Your best smoke temp

[MikeRocksTheRed]

235-265 is my preferred range for pork butts, but l'll cook faster if I'm gonna wrap. I cook briskets a little faster, around 275, and the only reason I don't cook em north of 300 is I don't want to scald the butcher paper. For ribs I cook around 250, but that's because it's the temp my smoker likes. Faster is fine, though, especially if foiling. It also depends on the cooker as much or more than the cut. For instance, it's not efficient to try to cook in a wsm at 275 with water in the pan. Boiling the water washes the smoke and leaves a funny smoke flavor if you ask me.


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Ah ha!  Maybe water pans are the reason for slow and low being under 250 traditionally....so oyu don't boil your water and steam your meat!

[MikeRocksTheRed]

It infuriates me to see wings, flank steak, etc at the $4.00, $5.00 and higher per pound pricing. A whole chicken is $.75/lb on sale, leg quarters $.75/lb on sale, thighs $.75lb on sale...and wings on sale? $3.99!


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I'm with you!  and out here in AZ pork ribs are always $8.99/lb.  I bought ribs on a barrier island in NC last year not on sale for $2.99/lb.  When they do go on sale here its never a good per pound price, its buy 1 get 2 or buy 1 get 3 free.  That ends up being a good price, but I don't have enough freezer space to be loading up on ribs like that.  Beef, esepcially ground beef prices have been sky high for a while now.  I love burgers, but rarely make them these days due to beef prices.  I will say that chicken seems to always be on sale for an okay price out here with someone always having them for between $1.69-$1.99 per pound.  I do wings enough that Safeway usually has digital "just4u" coupons I can attach to my card if I go online and look for them.  Every once in a while its a flat per pound coupon but most of the time its a 30-60 cents off per pound coupon.  They also always have digital coupons for jalapenos and cream cheese that are a great deal.  I guess they know I like wings and ABT's!

[kettlecook]

235-265 is my preferred range for pork butts, but l'll cook faster if I'm gonna wrap. I cook briskets a little faster, around 275, and the only reason I don't cook em north of 300 is I don't want to scald the butcher paper. For ribs I cook around 250, but that's because it's the temp my smoker likes. Faster is fine, though, especially if foiling. It also depends on the cooker as much or more than the cut. For instance, it's not efficient to try to cook in a wsm at 275 with water in the pan. Boiling the water washes the smoke and leaves a funny smoke flavor if you ask me.


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Ah ha!  Maybe water pans are the reason for slow and low being under 250 traditionally....so oyu don't boil your water and steam your meat!

Probably so. One thing you can do with a water smoker to improve the bark is let the pan go almost dry toward the end and let the temps rise. Or just take the pan out all together. I've done that for pork butts at the very end if only using the top rack.

Another reason for traditional low and slow though, is that it's more forgiving on big cooks. For instance, while it's perfectly fine to smoke a couple slabs of ribs on a kettle over 275, it's a lot easier to over or undercook when you cook a bunch of slabs that fast on a smoker, no matter how even cooking the pit is. In other words, the time window of forgiveness gets shorter the faster you cook. On the other hand, if you warm the meat to death you'll have some jerky  bark, just like if you cook too fast without wrapping. So if you think about how different kinds of smokers cook, the different kinds of cooks, big events or a meal for two, and the different methods of wrapping with foil or butcher paper, it's no secret why there's so many different opinions and why something might work for some but not everyone.


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[austin87]

@MikeRocksTheRed buy a piece of chuck any decent butcher shop, or even Safeway. It will be one of the cheapest cuts on a $/lb basis. Ask them to grind it for you.

Take it home and use your vacuum sealer to portion it off, but make sure to flatten the package out (you can do this after you vacuum it) and push the meat into all 4 corners. You will have a flat, square portion of ground beef that can be easily stacked for optimal storage.

[MikeRocksTheRed]

@MikeRocksTheRed buy a piece of chuck any decent butcher shop, or even Safeway. It will be one of the cheapest cuts on a $/lb basis. Ask them to grind it for you.

Take it home and use your vacuum sealer to portion it off, but make sure to flatten the package out (you can do this after you vacuum it) and push the meat into all 4 corners. You will have a flat, square portion of ground beef that can be easily stacked for optimal storage.

Good call, I'll give this a try.  Thanks!

[jfbincypress]

It infuriates me to see wings, flank steak, etc at the $4.00, $5.00 and higher per pound pricing. A whole chicken is $.75/lb on sale, leg quarters $.75/lb on sale, thighs $.75lb on sale...and wings on sale? $3.99!


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I'm with you!  and out here in AZ pork ribs are always $8.99/lb.  I bought ribs on a barrier island in NC last year not on sale for $2.99/lb.  When they do go on sale here its never a good per pound price, its buy 1 get 2 or buy 1 get 3 free.  That ends up being a good price, but I don't have enough freezer space to be loading up on ribs like that.  Beef, esepcially ground beef prices have been sky high for a while now.  I love burgers, but rarely make them these days due to beef prices.  I will say that chicken seems to always be on sale for an okay price out here with someone always having them for between $1.69-$1.99 per pound.  I do wings enough that Safeway usually has digital "just4u" coupons I can attach to my card if I go online and look for them.  Every once in a while its a flat per pound coupon but most of the time its a 30-60 cents off per pound coupon.  They also always have digital coupons for jalapenos and cream cheese that are a great deal.  I guess they know I like wings and ABT's!

$8.99/lb for pork ribs? Ouch!!!

We're lucky in Texas, I get pork ribs (St. Louis, Country, and baby backs) for $1.49-1.99/lb all the time.


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[AZRaptor]

If you guys have found the higher temps to be fine. Where do you think all the hype about keeping it under 250 came from? Just curious.

I am guessing it is from people who are smoking different types of meat at the same time.  While higher heat is fine for some things like shoulders and butts, I'm thinking it wouldn't be so great for things like brisket.

I usually do some sort of smoking practically every weekend and whether it's ribs, butts or brisket I'm always cooking in the 275-300 range without issue.

I happened to go to a BBQ and Grilling class this past weekend to see if I could pick up any new tricks and kinda cringed when the instructor said they smoke everything at 180, because "anything over 200 is cooking, not smoking". Mmm k... 

[austin87]

If you guys have found the higher temps to be fine. Where do you think all the hype about keeping it under 250 came from? Just curious.

I am guessing it is from people who are smoking different types of meat at the same time.  While higher heat is fine for some things like shoulders and butts, I'm thinking it wouldn't be so great for things like brisket.

I usually do some sort of smoking practically every weekend and whether it's ribs, butts or brisket I'm always cooking in the 275-300 range without issue.

I happened to go to a BBQ and Grilling class this past weekend to see if I could pick up any new tricks and kinda cringed when the instructor said they smoke everything at 180, because "anything over 200 is cooking, not smoking". Mmm k... 

I'm with you. That's too hot to cold smoke and you will cook food at that themp, so I call BS on him!

[Travis]

I generally run my ribs, butt, brisket or whatever around 250ish. I just set the dampers where i like them and let it settle in where it wants to. A little fine tuning here or there but it runs about within 10-15 degrees of itself. I wrap everything up. Crutch or not, it works and I'm no purest. When your talking about chickens I run it 400ish and that works great for me. Reading jfbincypress comment in gonna try that moving the basket under direct for a few and see what happens. I bet that fat dripping down on those coals would be nice and really crisp the skin. Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend. Happy grilling!