Hello, Everyone:
I figured that the title would be an attention grabber or would just make people continue searching for something more interesting.
I ran a test burn on my WSM. The WSM is pretty much seasoned. I've been using it exclusively for ribs and pork butt. I want to try something different, something that would be done at a higher temp than ribs and butts. I used KB, full charcoal basket, no wood, empty foiled water pan. I wanted to see how the temps would be impacted, e.g. how fast the temp would rise/fall, how fast it would react to opening/closing the dampers, what the max temp would be, whether or not the temp would hold better/worse than if I put water in the pan.
Just for s***s and giggles I lit the basket using only six briquettes; so, it took quite a while for the cooker to come up to temp. Once it did reach temp, i.e. 350 degrees (my target for this test), which took about two hours, I started fiddling with the lower dampers, not getting freaked out if the temp rose/fell by 10-20 degrees.
The temp rose steadily, topping out at 381 before I started closing the lower dampers 1/2, leaving the top fully open. I ended the test at 4pm (having started at 1pm) with the cooker temp at 376. I used my Maverick to monitor cooker temp. Compared to the dome thermometer, the dome thermometer was well below the reading on the Maverick for all readings.
I'm doing this because I want to try smoking chicken. I've been reading on a few barbecue chat groups that many people do chicken at higher temps and with no water in the water pan. I've done chicken on my kettle, but not smoked. Someone told me that there's probably not much difference between doing the chicken on the kettle v doing chicken on the WSM, except that it would be easier with the WSM since it's all indirect (keeping the empty water pan in place).
So, my conclusion is that if I'm going to use my WSM to do chicken, then no water in the pan, shoot for a cooker temp of around 350, putting the wood on the coals after the cooker has reached temp, and very little wood, maybe one or two chunks at most, and figure about 60-90 minutes or until the meat reaches proper temp.
So, tell me, my 'que brethren and brethrenettes, did I reinvent the wheel with this test burn?
I figured that the title would be an attention grabber or would just make people continue searching for something more interesting.
I ran a test burn on my WSM. The WSM is pretty much seasoned. I've been using it exclusively for ribs and pork butt. I want to try something different, something that would be done at a higher temp than ribs and butts. I used KB, full charcoal basket, no wood, empty foiled water pan. I wanted to see how the temps would be impacted, e.g. how fast the temp would rise/fall, how fast it would react to opening/closing the dampers, what the max temp would be, whether or not the temp would hold better/worse than if I put water in the pan.
Just for s***s and giggles I lit the basket using only six briquettes; so, it took quite a while for the cooker to come up to temp. Once it did reach temp, i.e. 350 degrees (my target for this test), which took about two hours, I started fiddling with the lower dampers, not getting freaked out if the temp rose/fell by 10-20 degrees.
The temp rose steadily, topping out at 381 before I started closing the lower dampers 1/2, leaving the top fully open. I ended the test at 4pm (having started at 1pm) with the cooker temp at 376. I used my Maverick to monitor cooker temp. Compared to the dome thermometer, the dome thermometer was well below the reading on the Maverick for all readings.
I'm doing this because I want to try smoking chicken. I've been reading on a few barbecue chat groups that many people do chicken at higher temps and with no water in the water pan. I've done chicken on my kettle, but not smoked. Someone told me that there's probably not much difference between doing the chicken on the kettle v doing chicken on the WSM, except that it would be easier with the WSM since it's all indirect (keeping the empty water pan in place).
So, my conclusion is that if I'm going to use my WSM to do chicken, then no water in the pan, shoot for a cooker temp of around 350, putting the wood on the coals after the cooker has reached temp, and very little wood, maybe one or two chunks at most, and figure about 60-90 minutes or until the meat reaches proper temp.
So, tell me, my 'que brethren and brethrenettes, did I reinvent the wheel with this test burn?
