Big ole butt and a brisket

[RG]

I have a 10.xx pound butt and a 13.xx (before trimming) brisket on the #3 as I type this. I am using the Tappecue on it and will do a review of it later on.  Stay tuned for pictures tomorrow

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[RG]

This was last night. I love this thing! I've used Maverick ET-73, 732 & 733's over the years but this is my favorite so far! I ran out to run some errands this morning and loved that I could check the temps from the grocery store!

I will tell you that this is the first time that I have ever cooked a butt AND a brisket at the same time on my #3 and it's not been fun. I've been rotating the 2 to help keep them closer in cook times. It started out with the brisket below the butt, but I switched those up due to the brisket cooking faster. I let it ride that way until about 5 this morning then switched again for a while and then switched again!

I guess I could've let one get done way ahead of the other but I'd rather them finish within a couple of hours (at most) of each other. I am not used to having to do this. Do you guys have this issue when cooking 2 big pieces of meat? The bottom piece wants to cook so much faster, is there a way to counter this? I wonder if a diffuser of some sort might help?

I know on my Kamados the air in the pit circulates in a convection fashion and it cooks evenly due to such. It seems that the SIs could benefit from some sort of fan circulating air. I know the jerky dryer is a fan system but I am not sure if that's the type of thing I am thinking of here. More of an internal blower. Thoughts?

[NDKoze]

I would have put the butt below the brisket and would just leave them alone. I have had lots of times when cooking multiple meats where the temps would be very far apart but would usually come back together as the approached the final temp.
 
All the opening and closing to move the meat just lets the valuable moisture out of the box. I know it is hard to resist from tinkering, but you'll be better off if you do so.

[kz0m]

I am still a newbe here for sure.  I've so far smoked 4 pork shoulders 9-10 lbs each and 2 briskets 11-12 lbs each. When I cook both together, I always pull the brisket before the shoulder.  The pork shoulders always take 16-18 hours at 225 to finish at 195-200.  The briskets I cooked take 13 hours +- to finish at 195.  I think after smoking a few of these, I'm starting to cook by time, at 225 getting close to knowing how long these things take at given weights.  As I mentioned, I'm new to this but things are starting to click after a few of the same size meats, etc.  Just my 2 cents worth, many many more have greater experience than me for sure! ;-)

[RG]

Thanks for the input Gregg and Carl! Here's why I did what I did (said the crazy person trying to rationalize his decision, lol). If I had not rotated the meats I can assure that they would've finished WAY far apart. I know that a lot of times the stall may be the great equalizer but this was just a weird cook maybe, I don't know. I went back and looked at my graph of the cook and I can see that somewhere around 9:00 last night I wasn't liking where the pork was at, lagging far behind the brisket so I traded places. Really, it wasn't that I didn't like where the pork was but rather I thought the brisket was getting done way too quickly in comparison. I let that ride until around 5:00am this morning when I decided to take a gander at my phone and didn't like what I saw AGAIN!! This time the butt had rocketed past the brisket. The butt was in the mid 180s I think and the brisket was about 20 degrees behind! On the graph you can actually see where I took the probe out of the butt (lol) and the sudden drop in temp while I repositioned it to make sure I wasn't hitting the blade bone. When I did that, the temp had fallen back to around where the brisket was. I swapped them again here and let it ride, with the butt on top and the brisket on bottom.

This stayed the course until I decided at somewhere around 7:30-8:00 to switch back for the final stretch. The pork being on bottom helped it through it's stall and it eventually caught the brisket and I pulled them both off at 2:45 this afternoon. The butt was at 197° and the brisket was 196°. I wrapped them in foil and let them hang out in a towel lined cooler until we at about 5:30 tonight.

Here's the graph showing the cook


Here's some pics of the grub. Not my usual pics, didn't feel like getting out the camera and just used my phone.

[RG]

Also, for what it's worth. I have cooked 2 butts on the same rack without issue. The problem I am finding is that smoking on 2 different racks is what's causing the great divide in cook times. That brisket being as big as it is was blocking heat to the butt and therefore was cooking faster. In turn, the butt I cooked was large and when it was on bottom, it was doing the same to the brisket. If I had them both on the same rack (not possible but in theory) they would've clocked in about the same cook time I am betting. That's where I think fan forced heat would even things out. Until then, If I ever use the SI with more than one grate going, I'll have to do the old shuffle again to even the cook times out. I am used to cooking A LOT of food and like everything to be ready at once, that's why I did what I did in rotating the goods, lol.

I can always use one of the other 4 smokers and let the SI just do one thing. No harm in sharing the work load

[kz0m]

The pictures show the best part, everything looks great!  I like the graph idea, you can really see what's going on!  The most challenging smoke was my second one, 2 shoulders on the top, small brisket in the middle and four chickens on the bottom.  I wasn't expecting everything would be done at the same time lol.  You bring up a good point I never thought about, meat on the bottom taking heat from meat above it but it makes sense! When smoking two big meats, I will definitely take a look at switching racks around, good point!

[BedouinBob]

Graphs or no, looked like tasty virtues to me RG!

[RG]

I will not tell a lie, it was good eats! It was some of the best PP and Brisket I've done in some time. I can't argue with the results, lol.

[DivotMaker]

Hi-tech, or low-tech - that's some fine looking eats!!

[smokeasaurus]

Hi-tech, or low-tech - that's some fine looking eats!!

a big X2 

[mizzoufan]

I also would have just left the brisket on the top shelf at least until the stall was over on one of them.  For me, brisket cooks right at 1 hr/lb and butts generally go about 1.5 hr/lb so having the butt below the brisket (though I'd set it as much as possible to one side) would be my madness...errr, method.

[RG]

I also would have just left the brisket on the top shelf at least until the stall was over on one of them.  For me, brisket cooks right at 1 hr/lb and butts generally go about 1.5 hr/lb so having the butt below the brisket (though I'd set it as much as possible to one side) would be my madness...errr, method.

If I didn't care about having them finish at the same time,  I would've left them alone.  Had I not intervened, they would've been done miles apart.

Also, Gregg, as for losing moisture,  maybe some,  not much.  I'm fast, lol. I had a water pan in there as well.

Currently I am using 2 pounds of the leftover brisket in a big pot of brisket chili that I am taking to a buddy tonight. The house smells amazing 

[NDKoze]

Well, it sounds like it worked out in the end, so it was a success in my book.

Knowing what you know now, would you do anything different if you were to do this again?

[RG]

I would probably put in one of my grilling steels on the very bottom rack to act as a heat deflector/shield/diffuser and that would let the meat be meat and not act as a heat shield to block the other meat above it. The thermal mass of the steel plate would soak up heat yet release it back into the cooking environment to help with a more even/stable heat, less of a radiant heat source that way.. The same is done in a Kamado using it the same as using a pizza stone or a plate setter in a BGE or other kamado. Stick burners use "baffle" or "tuning" plates to accomplish this as well.

That's my plan anyway, time will tell. If I don't try that, I'll just throw whatever other stuff into one of the 3 kegs or on the Traeger, lol.