Smoking with a Ranch Question

[crowderjd]

So, I'm hosting my big AP US History student review party this Sunday...see last year's event here:

http://weberkettleclub.com/forums/bbq-food-pics/cooking-for-60!/

This year, I have fewer students, but I'm still going to be cooking for around 50 people people, and will be smoking at least 5 bone in butts, plus moinks and ABTs (plus Hebrew National hot dogs for my Jewish students, and veggie burgers for my communists...I mean vegetarians).  I was thinking of doing the butts (At least 5) on the Ranch, but I was wondering about setup and temperature maintenance.  I always do butts on my 26ers with a snake method, and was wondering about setups for a snake on a 26er, or any other methods.  My thinking is that it would be much easier for me to maintain one fire for these butts than three separate fires as I did last year.  Any advice or hints would be much appreciated, and look out for pics of the event next week. 

[1buckie]

 This will have some input for ya.....

http://weberkettleclub.com/forums/grilling-bbqing/snake-method-on-the-ranch-kettle/

[Old Dave]

While there are several methods of cooking a large low and slow cook on the Ranch Kettle, I prefer this method over all I have tried.



I start by using four of the Weber #7402 fences (two on each side) to control my fire. I then load a half chimney of cold all hardwood briquets to both sides.



Then I use two full size tin foil pans in the center of the cooker.

Then I fire up a full chimney of the all hardwood briquets and pour 1/2 on top of the cold in each side of the cooker.

Next step is to load the cooker and then to add some hardwood chunks to each  side of the fire. Adjust  the cooker to about 275-300 degrees measured on the cooking grid and cook away.



These are briskets for my pastramied beef about done on the Ranch Kettle.

For most of my brisket and pork butt cooks, I will usually add about 15-20 more cold briquets to each side a couple more times during the cook.

This cooker is just so simple to run with this method, easy to clean up after a cook, very even cooking as I don't like to have to turn or reposition any of the meat during a cook, and just works out the best for my way of cooking.

[crowderjd]

Thanks guys!  @Old Dave that looks very doable and I already have all that equipment on hand including the pans.

[Travis]

Let the vegetarians mow the grass. Kind of like a work for your food deal. 😂

[glrasmussen]

This is the set up that I use. Used the minion and a crutch. Took eight hours.

[Jon]

Dave's advice is probably best. Or Buckie's link. I've only done a few smokes on the Ranch. For those, I just poured a messy snake right out of a bag of KBB (a big snake), and lit a full mini-chimney to start it up. The Ranch worked great for me as a smoker, very stable heat.

Oops. While I was typing, glrassmussen posted his impressive example.

[fedex]

Hi,  good luck with your cook.  One big deal I've found when smoking on the ranch is DON'T PEEK.  When you open the lid on that bad boy it loses a lot of heat real fast and takes a bit to recover.  Just my 2¢

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