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The Smokey Mountain adventure begins.

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    #16
    Ahh the sweet taste of redemption.
    I was really mad at myself for for screwing up my first rib cook on the WSM so badly. So on my way home from a quick trip to the Gulf Coast, I swung through Costco and grabbed another pack of St. Lou's and instead of staring at the TV for the night, I lit a fire and set out to get it right.

    Setup was the same as the first attempt. Shot for a cooker temp of 275F, water pan was in place but empty. To compensate for an outdoor temp of right around freezing I added another 1/2 a chimney of charcoal lit using the Minion method. Two tennis ball sized chunks of hickory went in with the lit coals. and two smaller ones were added about an hour and a half into the cook. I had a little trouble holding temp this time around, and had to close the vents down a lot more than I expected. My thought is that in my previous cooks the amount of charcoal I used was always one chimney of unlit coals, and 20 or so lit coals on top of those, so I'm thinking the extra half a chimney of unlit coals made more of a difference than I was expecting. I'm wondering what those of you that actually know how to use one of these things think? I'm also curious if anyone has tried using one of the after market rib hangers, and if so what you thought of them?

    Once I got the temps settled in, things ran very smooth, and this time I pretended like it wasn't the first cook of my life, and paid attention. Novel concept I know, but I think it worked well enough that I might just try to make it a part of every cook. Total cook time ended up being just a tick over 4 hours before all three slabs passed the bend test. I'm getting better at hitting my preferred smoke profile too, so I'm happy about that. But on to what really matters... While not the very best I have ever made, these slabs certainly hit the "very good" mark, and I was able to go to bed with a clear conscience that I had not abused three poor slabs that had never done anything wrong to me. My GF was happy to indulge me about making ribs at 10:30 at night, and also thought the one she tried was good, but while she was supportive of the effort, she seemed more interested in going to bed instead of listening to me babble on about smoke rings and tenderness. Some people just don't understand what's important I guess.

    I'm not sure what is up next for this adventure. While at Costco I also grabbed a brisket, but I don't feel like I'm ready for that challenge on the WSM just yet. I also pickup some pork belly, so maybe pork belly burnt ends would be a good next step. Or maybe just keep at the ribs until I can claim better than a 50% success rate.
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      #17
      Those ribs look pretty darn good my friend. I would eat those any time of day....or night. 👍😋

      Comment


      • willxfmr
        willxfmr commented
        Editing a comment
        Thanks! I was happy with the results. They did end up a little darker than I like before they passed the bend test, so for the next run I'm going to try running a little cooler, and see if that makes a difference.

      • Steve R.
        Steve R. commented
        Editing a comment
        willxfmr, I think the dark color is just something that the WSM does. I have noticed the same thing with mine, but I actually consider that a good thing. I definitely get better bark on my ribs with the WSM.

      #18
      Congrats on the new addition! It's a great smoker!

      Comment


      • willxfmr
        willxfmr commented
        Editing a comment
        Thanks! So far I'm really enjoying it. I still have a lot to learn, but each time I light it up, I feel a little more confident than I did the last time.

      #19
      I always tried to keep mine in the 225° to maybe 250° range. Preferably near the lower end of that...
      Then again, I live in SoCal...so it never gets REALLY cold here, outside of the mountains or high deserts. So fighting against the weather isn’t really a thing here.

      Your comment above about trying to lower the temp may be the key. Having never run mine, on purpose, over 250° I can’t say for certain. And when I did creep up to that temp, I worked to bring it down...

      I know the PBC runs hotter than the WSM generally...but I don’t know any of the other dynamics of that cooker. Humidity, airflow, etc.

      Set it up for a Minion Method or Soo’s Donut...and it will run for HOURS unattended. Well, at least you won’t need to add charcoal.

      Comment


        #20
        Hands down the best bang for the buck in cookers. I've had my 18.5" for over a decade and she's never let me down. Have fun experimenting, I've heard good things about the 22" - how has it been on fuel consumption? I can usually get 10-12 hours out of a full basket of charcoal on my 18.5", but that's in south Louisiana where ambient temps are usually high. Good luck, and keep those photos coming!

        Comment


        • Steve R.
          Steve R. commented
          Editing a comment
          I have been getting 10-12 hrs out of my 22" using a BBQ Guru PartyQ. It holds more charcoal than the 18.5", obviously, so it does use a bit more fuel.

