First Go at Smoking


 

RStephen

TVWBB Member
Fired up the WSM for the first time on Valentines day. Didn't get a chance to pick up a pork butt, so went with a whole chicken I had.

Prep:
- Split the chicken in half and removed the back bone.
- Rubbed it down with some Costco BBQ rub I had laying around.
- Let the chicken sit out while I prepped the WSM
- One chimney full of Kingsford Blue, unlit
- One chimney of Stubbs Briquettes, unlit
- 1/2 chimney of Stubbs lit in the chimney until they were are grey
- 3 chunks of apple wood

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Cook:
- Dumped in the lit coals and left all the vents wide open, temp slowly ran up to 200
- Opened the door to try and speed up firing up more coals
- Got the cooker to 225 and threw on the chicken
- Temp never climbed above 225, probably needed more charcoal
- Last hour the temp dropped to 200, so the last 5 degrees on the chicken took around an hour
- 4 hours total of cook time

Results:
- Skin was crispy, juices were trapped beneath the skin, sort of like the whole bird was a blister
- Tender, juicy meat, the wife really liked it
- Didn't use any sauce
- Added the leftovers to some homemade mac n'cheese yesterday, worked out really well

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Next Time:
- More charcoal, 2/3 of the coals were burnt up at the end of 4 hours, plus I couldn't get the temp to rise above 225 (confirmed built-in thermometer with another thermometer)
- Ordered a Maverick ET-733, was borrowing a friends William Sonoma thermometer for this cook
 
First welcom to the forum!
Second, you smoked low and slow for 4 hours your spatchoked bird and the skin was edible????? Crispy skin was guaranteed with this method?
 
Where you using a 22" WSM (Assuming so based on your Signature Line)?

The coal ring on the 22 is fairly large, Consolidating coal into a tighter pile might work better, especially for a small cook like one chicken (small considering the capacity of the smoker anyway)

What were the outside temps and Wind? If cold and windy, you might need to block wind to keep temp.

Did you use water in the pan? If so, was the water hot or cold? Water regulates temp by stealing heat more so if its cold water. Foiled waterpan without water will allow higher temps.

I just did my first cook on my new WSM this weekend as well, mine is an 18. With a full chimney of RO Lump my first run was +/- 330 with all vents open to do a seasoning burn. The temp was less than 15 and it was light snow and wind.

The 22 is much larger with more volume so more lit to start might have helped. Anytime anyone has an issue getting temp up its always recommended to check the charcoal. Old coals that were exposed to moisture are often the culprit of low heat.
 
First welcom to the forum!
Second, you smoked low and slow for 4 hours your spatchoked bird and the skin was edible????? Crispy skin was guaranteed with this method?

I was surprised the skin was crispy. I didn't use any sauce, so maybe that is why it was crispy?

Where you using a 22" WSM (Assuming so based on your Signature Line)?

The coal ring on the 22 is fairly large, Consolidating coal into a tighter pile might work better, especially for a small cook like one chicken (small considering the capacity of the smoker anyway)

Yep, 22". I stacked the coals in a cone towards the center. Maybe I'll order a coal ring for a 14" WSM for these smaller cooks. I was already planning on finding something like a coffee can to use as a ring to try for smoking jerky (have a bunch of elk steaks I need to use). When I was a kid we used coffee cans for chimneys, but I figured they may not work for cooking with due to coatings and labels off gasing while heated.

What were the outside temps and Wind? If cold and windy, you might need to block wind to keep temp.

Did you use water in the pan? If so, was the water hot or cold? Water regulates temp by stealing heat more so if its cold water. Foiled waterpan without water will allow higher temps.
It was 60 ish when I started, and dropped to 45 near the end of the cook. There was no wind. I used the water pan and filled it with 3 gallons of water that was hot from the tap, not boiled.

I just did my first cook on my new WSM this weekend as well, mine is an 18. With a full chimney of RO Lump my first run was +/- 330 with all vents open to do a seasoning burn. The temp was less than 15 and it was light snow and wind.

