Pork shoulder and full packer brisket at same time?

[LarryD]

I have an opportunity coming up to smoke a pork shoulder and/or a full packer brisket for work.  Because of timing, I would only do both if I can do them at the same time in my 3DW.  From my experience doing each separately, I would think I could do both at the same time with the pork possibly coming out sooner. 

I figure I'd do the brisket on the top shelf as high as it can reasonably go in the smoker and the pork shoulder below it with a small gap.  Thoughts?

 

[barelfly]

I say go for it! There’s room for it and temps are fairly close so you don’t have to open the door much.

Let us know how it goes!

 

[LarryD]

I say go for it! There’s room for it and temps are fairly close so you don’t have to open the door much.
Let us know how it goes!

Still hoping to get some more feedback... particularly first-hand experience.  That said, unless I get feedback convincing me it's a mistake I'll give it a go and definitely report back.

Ironically, one of my secondary considerations is people's food restrictions due to their beliefs...  If I put the beef on top then the pork is contaminated with cow so the Indians may not eat it.  If I put the pork on top then it'll drip on the beef and the muslims won't eat it.  I enjoy working in an office with a diverse population, but this does create difficulties at times. 

 

[barelfly]

That’s an issue that’s hard to avoid then.

You could smoke the butt first, pull it and ice it down and serve in a crock pot day of.  Smoke the brisket night before and wrap and hold until you serve. Really the only way around the cross contamination. 

 

[LarryD]

That’s an issue that’s hard to avoid then.
You could smoke the butt first, pull it and ice it down and serve in a crock pot day of.  Smoke the brisket night before and wrap and hold until you serve. Really the only way around the cross contamination.

Yeah... I'm leaving it up to the organizer at work.  If they don't care about the cross-contamination then I'll do both.  If they do, then I'll do whichever they prefer I do.  I'll be putting my time, brining, seasoning, and smoking into it, but they're providing the meat.

 

[EFGM]

You could consider putting your butt by itself for the first 3, maybe 4 hours to get it's smoke and then finish up in the kitchen oven and also putting on your brisket by itself. I don't remember what temp you smoke your brisket at Larry, but you could time them to come out about the same time that way. Just a thought for consideration anyway.

Good luck!

 

[LarryD]

You could consider putting your butt by itself for the first 3, maybe 4 hours to get it's smoke and then finish up in the kitchen oven and also putting on your brisket by itself. I don't remember what temp you smoke your brisket at Larry, but you could time them to come out about the same time that way. Just a thought for consideration anyway.

That's an interesting idea that I'll have to give consideration.  I've traditionally done my briskets at ~235, but I'm flexible on it...  I don't know how works thinks this won't ultimately be a big clusterfark, but I'm willing to play along.    They've apparently done it before and are willing to do it again, so it must work out.

It's billed as a cook-off with judging, but I don't really care about that part.  They buy all of the meat and send it home with the participating employees on a Friday.  On Monday everyone brings it in for judging and then slice/pull and serve for lunch at ~11:00.  I know that I'm going to throw mine in Sunday evening and still get plenty of sleep.  I'm not sure how others will function at work on Monday if they babysit a smoker all night.

 

[EFGM]

When is your cook off coming up? Looking forward to how you do it and pictures. I have faith you will take the grand prize!

 

[LarryD]

When is your cook off coming up? Looking forward to how you do it and pictures. I have faith you will take the grand prize!

It's for lunch on Sep 9th.  The meat will be provided the Friday before which gives me plenty of time to brine and season the brisket.  It looks like there will be 15-20 folks participating.  They ultimately said they didn't care about cross-contamination, so I don't have to worry about that.  Unlike a lot of the others, I'll actually get some sleep that Sunday night. 

 

[LuvMyQ]

I did this very combination on the July 4th weekend.  I put the butt as high as it would go with the idea that it would self baste the brisket underneath it.  I think that worked.  Here are more details about that smoke.  Things that went well and things that did not.  The main kinks were the experiment with the beans.

https://www.smokinitforums.com/index.php?topic=7664.msg68324#msg68324

 

[LarryD]

I did this very combination on the July 4th weekend.  I put the butt as high as it would go with the idea that it would self baste the brisket underneath it.  I think that worked.  Here are more details about that smoke.  Things that went well and things that did not.  The main kinks were the experiment with the beans.

I think there's a link missing, but I'll just search your posts and find it.  Thanks for the info!

 

[LuvMyQ]

Doh!  OK, I added the link.

 

[LarryD]

It's the day of truth...  just pulled everything out of the smoker and it's all resting in a cooler now for a reveal in 2 hours.  I'll try to take some pictures when I get things out again.

First Impressions

The butts were literally falling apart.  There are a few scraps that are on the ground outside my smoker.  Wrapping them in plastic was a challenge they were falling apart so bad.  Glad I have big hands. 

The brisket had some jiggle, but not as much as I've had on ones the past nor as much as I would have liked.  The bark wasn't what I would have hoped for, but it's there.  It'll still be light-years better than Dickey's, but I don't see it winning any awards.

I was really surprised by how little liquid made it to the drip pan.  I was expecting I'd have to empty the pan somewhere during the course of the smoke.  In reality, the pan isn't even close to 1/2 full.  I have no explanation for this...

Total smoke time was ~13 hours for everything.  I did the first hour @200, bumped it to 260 for maybe a couple hours and decided that was too hot and dropped it down to 225 overnight.  Around 5:00 this morning I checked on it and bumped it back up to 260 to finish it off.