First Overnighter on the Backwoods FatBoy

With the long holiday weekend, I decided that I had plenty of time to pull an overnighter on the Fatboy.  So, I picked up a brisket & a pork butt and decided that I'd cook on Sunday night for the Memorial Holiday on Monday.

I loaded up the firebox about 8:30pm on Sunday evening and had the cooker read to put the meat in by 10:00pm.  I'd done a couple of long burns just to get a feel for how long the cooker would run on a single load of charcoal.  I was expecting ~8-9hrs.

The meat went on at 10:00pm and I topped off the water pan & charcoal pan around 11:30pm, then hit the rack.  I was up 5:00am to check and I was pleased to find the cooker chugging along at 250*, so I decided to grab a couple of more hours. 

At 7:00am, it was still hanging on to 250* like a bad habit.  I inserted my meat probes and was surprised to find that they were both nearly done.  I was expecting the cook to last until sometime closer to noon.  At 8:00am, the brisket went in the cooler and the butt followed at 8:45am.

I had the end of a beef tenderloin ready, so I popped it in the cooker and it's roasting now as I type this.

I'm really surprised about a couple of things:

• I'm getting a really long burn from this fire.  Longer than I'd ever hoped for.
• The meat seems to get done much quicker than I'm used to.  I'd noticed this with ribs and pork steaks also.

I'm gonna have lots of opportunites to cook this summer, so I'm glad to be getting this practice in.  Hope you have/had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.

Cheers,
Braddog

The Long, Slow Burn

When I tell folks that the pulled pork they're enjoying cooked for 12+ hrs (or longer), I often hear comments like "Wow, how many times did you have to add charcoal?". People are amazed when I tell them that I didn't add any and that I got a good night's sleep besides. So here's an example to illustrate the burn times that can be achieved with the Big Green Egg.

Over the holiday weekend, I cooked pork butt on three consecutive nights. The last night, Saturday, I fired up the BGE at ~9:00pm for an all nighter. I filled the BGE with lump charcoal almost to the fire ring. The butts cooked until ~2:00pm the next day. At that time, we bumped the temps to 300 degree and put a load of ABT's on the cooker. At ~4:00pm, I removed the plate setter and continued to cook at 300-350 degrees while I put a couple of chicken breasts on.

All told, the cooker ran for ~20 hours on a single load of lump charcoal.  I accomplished this without the aid of an electronic draft device (i.e. a Stoker or BBQ Guru), just controlling temps with the vents and giving the coals a good stir when switching between smoking and grilling.

So how about it?  How long have you cooked a single load of fuel?  And gas doesn't count!  :)

Cheers,
Braddog

Doing the Triple!

Like most holiday weekends, I find myself cooking for almost the entire weekend.  But that's okay, I love doing it.  This Memorial Day weekend was no different.  And for large meals, there's nothing better than pulled pork.  It's pretty simple and goes a long way.  (Here's my method for pork butt/pulled pork on the Big Green Egg).
Hi-temp & Lo-temp cookin
It's sort of a tradition for me to feed the guys at work on the Friday before a holiday weekend.  So, Thursday night I fired up the Big Green Egg and cooked two pork butts totaling ~13lbs.  They went on the cooker at 5:45pm on Thursday night and came off around 8:15am on Friday.  That's one all-nighter in the books.

On Friday, I offered to bring pulled pork to a family gathering on Saturday for lunch.  So once again I fired up the cooker and went with a single pork butt.  (I also fired up the Bubba Keg for some bratwurst for dinner.)  This time, a six-pounder went on the BGE at 5:30pm on Friday night and I took it off at 6:30am on Saturday.  That's two all-nighters.

My neighbor had planned a backyard party for Sunday and asked me to cook pork butt, so ~15lbs. of pork butt went on the cooker at 9:30 on Saturday night and came off at ~2:00pm on Sunday.  That's three all-nighters in a row.

Even though the BGE does a great job and doesn't require much tending, I have stayed up late and gotten up early for the past 3 nights.  I'm sure glad it's raining today, I could use a nap!

Cheers,
Braddog

Impromptu BBQ

I guess there's really nothing impromptu about a 14 hr cook, but on the drive home from the office last night I decided to put a couple of pork butts on the Big Green Egg and surprise my team with BBQ today for lunch. I hit the supermarket (Schnuck's had whole pork butt on sale for $.97/lb.) at 5:00pm and by 5:45pm had the egg fired up and steady at 250 degrees and the meat on.

I left for my daughter's softball game and returned home around 8:00pm to find the cooker at ~290 degrees.  I used this as an excuse to "tend the cooker" and fine tune my temps.  That means I sat by the cooker with my neighbor and enjoyed the evening until turning in around midnight.  (Don't tell my wife that tending the cooker isn't really all that necessary, shhh)

This morning at 6:00am I found the BGE chugging along peacefully at 255 degrees.  God, I love the smell of pork butt in the morning. 

By 8:30, I had the butts wrapped and resting in a cooler for the trip to the office.  I just finished pulling the pork and setting out the spread.  I rang the lunch bell (figuratively of course) and the stuff was gone in nothing flat. 

Next time, I'll feed the other half of my folks at the other campus.  I guess the day before the July 4th holiday should work for that.

Cheers,
Braddog