These temps are from the door thermometer and my thermometer inside the temp told me that the brisket cooked at about 25 degrees hotter than what the door read. The pork was just about dead on to the door reading.
It is quite obvious to me what the problems are, but would love any analysis:
1) Smoker Temp - Cook temp was not 'in control'. More like it controlled me. I started off using oak logs for heat and was able to get the temp up, but it dropped off a cliff if I didn't tend to it every 20 minutes. At hour 7, I switched over to lump charcoal and you can see what happened. The temp was more stable but never got high enough.
Action: For the competition in Oct, I think I will buy some Hickory logs and just use them in the smoker. The extra man power there should provide enough attention to the firebox that we can keep the temp in the right zone. Long-term, I need recommendations for how to manage temp more efficiently.
2) Brisket Temp - You can see from the yellow triangles that I went a long time without checking my internal temp of the brisket. I got distracted with yard work and the smoker temp and just plain forgot about it. I wanted to pull it at 190.
Action: Pay more attention.
3) Pork Temp - Even though it cooked for 14 hours, it never got above 175. The meat was OK, but not falling apart in many places.
Action: Rotate around the placement of the meats within the cooker and, for heavens sake, keep the overall temp up in the darn thing.
If you have any insight on:
1) cooking in a Bandera and how to control the heat
2) how to rotate meats once foiled....I am concerned that I will put a hole in the foil and my juices will drain out
3) other data that I should be recording when cooking
3) any tips at all
please do share. Thanks for reading and I appreciate the help!
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