14.5" WSM at the Campsite Advice


 
JShoemaker

JShoemaker

TVWBB Member
Hello...

One of the reasons I wanted to buy my 14.5" WSM this year, was to bring along to the campsites with our family on occasion.

I volunteered to bring it this weekend, to feed (3) families Saturday for dinner. I'm planning on doing pork butt for pulled pork.

I'm realizing my time constraints of a 7-8hr smoke. I'm planning on doing (2) ~4-5# butts(vs. one big 8-9#), hoping the smaller butts cook quicker. Put em on at ~8am(ish), hoping for a 5-6pm(ish) eat time.

Question: Do boneless pork shoulder/butt or Bone-In typically cook faster? (I've never cooked a boneless)

I also plan to wrap em in foil, at about 160 degrees from what I read on here. (I've NEVER wrapped before)

Any thoughts/comments/advice would be appreciated. This is the trial run for the WSM at the campsite, so it'll be a learning experience for sure. I'm hoping everything goes smoothly, or I'll have a lot of hungry people standing around...
 
Boneless will cook faster but it's not really a big difference in the scope of a pork butt cook (+/- 30 minutes on a 10+ hour cook)
 
Robert-R said:
Your cooker will probably run hot for the first few cooks. I'm not sure about cook times with foil or bone-in vs boneless.
Your best bet is to start early & if need be - wrap & towell the butts & put in a cooler until time to pull.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, my 14.5" has been running COOL so far, on my first 2-3 cooks!? (and my 22" runs hot) Very odd. So I can't simply cook it hotter, to finish faster either.

While I'm not a fan of waking up EARLY EARLY while camping...I might have to get everything ready Friday night, then fire it up as early as I can on Saturday morning, just to be safe.

In your link above, I see you did 6.25# butt. I'm hoping to find a couple smaller ones, which should cut down the cook time a tad as well.
 
Can you start them late Friday night and pull them off in the morning, wrap in foil and a towel and place in a cooler?
 
Smaller butts. Cook until the crust is set and wrap in foil. Cook in foil until probe tender. Pull. Unwrap foil until butts cool to 170° wrap again place in a cooler for about an hour. Drink a few cold ones and have a good time. Let us know how it goes.

Oh and I prefer bone in but they do seem to take a tad bit more time
 
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If you are using water in the pan it will run cooler. I don't have a 14.5,but I do have a mini wsm I built..almost the same thing. I don't even use a pan now ...I just let the drippings hit the coal. I do run about 275 to 300.
 
So, everything went well on my 1st campout with the new 14.5" WSM! Got everything ready the night before, and planned on waking early to get it going.



I did (2) 6# boneless butts. On the smoker at 630am. Shortly after Noon, they were 170F internal, and I wrapped both. About 2hrs later they were at 190+F, so I took em off, and threw em in a cooler to rest for a couple hours until dinner. They pulled awesome, and every body loved it!! I'll be doing this again for sure!
 
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