Bill
TVWBB Super Fan
My 18.5 WSM awaited me at my door when I came home yesterday(2days early). Originally planned to do a rib cook for the first run, but we have plans this weekend and went to a local fair today, so I had to plan a smaller cook. Decided to do some chicken legs, a small ham and some abt's.
the food:
Ham-just a small couple pound turkey ham that I rubbed w/lemon pepper overnight
Chicken legs-half were dusted w/a generic bbq rub. the rest were marinated overnight in a mixture of olive oil/mustard/minced garlic/sage and rosemary
Abt's-stemmed and seeded then quartered. placed into a plastic bag with a smashed orange and set in fridge overnight. then pepper pieces removed from bag. cut up some Colby jack cheese and placed a chunk inside each jalapeno quarter. wrapped w/bacon and secured by a toothpick.
the cook:
knowing there was poultry and a shorter time frame, went for a hotter run. filled charcoal ring w/charcoal and three apple sized chunks of pecan. made a depression in the charcoal big enough for the chimney coals to fit in. filled chimney starter w/charcoal and 1 chunk of pecan. once i had some ash on the coals in the chimney, i dumped them into the WSM. assembled cooker(water in pan, but no foil). opened all vents all the way and let her come up. once the dome thermometer was reading close to 250, placed everything on the top cooking grate. pulled the abt's off after about 1.5hrs and consumed. let the rest cook for about another 75min before pulling them off. wife heated up a can of corn for a side.
here's everything going on
abt's before consumption
chicken legs and ham coming off
chicken and ham plated w/corn and a smear of homemade bbq sauce
afterthoughts-
1-don't smoke a turkey ham. even w/the lemon pepper rub, smoke flavor and bbq sauce, it was bland.
2-most likely going to invest in some form of dual probe thermo rig. figured grate temp would be a bit hotter than the dome thermo, but would feel better knowing exactly how hot the temp at the grate would be.
3-i love this thing. it's gonna take a couple more cooks to really dial it in, but for a first run, it worked great.
the food:
Ham-just a small couple pound turkey ham that I rubbed w/lemon pepper overnight
Chicken legs-half were dusted w/a generic bbq rub. the rest were marinated overnight in a mixture of olive oil/mustard/minced garlic/sage and rosemary
Abt's-stemmed and seeded then quartered. placed into a plastic bag with a smashed orange and set in fridge overnight. then pepper pieces removed from bag. cut up some Colby jack cheese and placed a chunk inside each jalapeno quarter. wrapped w/bacon and secured by a toothpick.
the cook:
knowing there was poultry and a shorter time frame, went for a hotter run. filled charcoal ring w/charcoal and three apple sized chunks of pecan. made a depression in the charcoal big enough for the chimney coals to fit in. filled chimney starter w/charcoal and 1 chunk of pecan. once i had some ash on the coals in the chimney, i dumped them into the WSM. assembled cooker(water in pan, but no foil). opened all vents all the way and let her come up. once the dome thermometer was reading close to 250, placed everything on the top cooking grate. pulled the abt's off after about 1.5hrs and consumed. let the rest cook for about another 75min before pulling them off. wife heated up a can of corn for a side.
here's everything going on
abt's before consumption
chicken legs and ham coming off
chicken and ham plated w/corn and a smear of homemade bbq sauce
afterthoughts-
1-don't smoke a turkey ham. even w/the lemon pepper rub, smoke flavor and bbq sauce, it was bland.
2-most likely going to invest in some form of dual probe thermo rig. figured grate temp would be a bit hotter than the dome thermo, but would feel better knowing exactly how hot the temp at the grate would be.
3-i love this thing. it's gonna take a couple more cooks to really dial it in, but for a first run, it worked great.
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