First smoke, trouble with temps


 

Todd R

New member
Hello,
I did my first smoke this weekend with the 18", had fun and food tasted great but had trouble getting temps up. Please see timeline. It just seemed that whenever I looked in at the coals they were never super hot i.e. they had dark spots to them. Not sure if I fired enough at the begin and/or hot enough before assembling and adding food. Thanks for any suggestions!

temps all read at lid
1:15 3/4 lit chimney +3/4 unlit on top, closed cooker, bottom vents 50%
edit 1:30 220 deg added 3 racks ribs and 4lb bone-in turkey breast, opened vents 100%
1:35 185 deg
1:40 160 deg
1:45 175 deg
2:20 175 deg. opened cooker added 3/4 lit briqs
2:30 185 deg
2:40 180 deg opened cooker and poured out all but ~quart of water
3:25 175 deg
3:35 175 deg, added 20 unlit briqs through door and stoked with poker.
3:50 190 deg, stoke vigorously and blew into vents
3:55 205 deg
4:05 215 deg
4:15 pulled turkey at 160 deg internal temp.
4:25 235 deg.
5:00 200 deg
5:20 removed ribs
 
I am wondering if the fact that you initially put the unlit on top of the lit, you may have hindered the lit from taking off. My understanding of the Minion method is to put the unlit on the bottom and a few lit on top. Might make a diff. Also could let temps rise to your desired cooking temp before adding meat. Meat obviously took the temps down.
Glad it all tasted good.

Mark
 
Following the Minion Method, I stack my unlit inside the ring in a rather doughnut shape--high on the sides and tapering down toward the middle, leaving a 2"-3" air hole in the center of the grill with no unlit. This forms a "nest" into which I pour my lit. It is my belief that leaving this hole allows better airflow to the lit. It seems to me that I get more consistent temps using this trick.
 
Todd, first off welcome to the forums! When I do a minion which is pretty much all the time, I fill the ring with unlit and nestle the smokewood in the charcoal with a couple of pieces buried. I put 15 peices of lit coals on top making sure that a hot coal is touching each piece of wood that is not buried. All vents wide open 'till temp hits around 200F. Then I close all Bottem vent to 1/4 open. Wait abit and adjust from there until I hit my target temp.
 
Todd, I have cooked when it is 10 degrees up to 80 degrees and I always keep roughly 225-275. I dump about a chimney and a half unlit into the bottom. I light a whole chimney and put it on top. I leave it for a couple of minutes and assemble the smoker. I leave vents wide open for the first hour. I adjust from there.Sometime I mix wood chunks into the bowl or just throw the chips through the door. The wind can really affect temps.
 
There are a few issues here - but I am wondering if you used water in the pan, Todd.

First, it's worth loading the meat before making any vent adjustments, waiting to see how the meat addition affects your temps. (I Minion nearly all starts and load the meat in immediately after pouring on the lit and assembling the cooker.)

Second, even a 4-lb turkey breast would take longer than 4 hours at the temps you note were those the actual temps. I'm thinking not. For most of the time the coktemp was not all that much higher than the finish temp of the turkey. Something is amiss here as the turkey should have taken much longer to hit 160.

I'm not sure what type of ribs you cooked but the same comments hold. Spares would definitely not be anywhere near done - and I would be very surprised if backs would hit done in 4 hours at temps that low.
 
Next time start with more un-lit, enough to get you through your cook without having to open your cooker and add more fuel. Add about the same lit on top, assemble you cooker put your meat on. Run with all vents 100% open until you get close to your temps start shutting down. You'll be golden.

EDIT: Kevin makes a very good point. There's no way ribs are done in that amount of time at those temps. Have you tested your therm?
 
Todd, Me thinks your external thermometer might be a tad off!!. Like most of the guys who've commented my ribs take longer than that. How did you measure the internal temp of the turkey? When I start my 18" I flip my chimney over and fill that space with charcoal(about 20-25 coals)when they are ready I dump them on a over full heap of charcoal.I do not add anymore charcoal to the unit. I reassemble WSM and wait for the temp to get about 220-230. Then I add meat and the rest is history. Lots of good ways of starting the unit. What kind of charcoal were you using?
 
Thanks all for comments! I was wondering that later, how the heck could my meat temps got up in that amount of time if the temps were that low? I'll check out my gauge tonight. I was using standard Kingsford (blue & white bag) I use a Polder digital meat thermometer. Guess I wasn't thinking a brand new gauge would be off. Oh and yes I started off with a bowlfull of hot water (I dumped all but a quart halfway through). Was thinking of Pork Butt this w/e, maybe I'll do another small cook first.
 

 

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