Robert-R
TVWBB Diamond Member
I cooked a 6.25 pound pork butt with the 14.5 WSM yesterday.
I knew it would be a long cook & was concerned with having ash from the coals snuffing the fire.
I decided to try Kingsford Mesquite Lump charcoal because it's supposed to produce less ash & burn longer.
I filled the charcoal ring to more than well rounded & did a MM start using 10 lit coals & 4 medium sized chunks of apple wood.
Let things get to temp & the thin blue smoke - about 50 minutes.
After 10 1/2 hours of cooking averaging 260* - 275* the temps started dropping so I added a mini chimney of lit K Lump and was back to 275*.
Kicked things up to 285*.
The meat probed tender about an hour later. It registered between 195* & 203*
So this was a 12 hour cook.
I checked the charcoal bowl & ring this am.
There was enough charcoal left for maybe another hour.
The ash had built up within 1/4 inch of the charcoal grate.
I have raised the charcoal grate & ring about 1" & have used the cooker like this for quite some time.
I usually remove the internal heat shield from the bottom of the smoker for long cooks, but I forgot to do that. That would have made more room for ash.
Anyway, I'm impressed. I'm fairly certain that if I had used KBB I would have had problems with excess ash accumulation around the 8 hour mark.
The mesquite in the lump is a no show - but that's of no concern to me.
I knew it would be a long cook & was concerned with having ash from the coals snuffing the fire.
I decided to try Kingsford Mesquite Lump charcoal because it's supposed to produce less ash & burn longer.
I filled the charcoal ring to more than well rounded & did a MM start using 10 lit coals & 4 medium sized chunks of apple wood.
Let things get to temp & the thin blue smoke - about 50 minutes.
After 10 1/2 hours of cooking averaging 260* - 275* the temps started dropping so I added a mini chimney of lit K Lump and was back to 275*.
Kicked things up to 285*.
The meat probed tender about an hour later. It registered between 195* & 203*
So this was a 12 hour cook.
I checked the charcoal bowl & ring this am.
There was enough charcoal left for maybe another hour.
The ash had built up within 1/4 inch of the charcoal grate.
I have raised the charcoal grate & ring about 1" & have used the cooker like this for quite some time.
I usually remove the internal heat shield from the bottom of the smoker for long cooks, but I forgot to do that. That would have made more room for ash.
Anyway, I'm impressed. I'm fairly certain that if I had used KBB I would have had problems with excess ash accumulation around the 8 hour mark.
The mesquite in the lump is a no show - but that's of no concern to me.
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