        • willxfmr
          willxfmr commented
          Editing a comment
          I haven't tried any long cooks yet, but I can get 4-5 hours at 275F out of one chimney of charcoal. Just guessing, but I think one chimney is about 1/2 a basket.
          Last edited by willxfmr; October 28, 2020, 08:57 AM.

        #21
        I have been running an 18" for maybe 20 years? It is still my favorite; with the party q, it will run 12-14 hours on a basket of KBB lit the minion way. I am to the point where I use the fan on long cooks mostly, but sometimes I get a bug up my behind and decide to run it without the fan. Once you get that temp dialed in, man does it run good. Don't worry about that brisket - get it on there. I think you will be pleased. Great looking cooks on it, by the way.

        Comment


          #22
          Alright, what the heck is going on here?

          I had some time to kill after getting home early from a trip out of town, so I made a quick stop at Costco for a package of sliced pork belly with the intention of making my neighborhood famous pork belly burnt ends. By that I mean the one neighbor that has tried them said they weren't bad, and that's good enough for me.
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          I've gotten pretty confident that I can hold the temp I'm looking for, so for the first time, I tried running with no water pan at all. I figured things would run a little different, but hey, learning what I can, and can't do is what these early cook are all about. Now had anyone told me that what I can't do is get the temp down under 300F even with all three intake vents completely closed and staring and pacing for over an hour hoping things would settle in eventually, I would have said they were crazy. This was the first time I had this kind of runaway, however, since I'm still counting the number of cooks I have done on my fingers without running out, I'm kinda left guessing at what happened.

          Fuel for the cook was what has become my usual setup. One chimney of unlit KBB, and 20 or so lit coals scattered on top of those. Five smaller than a fist chunks of Pecan also went in to play the part of "smoke". The weather was cool with an outside temp in the low 30's. There was a bit of wind, and it was reaching the smoker, but it certainly wasn't enough wind to cause all this ruckus in my opinion. Keep in mind, I have more fingers than cooks on the WSM, so my opinion of things may not be worth the pixels on the screen your reading this on. Now, given that closing all the intakes didn't make much difference, and knowing that closing the exhaust would make things real dirty, real fast I decided that it was time to see just how fast I could whip up a wind screen out of what was on hand and already cut in the garage. My garage/shop is currently setup to do the stain and poly on a new pantry cabinet I'm building, and there was no way I was going re-clean the place just so I could cut up some plywood and make my life easier. Luckily, I had some scraps of around and about the right size, and plenty of screws, so in short order I had a down and dirty wind screen put together. So with a sense of pride and accomplishment, I put my new wind screen in place, and figured that I would soon be cracking open the intakes and regulating temps with precision. Yeah, no. The wind screen got me down from 305-310F to 290F with all the intakes still closed.
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          At this point, I gave up on trying to guess what has gone wrong, and focused on making sure "burnt" was just part of the name for the dish, and not the description. I will say that pork belly is very forgiving and didn't seem to care at all that I ran way hotter than the 240-250 I had intended. At the 2 hour mark, I had a nice firm bark on them and they were ready for sauce and wrap. Another hour in a 250F oven, and they were sticky, sweet and delicious. So, despite the problems, this cook goes in the books as a success.
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          My take away from this cook is that some how I have developed an air leak that wasn't there the last time I cooked. Where it is coming from, I don't know. There was the usual wisp around the door, and a little leakage around the lid, but no big clouds pouring out of places it shouldn't be.

          So my question to those of you that have read this far, and my know a thing or two is, does running without the water pan in place account at all for the runaway temps? Or is low 300's normal when running without a water pan in place? My thought is, the answer to both is no, but again, fingers and cooks. And if low 300's is not the norm, then does assuming an air leak make sense?

          TL/DR:
          Tried something new, things got crazy, food turned out good.

          Comment


          • Steve R.
            Steve R. commented
            Editing a comment
            The water pan, even when empty, deflects the direct heat from the charcoal. Without it, you are essentially grilling with the grate higher than normal.

          #23
          Just a quick follow up on the out of control temps. I did a dry run with the water pan in place but empty and had the same problem as I did trying to go sans water pan. Temp was over 290F with all the intakes closed, so I have to believe I have an air leak somewhere. I have some Lavalock gasket headed my way, and I'm hoping that cures the problem.

          Comment


          • lostclusters
            lostclusters commented
            Editing a comment
            It will! Also you should look into using the minion method of lighting your coals. Instead of dumping lit coal on unlit ones, put the lit ones together on one side of the unlit ones in a pile. You will be able to control temp better that way.
            Last edited by lostclusters; October 28, 2020, 07:36 PM.

