Finally getting this grill fired up for the first time! I bought it a month ago and thing after thing has come up each weekend to keep me from trying it out. I’ve actually had Covid since the 4th of July, and today was the first day I felt well enough to get around and pull this butt out of my fridge.
Kamado Joe Big Joe III
Pit Barrel Cooker
Camp Chef Flat Top 900
Weber Performer 22
PowerFlamer Propane 160
Meater +
Thermoworks Smoke
Thermoworks Thermapen
Temp Spike
Update: I added a thermometer for the grate and the meat and wrapped when it started to stall. Here are my thoughts on the grill so far.
For context, I threw a lot of random variables on this first cook just for fun and learning. I had about 15 briquets left in my only open kingsford bag, so I put that in the initial fire along with a bunch of leftover burnt briquets from previous Weber Kettle cooks.
1. I used the propane starter and loved the convenience of that! I also knew I’d like having that sidebox just for the convenience of sticking my magnetic thermometer and controllers to it, but the burner itself was a cinch to to use.
2. Since this was the first cook, I opened the bottom vent fully and flipped open the top and let it get to 600+. I wanted to see if I could bring it back down easily before adding the meat, and yes, that was a breeze too.
3. Put the meat on and added 3 chunks of apple wood. I wasn’t watching the clock closely but I believe I got about 8 hours out of the initial fuel. I added some royal oak lump to finish it out.
4. I got a late start so this cook went into the night. My fire went out at some point and when I woke up I decided to just throw it in the oven to finish while it was still wrapped.
5. I set the meat temp target to 200 degrees in a 300 degree oven. I cut the oven off when it hit 200 and it went to about 203, my ultimate target. I left it in the oven closed until the morning. My wife pulled it out when I was running errands and started shredding it. When I got home, she was half way through and said it was extremely moist. I took over and she was right, the meat was perfect. It’s nearly impossible to mess up a boston butt, but I’ve had good, better, and best, and this was one of my best.
Final thoughts:
I felt like all the things I’ve learned on my Kettle + Slow n Sear over the last 8 years transferred easily to this cooker, but the WSCG is even easier to dial in with the insulation levels it possesses. I’m looking forward to using my Thermoworks Signals and Billows at some point for "set and forget", but it was awesome to see how "set and forget" this thing is even in manual mode. I will need to learn the right amounts of fuel over time, but I loved how it took all the random hodgepodge of new/leftover briquets and lump and just kept humming along.
This grill was well worth the wait. I remember when they first came out and I was so impressed by the innovative design but equally disappointed in the price point Weber chose. Since then, there have been some many great reviews on this thing that I had to look again. Ironically, though I just bought it last month, mine is a very early 2016 model, so it must have sat in a warehouse somewhere for a longtime before it ended up on the floor of my local grill dealer. I was glad to see Weber lower the price for the E6/S6 models, but I got the original that I really wanted and they gave me a $200 discount, which ended up being only $50 more than the newer model that doesn’t include the propane starter and the folding diffuser.
Unfortunately I left the final shredding to my wife and didn’t get pics before then. I’ve cooked so many Boston butts at this point, I don’t take a lot of pics at this point. But this one was super moist.
Great to hear. I also have no other prior kamado experience so take it with a grain of salt, but the WSCG has been great with a very small learning curve having used a kettle for so many years. Congrats on scoring such a sweet deal and I’m looking forward to your future cooks. There are a lot of folks here that can teach you a lot about this cooker.
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