🔥 What's Smoking/Cooking on your Pit Boss?

[brewersfan73]

I don't think I'm off the rails yet, so I'll tempt fate and post an update. I'm 2 hours in and have had it on the Smoke setting since 8:00 AM. The temp near the brisket has probably been averaging 185 degrees. I'm using a smoke tube and I put in a small water pan since I'm not planning to spritz. Pellets are a Traeger blend that I bought at Costco, both in the hopper and tube. Hoping to wrap in foil between noon & 1:00PM, once it gets into the stall. No clue on timing - I've taken directions from about 5 different recipes.

Just bumped the controller to 250, assuming that it will put the right side of the grill at around 225 or so.

It seems to be stalling around 145 degrees or so, and it's after 1:00 already. I think that I'm going to wrap at 1:30 before I lose too much more time. I wish I would have started an hour earlier, but who knows. Maybe it will be fine.

 

[Redoctapus]

I don't think I'm off the rails yet, so I'll tempt fate and post an update. I'm 2 hours in and have had it on the Smoke setting since 8:00 AM. The temp near the brisket has probably been averaging 185 degrees. I'm using a smoke tube and I put in a small water pan since I'm not planning to spritz. Pellets are a Traeger blend that I bought at Costco, both in the hopper and tube. Hoping to wrap in foil between noon & 1:00PM, once it gets into the stall. No clue on timing - I've taken directions from about 5 different recipes.

Just bumped the controller to 250, assuming that it will put the right side of the grill at around 225 or so.

View attachment 3159

View attachment 3160

Where did the graphs come from?

 

[brewersfan73]

Where did the graphs come from?

The app for my Inkbird temperature probes

 

[Redoctapus]

The app for my Inkbird temperature probes

Cool Brother, I dig dat info! I like how it let's me know exactly where the stall starts!

 

[Dad_Roman]

It seems to be stalling around 145 degrees or so, and it's after 1:00 already. I think that I'm going to wrap at 1:30 before I lose too much more time. I wish I would have started an hour earlier, but who knows. Maybe it will be fine.

Watching intently!

 

[brewersfan73]

It seems to be stalling around 145 degrees or so, and it's after 1:00 already. I think that I'm going to wrap at 1:30 before I lose too much more time. I wish I would have started an hour earlier, but who knows. Maybe it will be fine.

I wrapped it and then I went to run some errands this afternoon. It's almost at 200° right now, so I bumped the temperature down to slow it a little bit. When I get a moment, I will probe it a little bit and see if it feels tender.

The big temp drop at 1:30 is when I opened up the grill to wrap it. You can see that the brisket started going back up pretty quickly after that.

 

[t-roy]

I built some wheels for my 820 sportsman and they work exellent. I also made a diffuser plate out of thick aluminuim plate to go over the pot and put it to the biscuit test. 250 for 7 minutes and with the plate I was able to keep the temp to 10 degrees side to side and the biscuits came out the same except the left and right ones on the front by the door. They were just a little more brown than the rest. Smoked 16 hamburgers, 4 pork tenderloins.5 country style ribs, a sirloin roast and a kc strip steak. Everything came out perfect BUT when I turned it up to high to burn off the grill crap it started melting the diffuser and it fell onto the pot! Temp went to 600 and I started pulling all the grates out and the large sear plate and my hopper started filling up with smoke! I turned it down to smoke mode and held the primer in till I saw clean pellets coming out instead of burned ones! This could have been disasterous if I didnt act quickly!!! I dont know why they say to turn it up all the way to burn off! Now I have to get a new diffuser plate, stainless steel and not do any more burnoffs. The good thing is I was able to keep the temp from spot on to 10 degrees difference all day with it in place. Back to the drawing board! I guess I will buy one off the net.

 

[brewersfan73]

I wrapped it and then I went to run some errands this afternoon. It's almost at 200° right now, so I bumped the temperature down to slow it a little bit. When I get a moment, I will probe it a little bit and see if it feels tender.

The big temp drop at 1:30 is when I opened up the grill to wrap it. You can see that the brisket started going back up pretty quickly after that.

I ended up shutting off the grill shortly before 4:00, and then I let the brisket rest inside the warm grill a little over an hour.

The brisket ended up being 1lb 14oz after I unwrapped, so I lost about 60% of the total weight. I was really surprised about that.

Did I little snacking and then made reuben sandwiches (yes, one side of the bread got a little toastier than I wanted)

 

[Dad_Roman]

I ended up shutting off the grill shortly before 4:00, and then I let the brisket rest inside the warm grill a little over an hour.

The brisket ended up being 1lb 14oz after I unwrapped, so I lost about 60% of the total weight. I was really surprised about that.

Did I little snacking and then made reuben sandwiches (yes, one side of the bread got a little toastier than I wanted)

Man thats lookin good!!!

 

[brewersfan73]

Man thats lookin good!!!

Thanks much - the meat was very tender and juicy. There just wasn't very much left, and the cracked spices overwhelmed the smoky flavor a little bit. I might post something separate in the recipe forum to detail what I did and how to improve for next time.

 

[achillez01]

Replaced my control panel and RTD sensor for my 5 series Copper head. Just in time for my engagement party.