          • Andrrr
            Andrrr commented
            Editing a comment
            Gasket will probably help. I used a full water pan every time except once and had troubles keeping temp. I chalked it up to have to learning a new method and decided to stick with what I know.

          #24
          I run my WSM at a solid 250, day in and day out. On really warm summer days, I have to modify my vent settings a bit, but otherwise this is rock solid. Here’s what I do

          - Charcoal is Kingsford Blue Bag
          - Dump an entire bag of KBB into the charcoal ring
          - Pull out 30 briquettes and put in my chimney
          - Form the rest into a donut
          - Wood chunks go into the donut
          - When the briquettes in the chimney are well lit, dump them into the donut hole
          - Put the WSM together
          - Fill the water pan full
          - Open all vents full open
          - when the top grate temp hits about 210, shut the bottom vents down to 1/3 and the top vent to 1/2
          - Let the temp stabilize around 250 and then put the food on to cook
          - This will run 12 hours normally, for me

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          Comment


          • willxfmr
            willxfmr commented
            Editing a comment
            Thanks for the details and the pics!

          • Porkies
            Porkies commented
            Editing a comment
            ecowper Do you have the lavalock gasket on the lid of your wsm, the door, both? neither?

          • ecowper
            ecowper commented
            Editing a comment
            Porkies I have lavalock around where the door hits. I didn't do it on the lid or barrel. Those sealed up pretty nicely after a few cooks

          #25
          Between life and work, I haven't had much time for posting much of anything, but I figure it was time for an update.
          I have the Lavalock gasket installed on the door and under the lid. That has stopped 90% of my air leaks. I also ordered the lid hinge, but so far finding time to get it installed has not worked out. I'm really impressed by how well the gasket works, but I highly recommend installing it when your smoker is new. Trying to get all the grease, smoke and Lord knows what else off around the lip the lid sits on was an adventure all its own. But on to what really matters....
          I did my longest WSM cook to date today, and I'm really happy with how the WSM ran. It was 34F, and the wind was giving things a good blow when it was time to light the fire, so despite what Jenny says, I moved the whole setup over by garage where I had some shelter from the wind. I knew I wouldn't have a lot of time to babysit this cook, so I went with what has given me the smoothest results so far. Water pan in place and filled with hot water, a full bag of KBB lit according to the directions provided by ecowper above, and a target temp of 250F. Once things got settled in, the bottom vents were right around half open, and the top vent stayed full open the entire cook. With these settings the WSM wanted to run right at 240F, and I was happy to let it. I'm pretty sure I could have tweaked the vents to hit and hold 250F instead of 240F, but I figured why fight it when it's chugging along nicely without the aggravation. All told, I was able to run for just over nine hours with only a couple very minor adjustments. It would have keep going longer, but the food was done, and the day was getting late. In the end I wound up with some tasty beef ribs, and two slabs of baby backs. I only took a picture of one of the pork slabs, but trust me, the other one looks just like it.
          I think this will be the last of my posts for this thread. I feel like I have a pretty good handle on what I can and can't do with the WSM, and from here it is time to tinker with and tweak things until it just becomes second nature.
          A big thank you goes out to Andrrr for offering to sell his smoker here in The Pit, and also to everyone that has offered their encouragement and advise while I was trying to get back into the world of charcoal smoking. It has been quite an adventure.


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          Comment


          • bbqLuv
            bbqLuv commented
            Editing a comment
            them bones, them bones,
            I can see myself with a Bone in one hand and a cool can of PBR in the other, and sauce dripping down my chin onto my bib. Oh yea.

          #26
          the food looks outstanding and it sounds like you've got the fire figured out nicely now :-)

          Also, if your WSM wants to run 240, that's great. I really think consistency is more important than the precise temp.
          Last edited by ecowper; November 16, 2020, 09:45 AM.

          Comment


          • willxfmr
            willxfmr commented
            Editing a comment
            I'm feeling a lot better about my fire management, but I need to work on my smoke profile yet. The first cook ever, I was way under what I like, and this last one was a touch over my preference. It's just going to take getting more cook under my belt. The "adventure" portion may be over, the learning will have to continue.

          • ecowper
            ecowper commented
            Editing a comment
            the learning is fun, though :-)

          #27
          Looks awesome! Excellent crust and nice and juicy inside.

          Comment


            #28
            Fantastic. I'll be glad when the Corona Lockdown is over, then I can start the WSM again.

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