My Weber Summit Charcoal has arrived, and yesterday I fired it up for the first time. I had bought a piece of belly pork and decided to try Meathead's Succulent Smoked Pork Belly Burnt Ends.
Impressions of the WSG
This is a quality piece of kit, well put together and with considerable attention to detail. The instructions were good and it took me and the wife about 2 hours to assemble on a sunny autumn afternoon, taking our time. Although the WSG is certainly large, it is not anywhere near as intimidating as the ceramic kamado I once I had. It doesn't have that sense of tremendous heft and the feeling that it could all come crashing down and break into pieces. The WSG can be moved around without effort. The WSG's lid needs some effort to open, but my wife can do it easily. It stays open well and closes with a satisfying "whuff" of air.
Once I had got the charcoal lit and in the WSG, the temperature ramped smoothly and quickly. I started closing the upper vent at about 120 F and managed to slow it fairly quickly. It did overshoot slightly to 248 F, but by the time it got to 230 F it was pretty stable and the temperature was rising only very slowly. I think the key next time will be to ramp it more gradually by closing the vents more quickly. Once the WSG stabilized, the temperature was rock-solid. I am using a ThermoPro TP20 and the WSG's thermometer seems to be very close to that of the TP20.
I started the cook at a bit before 4 PM and I finished at 9 PM, and closed down the cooker. When I checked today there was still between 1/3 and 1/2 of the chimney of charcoal left unburned. I am surprised by how economical it was.
The WSG seems to be a very forgiving device. This was my first cook using this kind of cooker in more than a decade, but it still gave great results. The meat was juicy and tasty, far better than the belly pork we have done in the oven. Any errors were my own, rather than stubbornness on the part of the WSG.
Lessons learned
- Do not put the grate thermometer right next to the meat. I immediately experienced the "meat shadow" effect.
- Do not absent-mindedly try and adjust the position of the grate thermometer with your bare hands while cooking.
- Do keep a bowl of iced water somewhere near the cooker to treat minor burns.
Next time
When I next cook this recipe I will probably tweak it a bit. I found the balance of the glaze to be biased towards sweetness, which is not unusual with US recipes, rather than having that salty-sweetness that I was looking for. I also need to do a better job of the rub. I did not have any dry ginger powder, so I used a ginger paste, which immediately made mixing it more difficult, so the rub did not go on as smoothly as I had hoped. Nor did there seem to be enough of it.
It also had a bit of a "hammy" taste. Perhaps I used too much smoke?
Tomorrow we're going to try pizza. After that I would quite like a leg or shoulder of lamb. I have the slow 'n sear, so I'm thinking a long indirect cook followed by a brutal sear.
Thank you to everybody for their advice, and for the knowledge on this forum, which was crucial in helping me make my decision.
My apologies for the rather poor photos - my phone is not great.
Impressions of the WSG
This is a quality piece of kit, well put together and with considerable attention to detail. The instructions were good and it took me and the wife about 2 hours to assemble on a sunny autumn afternoon, taking our time. Although the WSG is certainly large, it is not anywhere near as intimidating as the ceramic kamado I once I had. It doesn't have that sense of tremendous heft and the feeling that it could all come crashing down and break into pieces. The WSG can be moved around without effort. The WSG's lid needs some effort to open, but my wife can do it easily. It stays open well and closes with a satisfying "whuff" of air.
Once I had got the charcoal lit and in the WSG, the temperature ramped smoothly and quickly. I started closing the upper vent at about 120 F and managed to slow it fairly quickly. It did overshoot slightly to 248 F, but by the time it got to 230 F it was pretty stable and the temperature was rising only very slowly. I think the key next time will be to ramp it more gradually by closing the vents more quickly. Once the WSG stabilized, the temperature was rock-solid. I am using a ThermoPro TP20 and the WSG's thermometer seems to be very close to that of the TP20.
I started the cook at a bit before 4 PM and I finished at 9 PM, and closed down the cooker. When I checked today there was still between 1/3 and 1/2 of the chimney of charcoal left unburned. I am surprised by how economical it was.
The WSG seems to be a very forgiving device. This was my first cook using this kind of cooker in more than a decade, but it still gave great results. The meat was juicy and tasty, far better than the belly pork we have done in the oven. Any errors were my own, rather than stubbornness on the part of the WSG.
Lessons learned
- Do not put the grate thermometer right next to the meat. I immediately experienced the "meat shadow" effect.
- Do not absent-mindedly try and adjust the position of the grate thermometer with your bare hands while cooking.
- Do keep a bowl of iced water somewhere near the cooker to treat minor burns.
Next time
When I next cook this recipe I will probably tweak it a bit. I found the balance of the glaze to be biased towards sweetness, which is not unusual with US recipes, rather than having that salty-sweetness that I was looking for. I also need to do a better job of the rub. I did not have any dry ginger powder, so I used a ginger paste, which immediately made mixing it more difficult, so the rub did not go on as smoothly as I had hoped. Nor did there seem to be enough of it.
It also had a bit of a "hammy" taste. Perhaps I used too much smoke?
Tomorrow we're going to try pizza. After that I would quite like a leg or shoulder of lamb. I have the slow 'n sear, so I'm thinking a long indirect cook followed by a brutal sear.
Thank you to everybody for their advice, and for the knowledge on this forum, which was crucial in helping me make my decision.
My apologies for the rather poor photos - my phone is not great.
🤗😇🤗
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