Started with 2 swift shoulder packs from Costco. About 31lb to start. Trimmed down to about 28lb. 2 seasoned with taco seasoning, 2 seasoned with Bad Byrons Butt Rub. Dry brined in the fridge overnight.

225F for about 20 hours, then wrapped for about 10 hours at 275F. 3 finished about 28 hours in, last one had taken until about 32 hours. Wrapped in peach butcher paper. I bought an extra 14lb of shoulder but I am glad I didnt cook it, 4 had taken forever this time. Spritzed and water refilled about 4-5 times over that first 20 hours.

Pulled at 205-210F and rested for at least an hour. All four shoulders were devoured by about 25-30 people. We (the hosts) barely got a half pound squirreled away for ourselves.

I might increase to 250F-275F earlier than I did before. Normally when I do two 6-8lb shoulders it takes me about 20-24hrs to complete at 225F. Had taken a lot longer than normal to get to 150-165F internally for me to feel comfortable to wrap them.

 

[brewersfan73]

Replaced my control panel and RTD sensor for my 5 series Copper head. Just in time for my engagement party.

Started with 2 swift shoulder packs from Costco. About 31lb to start. Trimmed down to about 28lb. 2 seasoned with taco seasoning, 2 seasoned with Bad Byrons Butt Rub. Dry brined in the fridge overnight.

225F for about 20 hours, then wrapped for about 10 hours at 275F. 3 finished about 28 hours in, last one had taken until about 32 hours. Wrapped in peach butcher paper. I bought an extra 14lb of shoulder but I am glad I didnt cook it, 4 had taken forever this time. Spritzed and water refilled about 4-5 times over that first 20 hours.

Pulled at 205-210F and rested for at least an hour. All four shoulders were devoured by about 25-30 people. We (the hosts) barely got a half pound squirreled away for ourselves.

I might increase to 250F-275F earlier than I did before. Normally when I do two 6-8lb shoulders it takes me about 20-24hrs to complete at 225F. Had taken a lot longer than normal to get to 150-165F internally for me to feel comfortable to wrap them.

Out of curiosity, with that much meat in your smoker, what kind of rack temperatures did you see? Did it stay at 225F during that first 20 hours? I was reading a different thread about the length of time needed for a full smoker, and I didn't realize how much you need to account for it.

The pictures look amazing - thanks for sharing.

 

[achillez01]

Out of curiosity, with that much meat in your smoker, what kind of rack temperatures did you see? Did it stay at 225F during that first 20 hours? I was reading a different thread about the length of time needed for a full smoker, and I didn't realize how much you need to account for it.

The pictures look amazing - thanks for sharing.

My control panel was constantly swinging between 215-235F for most of the first 20 hours. Leveled out when I went to 275F. The smoker was quite full but the proximity of the meat to the heat source is definitely a variable. I put the water tray a rack position or two higher than right above the flame box. I did this because my flame box kept getting scraped by my water tray as I shifted it in and out periodically to refill it. My first rack after the water tray is for two big drip trays as I dont want a grease fire or a big mess. Both of these changes put the meat higher in the smoker. Therefore I think after a good 6-10hrs at 225F I should bring it up to 250-275F.

With a full water tray and a good brine, it seems to appear that I dont need to spritz often or at all. Every opening crashes the temp and pushes back the cook. The one time I cooked about 18lb I only spritzed twice before the wrap and I finished in 20-22 hours.

 

[Mike From R.I.]

My control panel was constantly swinging between 215-235F for most of the first 20 hours. Leveled out when I went to 275F. The smoker was quite full but the proximity of the meat to the heat source is definitely a variable. I put the water tray a rack position or two higher than right above the flame box. I did this because my flame box kept getting scraped by my water tray as I shifted it in and out periodically to refill it. My first rack after the water tray is for two big drip trays as I dont want a grease fire or a big mess. Both of these changes put the meat higher in the smoker. Therefore I think after a good 6-10hrs at 225F I should bring it up to 250-275F.

With a full water tray and a good brine, it seems to appear that I dont need to spritz often or at all. Every opening crashes the temp and pushes back the cook. The one time I cooked about 18lb I only spritzed twice before the wrap and I finished in 20-22 hours.

Have you checked the temperature inside the smoker with another thermometer? Might be running cooler than what the controller is saying, which adds much more time.

 

[achillez01]

Have you checked the temperature inside the smoker with another thermometer? Might be running cooler than what the controller is saying, which adds much more time.

I'll check with a BBQ thermometer I can throw in there. It might be running cooler but I did just completely replace the controller and RTD sensor. My pork shoulders had taken roughly the same amount of time with the old controller and RTD. Frankly having a hard time believing people are finishing 8-16lb of shoulder on a vertical pitboss in 12-16 hours at 225F.

I do have a slight door sag because the door hinge was just slightly bent from shipping damage. I used to tighten the door handle so much it chipped the paint off the latch and had to back off the tightness. I did this to create a better seal due to this door sag. Pitboss said leave it alone its not that big a deal, but it appears it might be a big deal.

Door sag is pretty comparable to this post https://www.pitbossforum.com/threads/series-4-door-adjustment.566/#post-3012

The door gasket appears to cover the whole closure. Occasionally I will see some smoke leak from around the gasket of the door. Especially at low temperatures before I get to 225-275F range.