I treated myself to a 57cm WSM last September.
Luckily within a short bus ride is a very good butchers shop call Turner & George. One of the owners is Richard Turner, who is very well known in London for being the executive chef of the Hawksmoor Steak restaurants.
I toddled over there and bought:
A whole rack of breast (spare) ribs
A 4 rib of short beef ribs
4 Angel Hot Guts beef sausages
4 Pepper Pig pork sausages.
The butcher also kindly gave me some fatty offcuts so help with the seasoning of my new smoker
I got them home and fired up the Weber, using the minion method. I filled the water bowl with hot water.
It got up to temperature quickly, even with all the bottom vents shut. I think I put too many lit coals in as the temperature quickly rose to 275+.
I bought the Franklin Barbecue book, and prepared the ribs accordingly.
All dusted up
I forgot to photograph the dusted up ribs
I threw the ribs on the barbecue
Also got to use my remote themometer!
!
After a few hours, I had a look and they looked very exciting. I was having real problems with the temperature, it spiked up to about 310 F at one point, even with the bottom vents shut. I wound up refilling the water bath with cold water which did the trick for a while.
I cooked 2 different types of sausages, the Angel Hot Guts were described by a Texan barbecue enthusiast I met as the closest to Central Texas style barbecue sausages he's tried in the UK.
I went for the 3-2-1 method of cooking ribs, but wound up doing 3-1-0.5 as it was cooking just so quickly.
The ribs came out well - they were a bit over done, the ribs pulled right out of the meat when I cooked it. The meat was still lovely and tender though and the bark was good.
This was after an hour of rest
A nice cross section, and it tasted good!
The beef ribs didn't come out so well - I would up pulling it at about 220 F as it rose too fast as I was sorting out the pork ribs.
I was very happy with the bark, but the inside was overcooked and very dry.
I was very pleased with the smoke ring, but the meat was very dry and I could just about slice it. I wound up cubing it and using it in chilli, which worked well. The wet cooking broke it down nicely.
The sausages had about an hour and a half, and came out really well. The Hot guts took the smoke much better than the Pepper Pigs.
So there we go!
I've done 2 further cooks and the heat was much more manageable each time.
Any feedback and suggestions are more than welcome
Luckily within a short bus ride is a very good butchers shop call Turner & George. One of the owners is Richard Turner, who is very well known in London for being the executive chef of the Hawksmoor Steak restaurants.
I toddled over there and bought:
A whole rack of breast (spare) ribs
A 4 rib of short beef ribs
4 Angel Hot Guts beef sausages
4 Pepper Pig pork sausages.
The butcher also kindly gave me some fatty offcuts so help with the seasoning of my new smoker
I got them home and fired up the Weber, using the minion method. I filled the water bowl with hot water.
It got up to temperature quickly, even with all the bottom vents shut. I think I put too many lit coals in as the temperature quickly rose to 275+.
I bought the Franklin Barbecue book, and prepared the ribs accordingly.
All dusted up
I forgot to photograph the dusted up ribs
I threw the ribs on the barbecue
Also got to use my remote themometer!
After a few hours, I had a look and they looked very exciting. I was having real problems with the temperature, it spiked up to about 310 F at one point, even with the bottom vents shut. I wound up refilling the water bath with cold water which did the trick for a while.
I cooked 2 different types of sausages, the Angel Hot Guts were described by a Texan barbecue enthusiast I met as the closest to Central Texas style barbecue sausages he's tried in the UK.
I went for the 3-2-1 method of cooking ribs, but wound up doing 3-1-0.5 as it was cooking just so quickly.
The ribs came out well - they were a bit over done, the ribs pulled right out of the meat when I cooked it. The meat was still lovely and tender though and the bark was good.
This was after an hour of rest
A nice cross section, and it tasted good!
The beef ribs didn't come out so well - I would up pulling it at about 220 F as it rose too fast as I was sorting out the pork ribs.
I was very happy with the bark, but the inside was overcooked and very dry.
I was very pleased with the smoke ring, but the meat was very dry and I could just about slice it. I wound up cubing it and using it in chilli, which worked well. The wet cooking broke it down nicely.
The sausages had about an hour and a half, and came out really well. The Hot guts took the smoke much better than the Pepper Pigs.
So there we go!
I've done 2 further cooks and the heat was much more manageable each time.
Any feedback and suggestions are more than welcome