The 22 is much larger with more volume so more lit to start might have helped. Anytime anyone has an issue getting temp up its always recommended to check the charcoal. Old coals that were exposed to moisture are often the culprit of low heat.

I'm guessing part of my temp issue was amount of air available at a mile high. I'll try a full chimney lit next time. Part of the reason I got a 22" WSM is I figured the surface area to volume ratio would help me retain heat, basically larger volume equals smaller surface area/volume ratio.
 
Based on all the answers above, I would try the water pan foiled with no water to get higher temps.
 
What were you using to register the temp? If it was the thermometer on the WSM, they are known to be tragically wrong. Also, when I do chicken on my WSM, I remove the water pan completely. Might need to light a few more initial coals and wait a little longer to put the barrel on. Give it a chance to get established...
 
Sounds like a really good first cook. I think using more coals and less or no water in the water pan will make the temps shoot up to the 300+ level to cook a good chicken.
 
Since this is a brand new WSM you may have some leaks and gaps in the door, lid etc that should seal up with use - that might of allowed some air to come in and burn those coals out. But I agree with most - I think the big issue was just not enough coals to start with. plus opening the door at first my guess is let out way more heat then you gained in coals firing up.

PS I have a 22.5 WSM as well. still learning myself but one of the first things I learned was I was using too little charcoal myself.
 
Round 2:

So fell into some extra time at home this weekend. Ran to Costco and bought a package of pork shoulders to try. Slathered them in mustard and then some rub. Went onto the smoker at 6:00 pm, pull it off at 2:30 the following day, 19:30 hours (daylight saving change). The internal temp was 185, I would have waited a little longer but I had meet some friends and the meat had to come off.

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I basted the meat a few times in the last 6 hours of the cook. It had a nice crust. The smoke ring was just over an 1/8" thick. I used 4 fist sized chunks of apple wood. Mainly just a smoke taste to the bark pieces. So I think next time I'll try to add a little more smoke to the cook.

Meat pulled apart easily, it fell apart into 3 pieces taking it off the grill. I'd say 20% of the meat had a slightly different texture to it while I was pulling it apart. Wasn't dry, but felt slightly stringy while pulling it apart. Guessing it was one spot that hadn't reach 190, since I pulled it off slightly earlier than I wanted to.

I filled the charcoal ring with 3 Weber starter chimneys of charcoal. 1 chimney of Stubbs Briquets, 1 chimney of Kingsford blue bag, and 1 of Royal Oak lump. I lit a 4th chimney of Stubbs and dumped it on the unlit coals. Hodge podge of coals from half empty bags I had laying around. By the time I put the smoker together, added water, and then finished prepping the meat, the smoker hit 190. An hour later it hit 230. Without doing anything to the vents or charcoal, it stayed at 230-240 until 10:00 am. At that point temp started to shoot up because the water pan ran low. Added water and the temp settled in again.

I didn't brine or inject the shoulder, because I wanted to see what a plain jane one tasted like, so when I play with brine and injections I can see what the changes it makes.

The Maverick ET-733 I picked up worked in any corner of my house, including the far corner of my basement.

Looking forward to my next run.
 
Try No. 2 with pork shoulder. Went with a two pack from Costco, and made some changes this time around:

- Injected with a apple juice, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, salt mix. (Nothing online warns about possible back spray when removing the needle.)
- Cooked without water in the pan, was usually between 250 and 275 according to my probe thermometer.
- Used about 50% more wood chunks.
- Mopped them 3 times before wrapping with veggie oil, apple cider vinegar, water and dry rub mix.
- Wrapped at 165.

Butt No. 1, cooked for 13 hours, reached 195:
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Butt No. 2, cooked for 15 hours, reached 192, then fell to 190:
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Results:
- Easier to pull, and seems more tender.
- A lot more moisture in the meat.
- Cooked a lot faster, first shoulder took 18+ hours and only reached 185.
- Still not much smoke flavor.

