 225? i like to try to be right at 200. 225 seems a little hot to me, no? (again i'm still learning)