Need Help!!! Performer Gold!!!

[tenpenny_05]

Hey Gang,
I recently picked up a performer gold off craigslist for $60 (go me).  Before my score I have been cooking/smoking on my 18.5" kettle.  I had that thing down cold, I could cook anything I wanted (if there was room) any way I wanted it.  I love that little thing.

But times they are a changin' so I upgraded to the performer and was sooo excited to start cooking with it.  The first thing I tried was baby back ribs, these are my favorite thing to cook, and now since I had the room, I was going to do three slabs for a get together.  With my little kettle, I used the minion method, with a pan of water underneath.  The temp (from a thermo stuck through the top vent) would hold at 250 degrees. After mopping the ribs once an hour, they were always perfect after 3 hours. Every. Single. Time.

I fired up the performer with the same minion method and drip pans as my previous set up, and it held 250 degrees (on the lid thermo) beautifully.  But after the first hour, I could already tell that the ribs weren't progressing well, but I didn't want to over react.  I let them go for three hours, and could tell they weren't even close to done.  I let them go almost to four hours and pulled them off because it was time to eat.  Not even close to done, edible, but chewy, stuck to bone, embarrassing....

Yesterday I decided I was going to redeem myself be smoking a small brisket. Here in SoCal most grocery stores have these little 2-3 pound briskets that are perfect to make a couple sandwiches for my wife and I for dinner.  I have done them several times on the little kettle and came out good every time before.  But after 3 hours on the performer I checked the internal temp and it was barely 110 degrees! What the heck!?!?  The thermo on the lid was a rock solid 250 degrees the entire time.  What gives!?!?

I ended up pulling the brisket off and finishing it in the oven, it did have about an 1/8 inch smoke ring and ended up being edible, but I am concerned I won't get this figured out.  Have any of you guys encountered this problem? Am I doing something wrong? Maybe I should go back to the minor leagues with my 18.5".....

[1buckie]

 The 18.5 IS NOT minor leagues......if you can get great cookups on that, you're going to do just fine on another cooker......

The dome therm on these things, can be, but not always is, inaccurate.....you could try your original method of keeping track going thru the lid vent...............

A noticeable thing to me about 18's is that they cook a little different because of the whole space is concentrated, smaller...............with the bigger one, you're heating a larger cubic volume, so it will be at  least a little different...........

 Try also, once you're more sure of the temp thing, cooking just a hair hotter, not by much, just 15~20 degrees.....that will help account for the extra space in the larger machine & hopefully get you back in familiar territory................


I use little grate therms, just so I know it's in the ballpark......not for everyone, but works well here.....



^^^^^ That's a 9# pork butt on an 18, BTW....

[tenpenny_05]

Thanks for the encouragement 1buckie!
I think I may go to the grocery store tomorrow morning and grab some butt and try this again.  I may try the snake method this time, or maybe I'll do the minion method on both sides of the grill.... Who knows! I will also have to pick up one of those thermometers, I will not let this grill break me!

[1buckie]

A row of Minion setups on either side might be good for ribs in the center, snake or chain might be better for the longer cookup of a butt................

   One of my Canadian buddies from the Smoke Ring forums said this one time & I liked it so much I put it in my signature line over there:

""I will prevail. No pig will ever get the better of me." ~~> Italian Skewer "

[1buckie]

 Took a lookback at this, this AM.........

.....if you grab a butt, you do understand it's a somewhat longer cookup, right?

This is one I reference back to for these kind of setups:

http://weberkettleclub.com/forums/other-recipes/something-different/

Here's a recent cookup by Nate that went pretty well:

http://weberkettleclub.com/forums/grilling-bbqing/pulled-pork-test-cook-need-advice/

Some good input from Mirkwood, Dazzo & the gang, along w/ his notes on the cook................

[tenpenny_05]

Yeap! I've got the 2x2 snake method going and I'm about 3 hours into what I plan on being an 8 hour cook (5.5 pound shoulder)
I picked up an oven thermometer and the few times I peeked in it was right below 250 (while the lid read ≈ 275) which is good enough for me. Maybe next time I'll to a 2x1 snake to keep it a little cooler.
I'll be sure to let you know how it goes!
PS do you not use a drip pan? I didn't see one in your pictures.

[1buckie]

 The short answer is:

http://weberkettleclub.com/forums/food-pr0n/nothing-new-just-some-pork-beans/msg26020/#msg26020


You've got plenty of time to fix them up, then pull the grate, pork & all, out & set in your bean pan...........don't forget to add honey & find some soppin' bread !!!!!

 PS; the lid's always going to read different even if it's totally accurate.......just in a separate space than right on the grate at "Meat Level"  (<<~ Technical Term )


sounds like it's going along just fine !!!!

[tenpenny_05]

OK!
Here are some pics of my cook!

Here she is before I pulled her off the grill (notice the oven thermometer 1buckie)



Looking good on the cutting board



Look at that bark!!



Thats a lot of meat from a 5.5 pound shoulder!


I pulled it and put some homemade carolina mustard sauce on it.  It was good, but I'm definitely a  sweet and sticky kindof guy. But luckily I still have a whole tub left to reheat!

[1911Ron]

Some good advice there from Buckie and some good looking pork!

[1buckie]

 You  nailed alright !!!!

When you get it falling in big clumps like that, that's the sweet spot......very well done !!!!

[eccj]

So, the minion method is two bread pans with coals in them on opposite sides to create an indirect heat zone?

[1buckie]

eccj, I think the bread pans are water pans / drip pans in this case.....the Jim Minion method is basically a thick pile of coals with a few lit ones to start it off, then slow down the airflow with the intake (bottom) vents to allow the burn to move slowly thru the pile of unlit coals......

Using bread pans for the coals would most likely not work well, as there's no airflow thru the pile....Weber charcoal baskets would be the ticket there.....designed to work like that.....lemme find some pics....

This is kind of a Minion or a fat snake setup.....a coal pack, with just a few lit......you could do this on only one side, both sides, or to burn all the way around like this shows.......



Here's two smaller ones burning opposite directions for ribs placed down the center......



.Make sense how I'm describing it?


Here's a charcoal basket on one side & a charcoal snap in rail on the near side.....both fairly inexpensive Weber items....



Basket......