Got the call from FedEx...delivery of YS640 competition is scheduled for tomorrow, finally! and just in time for the weekend.
checklist.....
- 1/2 ton of lumberjack OHC and MHC pellets ( group buy ) 25 bags @ $15.10 per 40lb bag delivered
- 1000 ft roll of Oren pink butcher paper
- Maverick ET_733 w/6' foot probes
- Thermapen mK4
- 4 racks of St. Louis ribs rubbed, prepped and wrapped and ready, sitting in the fridge
- 2 16lb full packer choice briskets trimmed, salt and pepper rubbed, wrapped and ready, sitting in the fridge
tick tock tick tock
Fort Lauderdale, FL
"Pissing off muslims one rack at a time"
Post some pictures of the arrival and the cook! Congrats!
New to pellet grilling/smoking
YS-640 ON ORANGE COMP CART
Jfred, we are on the same page brother. i most certainly will. i was planning on doing a......
"from off the truck to the plate" picture show. that is unless i ruin the cook, I'm busting my cherry on this one. and i got $200 worth of meat on the line. but I'm willing to go deep. I've read too many posts online about guys with brand new 640's and the first thing they cook is some salmon or chicken, or sausages. and I've read numerous posts where 640 owners haven't even attempted a brisket months into ownership. give me a friggin break! this 640 was not bought to smoke salmon. i say...give me hog and red meat or give me death
Fort Lauderdale, FL
"Pissing off muslims one rack at a time"
Nice man! No such thing as bad BBQ, just better BBQ. You'll do great. But don't get discouraged - I'm on brisket #8 and still have some tweaking left but DAMN are they getting good!
New to pellet grilling/smoking
YS-640 ON ORANGE COMP CART
i did pretty good with my charcoal weber smoky mountain , ruined a few cooks at first, and like you, it got better with every cook. And that was constantly trying to maintain temps manually. so,.. with a brand new 640 and a 1/2 ton of peletts at my disposal and a Restaurant Depot a few miles away ,I'm thinking that with trial and error it may run me around $600 in meat to get my smoke game to respectable or better. doing the quick math in head... $45-50 per brisket $15 or so for 2 racks of ribs...yeah right, what am i thinking, make that 4 racks...theres another $30 or so, that comes out to about $75-80 per cook attempt. that should get me around 7or 8 cooks to get my act together. actually the ribs are the easy part not too worried about them. its really all about the brisket and reaching the holy grail of getting that thing smoked to perfection. anyways....im super jacked and ready for the challenge. ill let you know how it all went down
Fort Lauderdale, FL
"Pissing off muslims one rack at a time"
Do a good burn in and a cheap biscuit test. Buy 2-3 cheap bonk bonk biscuits and place them all over. Cook them at the suggested temp. Far right is hot on the bottom shelf where the heat escapes from the burn pot. Upper rack is cooler. See where the hot and cold spots are.. Get a cheap 3 gallon vacuum from Home Depot etc.
Bit diff than a real stick quality smoker. It makes amazing food for sure.
It's kinda a radiant smoker, lots of heat on the diffuser due to the blazing fire from the fan fed pellets that heat up the diffuser plate, so it's a lot hotter at the diffuser plate than 3" higher. Measure temps with the Mav about 1" above the grate, the clip you get is fine. The other probe is just as accurate for chamber temps, so use it for that till meats get hot, 2 hrs in or so, then use the meat probe to monitor the briskets, which 10-14 hr after the start should be close to done. Briskets on the bottom, rotate L to R about 4/7/10 hrs. Move Briskets to the top, ribs o the bottom with 5 hours to go. Your big problem is when the briskets are done you have a resting period of 1-2 hrs or so, if you want to eat everything at the same time, you gotta be good.......
When I do ribs ( I don't foil), and you leave them with the meat side up for the 4-5 hr cook, the bottom is a bit overcooked. So I flip them after the 3rd hr and let the meat side cook, leaves good heat marks, then flip and wipe with a glaze of flavor. I don't slather my ribs much.
Adventurous you are good luck! I started a lot slower. Burn in, temp biscuit test, bacon test goodness, then a few chickens. Now I'm well seasoned.
thanx Con. appreciate the advise. i do plan on doing the biscuit test. I'm a little confused though, i thought the hottest part of the smoker was at the bottom grate, to the far left, closest to the burn pot. are you saying the hottest part is bottom grate, far right?
ill be doing the described 1st cook, as simply that, just a 1st cook. not so much for a dinner cook, so having everything cooked at the same time is no issue. but i do get what your saying if i was. it will be a giveaway to friends and neighbors. so whenever its done cooking, well so be it. they won't complain when i call them and tell them i have some Q for them to sample. Just looking to get my feet soaked, and to get a decent 1st smoke under my belt and then proceed with the next one with more confidence.
