Author Topic: Food cooking fast  (Read 2341 times)

Blues

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Food cooking fast
« on: October 05, 2020, 02:32:32 PM »
Hey guys, so I've been playing around with my #1 for about a year now and one of the things I noticed is that a lot of my cooks are getting done in about half the expected time.  Spare ribs go about 2-3 hours, 8lb Pork butt about 12 hours, 13lb turkey 3 hours, 8-9lb pork roasts about 2 hours.  Aside from the ribs all of these meats were brined for 12+ hours.  I know brined meat takes less time to cook but it still seems like things are cooking too quickly, and I'm struggling to figure out if I'm just off on my time calculations or if maybe my temps are higher than what I set the dial at.  I've been using a maverick probe for IT, and a Meater+ for IT and AT when possible, and nothing has alerted me that ambient temps are too high.  I've tried starting with 25 degree lower temp on some cooks and it hasn't really made much difference.  Has anyone else experienced this?

Unfortunately I haven't been logging my cooks, but going forward I will start doing that so I'm not relying on my famously terrible memory.

I also don't get a good bark on my butt like I've seen in some of the pics across the forums.  Not sure if that's due to the shorter amount of time in the smoker or if there's something else I'm missing.  I typically do the standard mustard slather then season with lots of rub.

thanks for any help / suggestions
Eric from Rochester, NY
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Hank R

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Re: Food cooking fast
« Reply #1 on: October 05, 2020, 06:12:20 PM »
Just a a guess I am wondering if your wood chunks are drier and  burning more than smoking
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LarryD

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Re: Food cooking fast
« Reply #2 on: October 05, 2020, 06:51:14 PM »
I wonder if your rheostat is malfunctioning and causing it to run full blast all the time instead of cycling?  This would be one of the few cases where I would encourage someone to stick a probe in to monitor the box temperature.  If you don't see any variation then I'd think the rheostat has failed and isn't cycling.  If you see it cycling, but just running extra hot then there are instructions on the Smokin-It site for adjusting the rheostat.
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Blues

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Re: Food cooking fast
« Reply #3 on: October 06, 2020, 09:43:33 AM »
Just a a guess I am wondering if your wood chunks are drier and  burning more than smoking

I've been using smokinlicious wood, and the chunks end up looking like lump charcoal after cooks are done. All black and very little to no ash. They break apart easily with just my hands and are black all through. Do you think that's indicative of a wood issue?
Eric from Rochester, NY
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barelfly

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Re: Food cooking fast
« Reply #4 on: October 06, 2020, 10:09:38 AM »
That’s a good sign, your wood being lump charcoal.

Larry is pointing you in a good direction for trouble shooting. I’d start there like he mentions - and is there a red light on the analog smokers to see the unit cycling on and off? I don’t have an analog, but I thought my dads #2 had this? Is that red light always on? Or does it cycle on and off like Larry mentions about the rheostat cycling?
Jeremy in NM
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Blues

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Re: Food cooking fast
« Reply #5 on: October 06, 2020, 08:09:25 PM »
I think it's always on, but I'm not out there monitoring it all the time. I guess maybe I'll ha e to test it out. Maybe I'll go fire it up, set to a low temp and throw a probe in there then keep an eye on that light when it gets to temp. Thx for the ideas guys.
Eric from Rochester, NY
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