First Cook on My WhoDat Mini


 
John Sp

John Sp

TVWBB All-Star
Hello All,

About two months ago I got the itch to build one of the mini WSMs that so many of you have done. Between work and kid activities it took me about six weeks to get mine done. No sooner had I finished it than I was tapped to support a field audit for work. As soon as I got back from that we left for a family vacation. The long and short of it is my mini has been ready to go for two weeks but I couldn't use it. Well today is the day. I decided to try out a variation on a Smoked and Braised Pork recipe posted by Mike Coffman a while back. I will post updates as the process rolls along...



~7 lb Butt Cut into Three Chunks, rubbed with Creole Mustard and my Pork Rub, and Loaded onto the Lower Rack


Full Basket - Minion - With Hickory Chunks


Smoking Away


Rock Steady at 240​


I am still trying to decide what I will use for braising liquid. I am thinking about a home made hard cider or maybe an Abita Brewery Purple Haze. More on that later.

So far I am very happy with the mini - I had a minor problem loading my barrel onto the unit (charcoal was too high). I haven't decided if it is just a learning curve issue or a design flaw.

Thanks for looking...

Regards,

John
 
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>>>I had a minor problem loading my barrel onto the unit (charcoal was too high). I haven't decided if it is just a learning curve issue or a design flaw. <<<

The Mini's do suffer a bit from close quarters. It depends on which deflector you use (the height) and also how high your charcoal ring is.

My deflector is the grill base of the ACE Hardware's cheap travel grill:

http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1294186&cp=11757149

My charcoal ring is made of expandable metal (like yours) and is 3.5" tall. I have been thinking of bending the top over at right angles so that it is only 3.0" tall. At 3.0" I'll reduce the tendency to load the charcoal too tall. Or-r-r, I just may leave it as is:rolleyes:.

I have no problems running out of fuel when smoking ribs or Boston Butt. The Mini is amazing in it's properties for economical use of fuel.

I suggest you use it a while, get used to it's idiosyncrasies, THEN decide if you want to make a change. It may just be that you need to be a bit more careful of how high you load your charcoal (that's what I have done). I use the "Tin Can Minion Method" with a small tin can that will barely hold ten lit briquettes. I use an IKEA silverware caddy as my mini-chimney for the Tin Can Minion Method. It allows you to light a small number of briquettes without issue with either a single Weber starter cube or , now, for me, with my Performer gas start:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30011832/

Just drop one starter cube inside the caddy, drop the briquettes, carefully, on top of the lit cube as you count the number of briquettes. Easy/Peasy!

Mini's FOREVER!:cool:

Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:
 
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Well the pork has gone for three hours at a rock steady 240. The largest chunk hit the plateau at 162 internal. I opened it up and panned the pig for braising. I decided to go with an Abita Turbo Dog and about 3/4 cup of 5 sauce. In a while I will throw on a medley of peppers to smoke for Kari (she likes to use them on sandwiches and in dishes like scrambled eggs).


Meat at Three Hours - 162 Internal


Panned up with T-Dog & 5 Sauce

​
So far so good. I am very happy with the temp control on the mini. I can achieve very fine control of the temp by adjusting the lower vent using the control arm (this was a great upgrade - thanks to whoever thought of it).

More to come...
 
Robert McGee said:
>>>I had a minor problem loading my barrel onto the unit (charcoal was too high). I haven't decided if it is just a learning curve issue or a design flaw. <<<

The Mini's do suffer a bit from close quarters. It depends on which deflector you use (the height) and also how high your charcoal ring is.

My deflector is the grill base of the ACE Hardware's cheap travel grill:

http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1294186&cp=11757149

My charcoal ring is made of expandable metal (like yours) and is 3.5" tall. I have been thinking of bending the top over at right angles so that it is only 3.0" tall. At 3.0" I'll reduce the tendency to load the charcoal too tall. Or-r-r, I just may leave it as is:rolleyes:.