Fort Lauderdale, FL
"Pissing off muslims one rack at a time"
- initial burn
- initial burn
Two minor issues upon delivery....and not sure who to really blame on the first one.
1. After taking it off the pallet, i noticed the bottom corner of the cart had some black scuffing from the strapping that held it to the pallet. Was it manhandled during delivery? or maybe yoder didn't do a good enough job of properly securing it from the git go? not sure, but I've tried to clean and buff out, but its there for good. Not a giant deal, you can hardly notice it, unless of course your the guy that dropped close to 3k on the smoker. Ill get over it.
2. I had ordered the 2- piece diffuser w/trap door that wasn't included in the delivery. Made a quick call to Aaron@ATTBQ, he apologized and told me that it would ship out the same day. I understand sh#t happens, and another thumbs up to ATTBQ for making it right without any questions
So...now its about 3pm. I load it up with 20lbs of lumberjack OHC and get the thing fired up, and proceed to the initial burn in. An hour later shut it down and wash and clean all the grates and diffuser, vacuum it all out. Now its time to re-install and give it another 1 hour of seasoning with some Pam sprayed on the grates and a towel with Pam soaked into it to wipe down the sides of the pit and the door.
Its about 5:30 pm now. I can't stand it any longer. I pull out the 4 racks of St.louis ribs and the 20lb brisket that was trimmed down to about 16lbs. and I still have another 16 pounder in the fridge ready to go as well. I thought better about my initial smoke plan, it was getting late in the day, so i decided to just go with ribs by themselves, and then do the briskets around midnight
5 1/2 hours later....4 racks @225 all on the bottom grates, uncovered the whole way, spritzed with apple juice every hour and they were done. They were not my best effort, I'm not sure if it was the meat,or the bbq sauce that i used, or the fact that they were rubbed and sitting in the fridge for 24 hours, or because it was the 1st smoke on the yoder that wasn't really "seasoned". Or all of the above. They were tender, and cooked perfect, Just a taste issue. I got 6 more racks in the fridge still sealed, so i will keep playing around this weekend and see it was a fluke, or what.
Now its about 1:30 am....what the hell! i might as well throw one of those $70 briskets on.
Fat side up, point towards the hopper. 10 hours in, the Mav is telling me 162 on the flat and 160 on the point. tick tock tick tock, the stall is on.
here are some pics...
- Attachments
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- sittin pretty
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Fort Lauderdale, FL
"Pissing off muslims one rack at a time"
hers are some pics of the ribs
- Attachments
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- same batch
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- leftovers..12 hours later
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- 12 hours after they were cooked
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- 4 racks StL
Fort Lauderdale, FL
"Pissing off muslims one rack at a time"
and the brisket
- Attachments
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- fat side down the rest of the way
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- fat side up@ 8 hours
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- salt and pepper
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- trimmed and ready
Fort Lauderdale, FL
"Pissing off muslims one rack at a time"
Its now 12 hours and 15 mins into the cook.
point 172
flat 178
Fort Lauderdale, FL
"Pissing off muslims one rack at a time"
looks like its starting to get past the stall.... the bark has set up nicely, passed the scratch test. decisions, decisions...to wrap it up or not, let it keep climbing, flip it back to fat side up, or run it naked the whole way through. one thing for certain...its time for an adult beverage!
Fort Lauderdale, FL
"Pissing off muslims one rack at a time"
On a side note, if anybody is curious, the smoker has been running for about 24 hours non-stop.
2 hours @ 350-400 for initial burn/seasoning
22 hours @ 225 of actual smoking/cooking
Total consumption around 22 pounds of Lumberjack MHC pellets, I'm assuming that living in South Florida in the dead of summer has something to do with it. I was expecting a lot more, somewhere in the 30lb range.
Fort Lauderdale, FL
"Pissing off muslims one rack at a time"
Going on 14 hours....
flat is at 195
point is at 192
probe is going in with little resistance, not quite butter, but getting pretty damn close. The whole brisket is nice and loose and jiggly, feels like jello. I was gonna run it thru naked the whole way. I've never tried wrapping in butcher paper before, but what the hell, I'm going for it.
