British BBQ Society Forums

Hi all,

Just been reading about people cooking on a OTP with the bottom vents completely closed and the top vent 3/4 open to control the burn!
Is this possible and have any of you guys heard of/tried/seen it work, im asking because one of the guys said they could get an 11 hour burn like this and they said there was enough air getting in through the top vent as ther was getting out.

I tried to controll my first ever try (ribs) on my Q and ended up with a creasote taste due to my top vent not being opn enough so it burned poorly and didn't get rid of the smoke!

It's here:-

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/1239 ... uestion/20

Hope it's ok posting this link?

Andy

Posting the link is no problem. I haven't tried really long burns with the OTP, as I have a ProQ Excel as well. I bought the Excel as I didn't relish the idea of topping up the Weber on a regular basis for longer cooks. In my mind its horses for courses, yes I can cook for extended periods on the OTP, and yes I could hold family grills with the Excel in grill mode, BUT neither would perform as well in the other's capacity as it does in its own. I hope that sentance reads properly.

There is no way at the moment (just moved house 3 weeks ago) that SWMBO will let me buy a WSM so im looking at getting the best/most out of my OTP as i will be using it right through the winter!

I love low and slow be it ribs or PP (i've not tried brisket yet but i will before the year is out) and can't imagine a couple of weeks going by without doing one of them, the only drawback is the time it takes for the PP to cook.
I've never managed to do a butt from start to finish on the Q yet due to running out of time and had to finish it in the oven all 3 times

This is why i was looking/hopeing to do an overnighter but worry that it'll burn out before i get up in the morning (I don't have a Maveric "YET") and it being ruined!

Hence me grasping at threads like the one in the OP

Andy

To be honest once the pork or ribs have been under smoke for 2 hours, they are not going to take on much more so there would be no problem in transferring them to the oven to finish off in foil. The smoke flavour will be there as well as a crust.

I think Keiths point is right. Use the OTP to get the original smoke on, then use the oven. Nothing wrong with this until you can get the WSM (or equivalent).

Also have you seen this http://youtu.be/xSnCoOCFCwY? John cooks a 5lb pork butt for about 9hrs on a weber kettle.

or, you could always build a UDS for well under £100 instead of/while you save for the WSM.

Hi Andy, I see you've also got a post going about the snake method too. On Sunday I did a pork shoulder joint on my kettle using the snake method. Started with 52 Heatbeads in the snake unlit, then put 8 lit beads to it. Temp stayed between 225 - 250 all day and took 9 hours to int temp of 210 without adding anymore fuel


Ian

Thanks Ian,

Did you have to move the shoulder around away from the coals as they burned round?
I use primarily Big K briquettes (black and red bag) as i can get them from the supermarket for £5 for 5kg and find they burn consistently unlike the B&Q ones i first bought, they burned very quickly and not very consistent!!!

Just wondering if Heat Beads burn a little hotter and slower than the Big K's i use as the snake i built was 3/4 of the way round the outside of the kettle and i got around 6 hours out of mine. (the drip pan was in the final 1/4)

Andy

Hi Andy, imho, I find Heatbeads to be superior to the Big K briquette. I find the Big K briquette too big to make a decent snake without taking up too much space in your kettle and also find Heatbeads burn at a more consistent temp over a longer period of time, but as I say that is only my opinion. If you go on Youtube and put Aussie Griller you will find he has a video which shows snake method and he uses Heatbeads and this is exactly how I set mine up, and you will find you wont have to move your pork shoulder about at all if you set it up the same. Works for me everytime.

ps Sigglethorne Garden Centre have 4kg bags of Heatbeads at £4.99 per bag, which I think is the cheapest in the country. At least one of the bennefits to living in the North East lol


Ian