Recent content by Ken Keating

When foiling the pan, you don’t want the foil to touch the bottom as the heat will cause the drippings to burn. What I do is make a donut shaped wad of foil, say about an inch thick and 5-6” in diameter. Place this in the bottom. Then foil the inside of the pan, with the bottom portion...

I used to use water but I didn't like the clean up afterward. For the past nine years I've just put double layers of tin foil over the pan and have had no issues. I see no reason to use water as I always get excellent results without. Like Myk said, you'll get different opinions. As for...

I have two, very easy to use and they work grea, especially when camping.

I haven’t used water for over six years nor have I ever used sand or a saucer. The best method I ‘ve used is first scrunch up a very loose roll of foil, say 1inch diameter and around 12 inches long, and then make it into a circle. Put this at the bottom of the water pan that came with your...

For water refilling, just make a V shaped trough with tin foil. For ribs you're only be cooking for 5-6 hours, just use the minion method and then you don't have to worry about adding charcoal.

The 2nd part which appears to be a stall may just be the fact that as the Delta T between meat and air termperature bcomes closer, the heat transfer is not as efficient. If you did the same tracking with the WSM temps at 275, I doubt that 2nd stall would show up. I'd give the 275 temps a try...

Wow, that almost looks like the chicken fat dripped off and flared up. I use chips quite a bit with chicken and have never had it look like that nor ever had a creosote taste.

To play it safe, I'd do pulled pork and brisket, or at least have another backup meat. It's easy to do both at the same time. Brisket's can be hit and miss, whereas PB always turns out great. If I do brisket alone it's guarrenteed to turn out fair, whereas if I have backup meats it always...

The PartyQ works great. Nothing fancy, it just controls the temp, so it's easy to use. I've had two since Sept and would highly recommend.

Yes, buy extra batteries and have a small screwdrive handy when the batteries need replacing. The screwdriver is required to access the batteries. Also, I have found that when using an ATC the temps tend to spike up quite quickly when opening the lid for more than a few minutes, such as when...

In re-reading your initial post, you state it appears the unlit lump never fully catches on. Lump usually catches on very fast, with a lot of snaps and pops. It’s much easier to light than Kingsford briquettes. Is the lump store outside or inside? If outside, store inside for a couple of...

Using the Minion Method does not help with the temps, it just allows a longer cook as the fuel is slowly consumed. Next time either open the door or remove the middle and top sections. It won't take long for more of the lump to light and increase the temps. You should be able to see the...

I have both an offset and two WSMs. Just add more wood chunks to the WSM to get more of a smoke flavor. The offset is much more labor intensive regarding temp control while the WSM is so much easier to use. For the offset, you have to go out and get wood and cut it to a particular size(wrist...

I suspect the problem is with the lump. Is it completely dry? I use lump and have no problem at all getting to 300 plus, and that's with just starting with 1/2 chimney of hot coals dumped on top of 2 chimneys full of non-lit lump.

The overtemp was caused by two items: Too much lit characoal at the start then waiting 5-10 minutes before you closed up the WSM. Waiting just allowed more charcoal to light. Start with 1/3 to 1/2 full charcoal starter, then close the WSM and wait for the temps to ramp up. It's much easier...