- Attachments
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- 40# pink butcher
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- 40# pink butcher
Fort Lauderdale, FL
"Pissing off muslims one rack at a time"
Well Bosox how did it turn out? It looks pretty good.
2-Cookshack 160's
Gator 30" Competitor stick burner
Ok. Joe's 24" stick burner
When i was probing at the 14 hour mark, the brisket felt right. my thermapen was penetrating rather easily, and juice was leaking out as soon as i pulled it out. the brisket was spongy and everything looked good. Except my Mav-733 and my Thermapen was telling me i was at 195 at the flat, and 192 at the point. I usually bring my brisket to 200 for the flat, and around 205 for the point. So, i wrapped it in paper and continued to cook. 2 hours later i pulled it off, and let it rest for another hour.
i should have trusted my instincts at the 14 hour mark, regardless of what temperature the Maverick and the thermapen was telling me. the probe was sliding in very nicely at all points of the brisket, that should have been enuf reason alone to pull at that time.
the brisket came out good, just a little dry. the extra 2 hours i think pretty much took me over top.
I also want to add....this was biggest brisket I've ever cooked. it was a choice grade and came in at 21 pounds before trimming. Maybe i was screwed from the jump with such a big piece most likely from an older tougher cow?
- after 1 hour rest
- point and flat separated
- the flat
- decent smoke rings and bark
Fort Lauderdale, FL
"Pissing off muslims one rack at a time"
here is the point cubed up
Fort Lauderdale, FL
"Pissing off muslims one rack at a time"
When cooking for tenderness (brisket, pork butts, ribs) time and internal temp are variables, The only real indicator is the "feel" when probing.
Man bosox, this has been a fun read. Glad you joined the forum. Brisket looks good!
New to pellet grilling/smoking
YS-640 ON ORANGE COMP CART
Damn, where were you guys yesterday when i needed you? I needed somebody to slap me upside the head, when i got to 14 hours, and pull that damn thing off.
Hey Herb and Jfred, or anybody else for that matter. If you were me, would you have pulled it at 14 hours, when it "felt" right, with the probe going in with little resistance, and nice hard set bark that passed the scratch test, and nice and spongey....even though the internal temps weren't quite where they should have been? should the mindset when it gets close to being done be...."feel trumps temps"
Fort Lauderdale, FL
"Pissing off muslims one rack at a time"
Btw...none of that cook is left. the local carnivores made short work of it all. And i still have another..
16-17lb trimmed packer
6 racks of StL ribs
4 racks of beef short ribs
sitting in the fridge, ready for round 2
Fort Lauderdale, FL
"Pissing off muslims one rack at a time"
First want to say congrats and good job buddy!
Very similar to my last brisket. I too went a little long and this point I think we all become our own worst critics. We never reach perfection and are always trying to beat the one that we considered our best. Usually others are happy but once you've had the soft as butter texture with dripping moisture....nothing else is good enough.
I've thought too much fat ,too little fat, not the best cut and pilot error in the end brisket is just plain tempermental. The main thing is you're on your way. Even when lightly disappointed we're still learning. This is just the beginning, hopefully the long and winding road leads to the holy grail.
Thanx West.
You are exactly right. Im always chasing that dragon. Honestly, i wouldn't mind giving a Prime grade, or even a Wagyu brisket a shot. Just to scratch that nagging itch, and be able to say...yeah, I've tried them all and there is or isn't a big difference in cook and quality and taste. you know what i mean?
I usually buy my brisket at my local Restaurant Depot, nothing but choice or black angus. But as everybody knows or should know, its all about how that cow was raised and fed, slaughtered and processed. I would truly love to do a 3 brisket experiment. choice-prime-wagyu and then do a blind taste test with the end results. However, I'm in south florida and I've looked high and low, and have never been able to find a prime or wagyu
Fort Lauderdale, FL
"Pissing off muslims one rack at a time"
Bosox
My briskets have been perfect at about the 203* IT mark. I cook at 235* on the Yoder. I absolutely think feel trumps temp. I normally pull them around the 195-200 mark and they climb up to and a bit past 203 while resting.
But honestly, I'm guilty of reading the temp to much and not trusting my gut. Sounds like your gut told you to pull it but your therms told you go another 2 hours... Next time trust your gut! It's hard, I'm still trying to convince myself my guts right and not just hungry LOL.
New to pellet grilling/smoking
YS-640 ON ORANGE COMP CART
I've got a nice rack of BBs on there now. Asian style. Love these dang things. 2hrs in...
New to pellet grilling/smoking
YS-640 ON ORANGE COMP CART
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