First smoke with WSM

[Notaes]

So this is my first run of the WSM 18.5". Managed to pick this up at a reasonable price on Ebay. This is also first run with Maverick ET-735

I've been smoking on my old cheap drum grill for a while so thought i'd have some fun with it. I couldn't decide what I wanted to cook so decided to do a bit of everything. Pulled pork s a family favourite so picked up some cheap pork shoulders and gave them a good rub of #67 from Ray Lampe's Slow Fire book. Picked up a single rack of ribs which got #67 and #68 mixed rub. Also picked up a small rolled brisket which looked to be a single piece of flat, unfotunately it turned out to be two pieces tied together, this also got some #67 rub.

Setup: Minion method with dig out in the middle where i dumped about half a chimney of lit coals. Used Weber briquettes which worked a treat. Using cherry wood for this session, had good clean smoke. This setup ran pretty consistent for what turned out to be 14 hours. Target temp was 235F and most of the time stayed fairly close to this. I did choke off too much at one point and struggled to get the temps back up. Also when the lid was off had a run away and realised I hadn't a clue how to get the temp down so shut all bar one vent until it stabilised.

New shinyish WSM


Food:

Went for some Memphis Style Dry ribs. Ribs came out lovely and tender. They had a couple of hours smoke, couple of hours wrapped and an hour unwrapped. Tasted good and will definitely do again. Very little pull back on the bones until I noticed they'd split in the middle.

Pulled pork came out better than any previous attempts. Probably due to my past butts not getting up to a high enough internal temp. Helped by the new thermometer. Didn't wrap through the stall and family weren't keen on the extra bark this gave so next time will wrap at 160F.

After the brisket tuned out to not be one piece I thought this would be a diaser. However after 14 hrs the slices just pulled apart. Melt in the mouth beef goodiness. Love the smoke ring, nice heat from the rub and still juicy. Need to get a bigger piece now.


In summary, love the WSM. Bit more practice on temp control and I feel i'm in for some great eats. I count this session as a success cos everything tasted lush!

Cheers

Notaes

[Matsuya]

Hey Notaes,

Recently got a WSM too and having tried a number of different charcoal options have managed to secure some Weber briquettes (I suspect the smoker knows when non-weber briquettes are being used).

Your food looks great! Just a couple of questions...

What were the conditions like outside? And did you have to knock off the ash from the coals?

Basically I have found that the coals die off quickly when it's cold outside (this weekend was knocking off ash and regathering the coals every 30mim). Worked a bit better when I surrounded the WSM with a cardboard box (not touching, of course!)

[YetiDave]

Ambient temps shouldn't affect the way the fuel burns at all. You might want to try lump charcoal if the briquettes you're using are causing the fire to die due to ash buildup

[Notaes]

Hey Matsuya

I did have to knock some ash off when the temps dropped. Think this was caused by shutting down the vents too much. The rest of the time it burned fine. I was really impressed with the weber briquettes but will probably have another run on Friday as i'm off work. Instead of digging a hole in the top of the unlit coals I think i'll try just spreading the lit coals evenly across the top. Trial and error, hopefully not much error.

Chris