The importance of pre-heating the WSM.


 
A

Art R

TVWBB Super Fan
I cooked up 2 slabs of spares and 1 slab of baby back this past weekend. It was hotter than heck here and was rushing to get things done. Well, I rushed one thing that I won't ever do again. I did not let the WSM come up to operating temperature before adding the meat. The temp was around 170 and rising, I cut corners and put it all on and opened up 2 vents and left the third open 25%.

Darn if that WSM did not warm up to 250 like I wanted. I checked it and it was 190 at the one hour mark. 210 at two hours. I stirred the coals opened up the last vent. at 3 hours 220. 4 hours 240. 5 hours finally 250. (all temps taken at top vent in lid).

This made for longer cooking which I think dried out the ribs a bit. I foiled the baby backs to save them and they were very good. The spares and the rib tips were a bit dry though.

From now on, I'm letting it come up to temp first!! Still darn good bbq, just not my best.

AR
 
People do it different ways here. Me, I never wait 'til it gets up to temp. I like to control the temps with the "guest of honor" on the WSM, and on the way up. Then again, I see some have problems getting up to temp for one reason or another, and my WSM loves to run higher. Leaky I guess, but I learned her little "quirks" lol.
 
I never pre heat either. I fill the ring up with lump, add my lit, assemble wsm, add meat and that's it. Control the temps on the way up.
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I agree with Bob and Brian...I always add the meat while the temperature is on the way up. You may want to start with all 3 vents set at 100% open and begin backing off when the temperature gets to within 20°F of your final set point.
 
Never had a problem with temps being too low. I load the ring FULL for butts and briskets, 2/3 full for ribs, do MM with 15-20 briquetts; assemble the smoker as soon as the 15-20 briquetts go on, put the meat on, plug the Guru up and let it go.
 
I can appreciate all of those comments. Another factor I failed to mention was the wind. While is was 99 plus degrees outside the wind was steady at 20 mph or more. Perhaps that helped keep the WSM from heating up.

I used Royal Oak briquettes that I have used before and had no problems.

I think that for the sake of consistency I will keep my pledge to preheat the cooker up to temp and then add the meat. I know it's not an exact science, but knowing that the start parameters are the same each time might just help my end result...YMMV.

AR
 
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