High Altitude Smoking

[Sundance]

Greetings Brethren,

I recently purchased a cabin in the mountain of Northern Arizona, elevation at 6700'. I have both a WSM and a 40" Masterbuilt electric up there until I can pick up a nice stick burner or another Ptimaker Vault.

I've smoked 2 briskets up there now, and both took quite a few hours longer than normal. What would normally be a 12 hour cook at 250, took 18 hours and both came out very dry.

Anyone on the board experienced in high altitude cooks? Looking for advice.

Would wrapping early and using a water pan solve the dryness issue, or is other mitigation recommended?

TIA

 

[C Rocke]

When my daughter was at NAU, we did BBQ for her Soccer team a few times. One of the AZ brethren there loaned me his Lang. The only thing we did was wrap a little early on long cooks, but short cooks we made no adjustments (Chicken, ribs, tri tip, sausage, moink, etc). Remember cooking time took just a bit longer...

Congrats on the place. Summertime will be great!

 

[Clay-b-que]

Remember water/fat boils sooner at higher altitude so you need to figure out when it boils and do not take the meat past that. Also, since the air is thinner you will use more fuel because there is less oxygen. Keep experimenting. It’s a different animal. I catered a wedding at over 10,000 feet and it took the first few fires to figure it out. Was good to go after that.

 

[JEStucker]

My grandparents retired to their "summer" property in Gunnison, CO in the mid-80's. 7,704 feet above sea level. I remember growing up looking through grandma's cookbooks and seeing the margins filled with notes where she'd had to adjust all her recipes from Missouri elevations to Colorado elevations.
Grandpa had a smoker, but seldom used it, mainly due to the cost of a lot of wood, you could get mesquite from time to time, but most of what grew locally were pines, aspen, or birch trees, none of which were good for smoking with.

 

[toys4dlr]

As atmospheric pressure decreases, water boils at lower temperatures. At sea level, water boils at 212 °F. With each 500-feet increase in elevation, the boiling point of water is lowered by just under 1 °F. At 6,700 feet, for example, water boils at about 200 °F.

So, if you were trying to take the brisket to your normal finishing temp, it got over cooked. Hence the dry part. There is less O2 also, why it takes more time to get the fire up to temp. It is a little learning curve cooking at higher altitude. The first comp I did in Taylor AZ years ago was the first time cooking at higher altitude and my timing was all off.

 

[thirdeye]

I'm at 5400' and water boils at 203° at my house. You probably will be less than 200°. As altitude increases, atmospheric pressure decreases, and so does the boiling point of water. This means an increase in cooking time is needed. It's tempting to use higher pit temps, but you run the risk of drying out some things.

The bigger meats need more time and wrapping helps for tendering up and moisture. Foil works much better than paper. Injection of some sorts is practically a must. For grilling, there is not much difference, but I do spray to keep my meats moist.

 

[Sundance]

As atmospheric pressure decreases, water boils at lower temperatures. At sea level, water boils at 212 °F. With each 500-feet increase in elevation, the boiling point of water is lowered by just under 1 °F. At 6,700 feet, for example, water boils at about 200 °F.

So, if you were trying to take the brisket to your normal finishing temp, it got over cooked. Hence the dry part. There is less O2 also, why it takes more time to get the fire up to temp. It is a little learning curve cooking at higher altitude. The first comp I did in Taylor AZ years ago was the first time cooking at higher altitude and my timing was all off.

Ahhh, ok - so what you're saying is instead of expecting it to be done around 203-205 IT, it may be done at 190?

 

[toys4dlr]

Ahhh, ok - so what you're saying is instead of expecting it to be done around 203-205 IT, it may be done at 190?

Exactly, most likely around 195 ish and feel is going to be more important than usual finish temps. Trust the force. lol

 

[NoOne]

Ahhh, ok - so what you're saying is instead of expecting it to be done around 203-205 IT, it may be done at 190?

Yes - 190-195 was my target in Colorado. Also keep in mind that the air will be very dry, not a lot of humidity at that altitude. I always got my best results on the WSM with a water pan and then wrapping in foil at target and resting in a cooler for 4 hours or so.

Good luck - that is a beautiful area.

 

[buckhorn_cortez]

You have two problems to deal with. The first is lower relative humidity. I live in Albuquerque, NM at 5,000 feet. The relative humidity here can get as low as 2% and in the summer, is usually between 7% and 15%. I have a Lone Star Grillz Miini vertical cabinet smoker. The smoker will hold about 3.1 gallons of water in the internal water pan. When I smoke, I have to put about 0.8 gallon per hour into the smoker to keep the water pan topped off. That's how much water is being used because of the lower humidity. I also always use a water pan in my MAK Two Star General. I use water to help keep the meat moist because the relative humidity of the air is so low and dries out the meat.

The second problem is the lowered boiling point of water. The boiling point decreases about 1 degree for every 500 feet altitude gain. At 6700 feet, that would be 13.4 degrees meaning water boils at 198.6. So, the meat cooks internally at a lower temperature. What I do is use 275 F in my vertical smoker and 245 F in the MAK instead of lower temperatures. The higher cooking temperatures and water pan to raise the humidity inside the smoker seems to compensate for the altitude and my cooking times are about 10% to 15% longer than what I read in BBQ books and on forums for people at lower altitudes.

The problems are - low humidity + lower boiling point of water means you have to increase cooking temperature and/or cook for a longer time. Without a water pan you risk drying out the meat.

 

[Clay-b-que]

+1 on the water pan, but I also combat this by injecting almost everything I do!

 

[Ylouder]

Trial and error can sometimes be part of the fun. But I personally don't like trying to smoke at altitude. I would smoke soothing prior, bring it wrapped in foil/plastic then warm it up in a roaster, crockpot, or oven.

 

[NoOne]

This is a great thread by the way.