Question for you guys using a gas assist smoker

Hick's Country BBQ · Newbie Joined: 29 Jul 2013 Posts: 70

My partner cooks his briskets on a stick burner for about 5 hours and then finishes them in ovens, he wants to do the same thing with this state of the art Old Hickory Rotisserie model SSJ smoker that we just purchased,, it has the cook and hold option on it, we will have CVAP cabinets, does this make sense to any of you pros ? I am sure there are more than one way to skin a cat but this just seems like a lot of extra work to me, any advice is greatly appreciated. Oh, we start demolition Monday, should be interesting.

kurtsara · Posted: Dec 15 2013 Post subject:

Seems like a waste of time to me, I sure like the briskets that come out of our CTO's.
_________________
Kurt

2 Ole Hickory CTO's

Harry Nutczak

RodinBangkok

Hick's Country BBQ · Newbie Joined: 29 Jul 2013 Posts: 70

Thank you guys for your input, I am all ears if you want to share any tips, thanks again.

Bbq Bubba · Posted: Dec 15 2013 Post subject:

BBQ isint cooked in an oven??? Rolling Eyes

_________________
2013 BBQ Person of the Year
Pitmaster at Lockharts BBQ in Royal Oak Mi.
I cook the best brisket north of Dallas.
Northern midwest director for Operation BBQ Relief

qfanatic01 · Posted: Dec 16 2013 Post subject:

First to answer your question, I cook brisket to temp. That is the only way to get consistent slicing brisket. As I have stated on a few threads here I cook whole briskets to 188 to 195 at the point. This can take anywhere from 6 to 8 hours. Briskets are as different as you and me. With high temps below zero this week our briskets have been taking 10-12 hours. My smokers are through the wall for several reasons. Cook and hold will be hit or miss with mostly miss. When slicing we put the caps aside and double smoke for 4 more hours the next day and use the Burnt Ends in several ways. We slice them as brisket, we dice them and their scraps for our beans, for our Philly Q special and Chili special. We don't have enough demand for Burnt Ends on there own. Cook your pulled pork with the cook and hold over night.

UpNSmoke · Newbie Joined: 01 Jan 2014 Posts: 27 Location: Indiana

Sounds like your partner just needs to get familiar with using a gas assit pit. I loved the one I used. I could throw my butts in, then my brisket a couple hours later, load a couple more logs then go home and sleep which is hard to come by in the bbq biz.

Every pits different, location, age of the pit, user, temp, quantity and cut of meat all factor into your cook times. Like everyone is saying he's adding an unnecessary step. Do test runs until your blue in the face. Use the product from your test runs to do marketing (unless its awful). Use a log and change one factor at a time until your happy. That way you can have a routine and product quality in place before you do a soft opening.

nskitts · Newbie Joined: 14 Jun 2011 Posts: 80 Location: Jackson, OH

He is basically using a technique that would be used if you were using a stick burner that needs attention. Totally not necessary with a gas assist. In fact, once your gas assist burns off all the wood it is essentially a huge gas oven, mine turns out gorgeous brisket and I don't wrap, spray,etc. Out in the open, 12 hours, put it on the night before and go to bed.

I will say, I would rather pull it off after 12 hours and CVAP than to let the smoker hold it.
_________________
500 Gallon Propane Offset
22.5 WSM "Set it and Forget it."
Ole Hickory EL-IB

Harry Nutczak · Posted: Jan 02 2014 Post subject:

Hick's Country BBQ · Newbie Joined: 29 Jul 2013 Posts: 70

That makes good sense, you could be cooking ribs or chicken while your briskets were holding in a CVAP, never have used one but have been reading a lot and listening to you guys, I am sure we will have a couple of them at least, thank all you guys for the wealth of information that you all share, Happy New Year ! Hope you all knock them dead this year.