Pork Butts on a Monster

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Bob In Fla.

Bob In Fla.

Head Chef
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
Messages
1,115
Location
O-Town, Florida
This is one package of pork butts from Sam's Club. About 16 pounds. Seasoned with "Duke's Dirt", a fairly new rub from Perry Georgia. It's pretty good, but I haven't tried it by itself before to see how it is with making bark.

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I can hear the sizzle as the juices drip down on the tuning plates.

BOB
 
I'll get more pictures later.

It's a "Monster" made in Centerville, Ga. by Stump's Smokers. It is a gravity fed smoker that can burn either charcoal or logs (or both) in the gravity chute. The standard main rack is 44 X 28.5. Optional 2nd rack is 44 X 25. I have a 3rd rack that is 44 X 12 that can be used as a warming rack.

It'll hold an 85 pound hog, butterflied on it's back or 115 pounds without the head. My optional main rack is "Lazy Susan" so that I will be able to rotate a hog end-for-end by myself.

There's over 100 pounds of tuning plates. They are heavy to also act as a heat-sinc to help even out the temperature variations.

I cooked on the 2/3 sized prototype in December 2011 and immediately fell in love with the way it cooks.

More pictures as I learn how to use it.

BOB
 
Wow ok..we gonna need some tight measurements and up close photos before we take up cloning this thing. Or hey..just include a yard stick in the photos. Smart thinking.
 
Suspect the smart young whuppersnapper just getting it oiled up good. Two butts was what one of my many bbq Mentors taught on how to break in a big old good muy grande barbcoa type gizmo. If I was the doctor in charge I would highly recommend two butts at the same time..lol.
 
bigwheel said:
Suspect the smart young whuppersnapper just getting it oiled up good. Two butts was what one of my many bbq Mentors taught on how to break in a big old good muy grande barbcoa type gizmo. If I was the doctor in charge I would highly recommend two butts at the same time..lol.
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Yup, those butts went on just about the time I got the first oil cooked into the new metal. I coulda just kept on going empty but I figured "why not"?

As far as efficiency, it does take a lot of fuel to get all that metal up to temperature, but once it's up, it doesn't take a lot to keep it there. Over the second night, I had the ball valve just barely open, and the temperature dropped to about 95 and I might have used about a pound of charcoal for about 8 hours. Then I opened the valve to where 350 should be, and about an hour later I was cooking @ 350. Couple of yardBird wings. Yeah, I'm just playing and learning a new cooker right now.

New toys are FUN!

BOB
 
Dang making me jealous. Any room for firebricks in that fine machine? I could stick 23 into the old Snnp? El cheapo brinkmann offset. Talk about a heat sink from Hades? if so would concentrate on the cookchamber part. If not I take all this back of course.
 
Cliff H. said:
Is that bad boy mounted on a trailer ?
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No. Not yet. My plan is to have it sitting crossways just over the axle(s) with storage in front and cooking access to the back. The tailgate/ramp will have adjustable "legs" on it so that it can be used as a work platform. Well, thet's my plan this week anyway.

BOB
 
bigwheel said:
Dang making me jealous. Any room for firebricks in that fine machine? I could stick 23 into the old Snnp? El cheapo brinkmann offset. Talk about a heat sink from Hades? if so would concentrate on the cookchamber part. If not I take all this back of course.
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I guess I could get almost a pallet of them in there, but why? It would make it too heavy and probably take a day-and-a-half to heat up all that clay.

BOB
 
Ok nevermind. If its retaining the heat the way you like it thats what matters. On the smaller pit the bricks made a big difference in how many beers a person could drink before having to fiddle with the fire. At least doubled the available leisure time. Helps some on the big pit when cooking direct with or without the optional water pan. On that one just stuck em in directly below the firepan. Seems to have far greater heat retention properties than copious amounts of scrap iron.
 
This is actually an offset cooker. Firebox is on one (the right end) end, heat and smoke enter the cooking chamber under the tuning plates (1/2" thick steel plates) and travels across to the other end. No place in there for fire bricks unless you want them on the cooking grates.

BOB
 
Ok..well I would skip the fire brick step..lol. Now they do still come in handy if a person want to cook a pot of beans on top of the firebox. Can you set a pot on yours and do it get hot? I will have to go check the pics again.
 
Bob, is that Stumps direct heat of does it have a fire box? I like that a lot! Nice butts too!

(nevermind, I just saw it's an offset! I love the design)
 
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