Any suggestions on how to add smoke flavor?
 
Hmm, well I don't have an account with any of the regular hosting sites. Picasa tries to grab any picture you have, I don't use yahoo so Flickr is out, and Photobucket doesn't want to load for me. Never ran into a forum that won't let you attach small jpegs to a thread. I used another forum I frequent to host them. Not sure why they show up for me on my work computer when I posted them from home, figured that would mean it would work for others.

Oh well, I'll go somewhere else to try and find answers. Not worth the hassle to load pictures else where just to use them here.
 
You don't need pics to help in finding answers. You mentioned lack of smoke flavor, did you use apple again?
If so I find that pretty mild. Try different woods like pecan or hickory for a more robust flavor.
And what is the source of your wood? Store bought in bags or a wood pile or other?

Tim
 
Hmm, well I don't have an account with any of the regular hosting sites. Picasa tries to grab any picture you have, I don't use yahoo so Flickr is out, and Photobucket doesn't want to load for me. Never ran into a forum that won't let you attach small jpegs to a thread. I used another forum I frequent to host them. Not sure why they show up for me on my work computer when I posted them from home, figured that would mean it would work for others.

Oh well, I'll go somewhere else to try and find answers. Not worth the hassle to load pictures else where just to use them here.

I agree with Timothy, pics are not needed. I think you will get plenty of help on here. I just was letting you know I couldn;t see the pics in case it was something simple on your side to fix. if it isn't I doubt it is worth a lot of extra effort.
 
You don't need pics to help in finding answers. You mentioned lack of smoke flavor, did you use apple again?
If so I find that pretty mild. Try different woods like pecan or hickory for a more robust flavor.
And what is the source of your wood? Store bought in bags or a wood pile or other?

Tim

I agree with Timothy, pics are not needed. I think you will get plenty of help on here. I just was letting you know I couldn;t see the pics in case it was something simple on your side to fix. if it isn't I doubt it is worth a lot of extra effort.

Sorry misunderstood, figured you were wanting pictures to try and figure out something.

I had 3 fist sized chunks of cherry, 2 fist sized chunks of hickory, and a couple handfuls of small chips mixed through out the coals prior to lighting. I did not soak the wood in water or anything. They wood was bought from Home Depot, one bag by Weber, the other by Brinkman.

I piled up 1 chimney of Kingsford Competition, 1 chimney of Royal Oak lump, and a chimney of El Diablo lump. Piled them up in the ring where the middle was low. Placed the wood chunks on top of the coals. Lit another chimney of Kingsford Competition and put it on the unlit coals. Put the smoker together, let it go vents full open for about 15 minutes while I finished prepping the meat. Put the meat on at 5:30 pm and dialed the lower vents back to 25% open. An hour later I dialed them back to barely open. Temp stayed around 260-270 until I went to bed. I mopped the shoulders 3 times before bed. Woke up at 4:00 am and the temp was down to 225, and the meat probe read 165. Foiled them, opened the vents back to 25%, and added a little more coals. At 6:30 am my probe alarmed, one shoulder was at 195 so I pulled it off. The other one was at 185 and the smoker was running 260. I saw the shoulder reach 192, an hour later it had dropped to 190, and I had to pull it off because I was headed out to meet my Dad.
 
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5 fist sized chunks would be too smoky/overpowering for some, either you have a higher tolerance to smoke flavour or the bagged stuff is old and past it's prime.
Try some wood with the right moisture content from smokinlicous or fruta wood ( I'd add links but heading out the door for work ) I noticed a big difference in flavour and only use 1-2 med chunks.
HTH

Tim
 
I forgot to ask you, how did the smoke flavor come across to every one else? And did the leftovers the next day taste alright to you?
Reason I ask is our senses get a little bit jaded hanging around the smoker.

Tim
 
Everyone, wife, couple friends at work and my Dad can't taste any smoke. Wife and I had some day of cooking it, everyone else it was leftovers.
 

 

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