season your smoker


 
Dwain Pannell

Dwain Pannell

TVWBB Hall of Fame
How many followed Harry Soo's seasoning method? ...or did you use some other method? ...or none at all - just fire it up and cook?
 
I just fired mine up and cooked. Some have had problems controlling temps at first (running hot), but I have not found it that bad.

Once I was done cooking, instead of closing down the vents I would let the WSM keep going to build up a little extra gunk.
 
for no reason at all except to make me happy i always do a burn with heavy smoke with either a nrw grill/smoker but also after i do a cleaning.
 
I wouldn't argue with Harry Soo but I just fired mine up and cooked. I cooked beer can chicken. I wanted something pretty fast and that could be cooked relatively hot. My goal was to learn something about temp control and get some decent chicken. Other than firing the pit too hot, things went well. It took me 3 or 4 cooks to get the fire right at the beginning. I was using way too many coals in the chimney.
 
Cooking on the bullet will season it. Enjoy
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That's interesting fellas. I had a new 22.5" delivered today, foiled the pan, and am running a full [chimney] load now to burn off the factory "stuff".

Tomorrow, I will run a half basket of coal with a half chimney of lit coal it at 275* for 3 to 5 hrs with some bacon strips in it.

Sunday, I will smoke some spatcocked cornish hens with orange-curry glaze ala Jamie Purviance.
 
First time to fire was 16lbs of pork overnight. After just the second cook I can already feel how the lid is sticking when you tak t off from the good gunk starting to form
 
No need to waste charcoal. What did it ever do to you?? Just fire it up and throw on sum meat and it will "season" / get tighter over time.
 
my first cook on the WSM was 3 racks of baby backs, but i been doin this stuff for a while on the reglar ol weber, so i wasn't much scared.
turned out fine, so i just kept on usin it.
guess it's seasoned by now.
 
I just fired mine up and cooked - made some chicken the day after I got it. It ran a little hot the first few cooks but then it settled down.
 
I smoked like a half ring of K when I first got it. Primarily because I had no idea how to assemble the thing and was a bit intimidated. I think I have about 5 cooks now. Definably not as hard as you make it out to seem
 
If I've got lit coals in the WSM, I'm putting meat on it. I put a rib roast on mine the first time, and it was fantastic. It's going to season either way.
 
Though my limited experience with the Mighty WSM since it arrived last September and approximately 20 smokes under my belt, here's what I can offer:

1. I did not season and starting smokin' right off the bat as per the manual's recommendation. The inside of the rig after the 1st smoke was semi-seasoned. After storing it until the next weekend, I found charred flakes on the inside of the water pan from the dome lid. I could pull the dome off and knock it with the palm of my hand to make more flakes fall.

2. I've not seasoned it since and still get flakes. If I had a new one out of the box, I would wipe all interior surfaces with peant oil or the like and rur that pup up to about 400* F. before smoking on it for the 1st time.

Hindsight is 20/20 and it has not been a big deal but IMHO, the WSM should be seasoned. Still have Great results!

Good Luck!
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