5 Briskets 6 Butts Fund Raiser Cook

SciAggie said:

@Hotch @Thatgrimguy I’m going to reveal my ignorance with a question. How is the warming oven really much different from the cook chamber? From what I see they don’t receive the same amount of smoke, but there is usually some because it has to vent. Can it be held at warming temps while the main chamber is at cook temps? In general, can the warming oven be operated at a significantly different temerate than the cook chamber? Either higher or lower?
Given the way you did this cook - cooking one day and reheating the next - could you have reheated in the main chamber just as well? If everything was wrapped there wouldn’t be additional smoke. I’m just trying to see how all this operates in practice. If I ever make the plunge into a stick burner I want to be informed. 

@SciAggie First off I am by no means an expert on stick burners, this is all new schooling for me! I'm point on with Eggs!!

My cook had 11 pieces of protein that required rack  space in both the warmer and Main Chamber. I ran the warmer during the cook at 325+ while running the MC at 275+.

If the fire is at a stable temp then each cook chamber is controllable by changing the heat/smoke flow with both the stack vents and chamber baffles.
One baffle allows for flow between the MC and the warmer. The second baffle  controls the heat/smoke between the fire box and the warmer. Then you can adjust the stack vents of each chamber to increase or decrease what I call the heat pressure and not restrict air flow on your fire, along with varying the baffle openings. It may sound complicated but not really. On my Shirley I can see 5-10 degree temp changes with small baffle adjustments when cooking in both chambers.
As far as the warming of the pans the next morning, I had 4 full size pans to get to 165 ASAP. The main would hold 3 on the racks. I tried to stack one but felt it would not work and disrupt or block the heat flow. So I took the one pan that was only 1/3 full and put it in the warmer with that baffle partially open at a temp equal to the main chamber around 265-275. Once the center of that   pan hit a temp of 155, I closed that baffle and then used the warmer pin wheel to draw in a bit of fresh air to maintain the temp. Warmer temp was then kept to around 175. As the other 3 pans in the main chamber came up to a temp of 155, I moved them to the warmer. All the pans finished at 165+. With the HS just a mile or so away we loaded them up and put them in the concession stand warming cabinet. Set it to around 165 and humidity at 60% and went home. The tournament would start in about 2-3 hours.
If you like, come out to the BBQ Brethren Bash next Fall at Belton Lake and you can be the pit master on my Shirley!! Any questions send me a PM

BYS1981 said:

Awesome stuff, I have considered doing such an event for my children’s school fundraising events.

Thanks, it was a fair amount of work and well worth it!