BBQ - the hard way


 
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Barry McCorkle

TVWBB Super Fan
I know most of us bought the WSM for the ease of use, relatively low cost (except for those of us that started on an ECB at $25), and small space consumption. What you may not know is that it does a commendable job of making barbecue by using the old traditional method of using wood coals that have been burned down from wood logs.

Back in the summer I experimented with using only wood coals for cooking some ribs on one session and a Boston Butt on another session. I just found my cooking log on the pork butt session, so I thought I would summarize the results in case anyone wanted to try it. I will say up front that I did not taste as much of a difference on the butt as I did on the ribs. The ribs definitely benefited from burning the wood (white oak and apple) down to coals before using them to cook the meat.

Meat: 5 lb. Boston Butt
Rub: Southern Succor

Started at 06:40 with 20 - 25 Kingsford briquettes in Weber Chimney
At 07:00 poured the lit & flaming coals in into the charcoal chamber and added four 2"x 13" oak logs, 3 chunks of hickory and 5 small apple tree sticks on top of the coals in the chamber. At 08:00 the wood was mostly reduced to coals, so I assembled the cooker without the water pan and only used the top cooking grate. Bottom vents were closed and top vent fully open. Temp went to 400. At 08:15 the meat was put in the cooker and the temp went to 310 and by 08:50 the temp was 225. Coals were added about every 1 to 1 ? hours to the cooker starting at 10:00. The meat reached 190 at 5:00pm and was pulled from the cooker. Results - great pulled pork sandwiches. One other note, I probably made a mistake not basting the meat during the session as the meat was a little dry.

The coals were made by using an old metal wheelbarrow basin to keep a wood fire. Wood consumption in the "coal making" fire was as follows:

Three 3" x 13'' oak logs, put on the fire whole
One 6" x 14" log, quartered before put on fire
Two 5" x 16" logs, quarted before put on fire.

Only a few logs were used at a time so that I kept a constant slow production of coals during the day.

This method takes some effort ( and some firewood), but if you're doing some yard work why not make some bbq the old fashioned way.


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