I have no problems running out of fuel when smoking ribs or Boston Butt. The Mini is amazing in it's properties for economical use of fuel.

I suggest you use it a while, get used to it's idiosyncrasies, THEN decide if you want to make a change. It may just be that you need to be a bit more careful of how high you load your charcoal (that's what I have done). I use the "Tin Can Minion Method" with a small tin can that will barely hold ten lit briquettes. I use an IKEA silverware caddy as my mini-chimney for the Tin Can Minion Method. It allows you to light a small number of briquettes without issue with either a single Weber starter cube or , now, for me, with my Performer gas start:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30011832/

Just drop on starter cube inside the caddy, drop the briquettes, carefully, on top of the lit cube as you count the number of briquettes. Easy/Peasy!

Mini's FOREVER!:cool:

Keep on smokin',
Dale53
Click to expand...

Thanks - that sounds like great advice. You are exactly right - I had loaded my charcoal pan too full and knocked my diffuser out of place when installing the barrel section. Rearranging the charcoal solved the problem. If I build another one, I will consider raising the difuser position about 1/2 inch...

Regards,

John
 
Great looking smoke you got going there.

I don't have an issue with my charcoal basket being too full. When I use a diffuser, which is normally only in the winter when it's cold, windy, snowy, rainy, I put it at the same level as where the steamer insert would sit. I do most all of my cooks on my upper rack, which is 4 1/4" above the steamer insert level and 4" below the top of the pot. I'd say that for 98% of my cooks I roll without a diffuser at all. Without the diffuser I can hold temps as low as 180°-hotter than my therm (500°) can go at my cooking grate level.
 
Looks good John. You can't go wrong with any of Abita's beers and if you have not taken the tour at Abita's brewery, I highly recommend it.
 
After two hours of braising, I added Kari's peppers to the top rack. Those went for about 90 minutes. I then pulled the peppers, unwrapped the pork and moved it to the top grate to set the bark.


Medley of Peppers Tossed with EVOO & Montreal Steak Seasoning, and Smoked for 90 minutes around 240


Pork Removed from Braising Liquid and Moved to Top Rack - Basted with 5 Sauce
​

The pork is very tender but the bark is lacking (downside of braising I guess) so I hope to set it a bit with about 30 minutes on the top at 240.
 
My first Braised PP, the bark wasn't what I liked so I increased the time on the smoker from 3 hours to 4 hours and reduced the braise from 4 hours to 3 hours. My only concern with what you got going on right now, is that you might dry out your PP

Looks tasty!
 
I foiled the pork, wrapped it in towels, and let it rest in a very low oven until time for dinner. I pulled it and mixed it with some of the braising liquid (de-fatted). I was very pleased with the results. The bark could have been better but I think that is a function of the braising technique. the extra time on the top rack did help to set it. I might have left it a bit longer but I was worried about drying it out. All in all I like this recipe and I will do it again.

Plated​

The final analysis on the mini is that I LOVE IT! It ran at 240 from 07:30 to around 15:30 and had an hour or two left (estimated) when I pulled the pork. I actually choked it off and got it down to about 160 to do a block of pepper jack cheese for Kari (that will be a learning curve but I am confident I can do low temp smoking using a snake method in the mini).

Some observations:

The Good:
  • The mini has very fine temp control - I was able to ramp temperatures rapidly and it held temp for a long time
  • It is extremely fuel efficient - I ran for eight hours today on about 50 Kingsford briquettes
The Not So Good:
  • It is definitely cramped - it will take some getting used to for a guy that normally uses a big offset
  • I had problems with my diffuser which were probably related to my fuel guzzling ways. I think this will be easily corrected by overcoming the 'mini' learning curve and perhaps switching to a snake approach.

Thanks for looking at this and putting up with my long winded account of a excellent day of smoking...

Regards,

John
 
Well done, and congrats on the maiden voyage.

That pork looks delicious, but those peppers will be used in 20 more meals....enjoy!
 
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