How to keep smoker at 200-225

[K-Man]

I am a masochist, so I'm gonna try this.

I'm borrowing a New Braunfels smoker, and I'm gonna cook a brisket, 4 racks of ribs, 6 chickens, and a bunch of sausage.

Here's the plan.

Late tonight, I put on the brisket and smoke 8 hrs at 200-225.
Then I wrap it and leave it on.

Then I put on ribs and chicken for 2.5 hrs.

Then I wrap the ribs and brisket and let rest or finish in oven.

Then I heat it up a little more to finish the chickens and throw on the tweeters.

How do I keep the smoker at 200-225 overnight. Also, any other advice to make this go smooth. I am a novice, but have read a bunch of threads...

 

[Jellydonuts]

Unless you are willing to get up every four or so hours and refuel the pit with new charcoal, it will not stay at 200-225. You would have to have a ceramic or stone cooker to smoke overnight at a constant temperature.

But it will work well just to start it the night before, let the fire die down overnight and crank back up in the morning. As hot as it is, your smoker will likely never get below 125 degrees. It will help to get some real hardwood charcoal (not the crappy briquets), as it will burn longer.

 

[K-Man]

Thanks, I'm thinking of soaking some oak wood and laying that on top of the coals. How much charcoal? I remember someone filled the box with unlit charcoal and covered with lit charcoal so it would gradually burn.

 

[Jellydonuts]

I don't know what type of NB smoker you are using (i.e. Badera, Longhorn, Silver), but I would be careful loading too much charcoal in an unattended firebox. If it all ignites while you are asleep, it will get too hot. If you do load it up though, make sure the hampers (esp. the one on the firebox) is barely open; this should help ensure that the fire does not get too much oxygen.

 

[Brisketexan]

I'd get up and check it every 2-3 hours, unfortunately. Most of those smokers don't hold the heat very well.

 

[cbs]

140 is the internal temp magic number. If the meat goes below that for a significant period of time then bad things start growing. So...if you're letting the fire get down to 125 at night, it's getting risky.

 

[Sip94]

Some folks have fancy temperature alarms that wake them up if the temp goes out of range. Short of that, you pretty much have to get up every few hours. Some folks will put a bunch (like most of a bag) of unlit briquets in the firebox and then put about 15 lit/hot briquets on top. If you set your vents right, it will burn slowly for MANY hours at a pretty constant temperature and you may not have to refuel. You still gotta check the temperature though. Your asking to ruin a lot of good meat by not checking often. The worst case scenario is that you get up and it's ice cold or 400 degrees. Then you either feed you crew burnt or bacteria ridden meat or else buy them pizza and throw away $100+ worth of meat.

 

[K-Man]

Thanks again to everyone who's ever posted on a brisket or ribs thread. The bbq was outstanding.

I cooked 2 briskets 12 hours in the smoker, and 4 hours wrapped in paper bags and foil in the oven. They sliced perfectly, had "the ring", and were esxtremely juicy. I started with untrimmed briskets, and might could have trimmed one of them a little more. A couple old pros said it was as good as any they had tasted.

The ribs were pretty good, but were a little too close to falling off the bone. The chickens were outstanding, I cooked them pretty hot and the skin was nice and crispy. The sausages were sausages, can't screw that up.

For the brisket, I used a small bag of coals and loaded up large chunks of seasoned oak, and it stayed at 180-200 all night, didn't have to add more oak till 6:30. I didn't peak till noon.

Thanks again