Ron Strilaeff
New member
Hey all,
Just got my 18.5 WSM smoker Tuesday and it will be set up primarily as a grill with the charcoal bin up high where the water pan and lower grill should be. I'm a very inexperienced meat cooker, but I know that overcooked meat is bad.
So I cooked some burgers and fat onion slices last night with about 1/2 a chimney of briquets and a handful of small hickory wood chips. The coals were ~8" below the top grill so I sorta seared them with the lid off so I could monitor them. The 8" is not quite hot enough so I'll rig up something to raise it more the next time I want to grill. I poked the chips down through the grill after the searing and closed the lid and all the dampers but the temp stayed up above 325!! There was a LOT of smoke when I cracked open the door for a sec. I was scared of overcooking them so took them off after only 20 minutes of smoking, put them on a clean covered plate and took them inside to rest while my awesome wife was finishing the fresh garden salad with tomatoes and homemade creamy ranch dressing.
She likes her meat more rare that I do so she got the big one and I got the two smaller ones. We sat down to watch an Anthony Bourdain episode, took a bite and our eyes popped open ... "Damn this is good!", we said in unison. Yay!! And there was a very noticeable hickory smoke flavor.
----
So, for my second cook, I'm going to configure the WSM for slow smoking and make "smoked steak" using three different cuts that have been sitting in our freezer for weeks: a beef flank steak, a thin-cut beef shoulder steak and a leg of lamb steak (with a bone). I think they are all pretty lean cuts and the flank steak is grass-fed. I put them in the fridge with a lemon, pepper, paprika and salt rub. They will not be seared but will be low-smoked (with a full chimney) starting at about 1:00 pm for our evening meal. They are pretty big so we'll have some of each tonight with leftovers for tomorrow. I don't think they will be overcooked because of the low temp.
I'm so excited .. this seems too easy.
Just got my 18.5 WSM smoker Tuesday and it will be set up primarily as a grill with the charcoal bin up high where the water pan and lower grill should be. I'm a very inexperienced meat cooker, but I know that overcooked meat is bad.
So I cooked some burgers and fat onion slices last night with about 1/2 a chimney of briquets and a handful of small hickory wood chips. The coals were ~8" below the top grill so I sorta seared them with the lid off so I could monitor them. The 8" is not quite hot enough so I'll rig up something to raise it more the next time I want to grill. I poked the chips down through the grill after the searing and closed the lid and all the dampers but the temp stayed up above 325!! There was a LOT of smoke when I cracked open the door for a sec. I was scared of overcooking them so took them off after only 20 minutes of smoking, put them on a clean covered plate and took them inside to rest while my awesome wife was finishing the fresh garden salad with tomatoes and homemade creamy ranch dressing.
She likes her meat more rare that I do so she got the big one and I got the two smaller ones. We sat down to watch an Anthony Bourdain episode, took a bite and our eyes popped open ... "Damn this is good!", we said in unison. Yay!! And there was a very noticeable hickory smoke flavor.
----
So, for my second cook, I'm going to configure the WSM for slow smoking and make "smoked steak" using three different cuts that have been sitting in our freezer for weeks: a beef flank steak, a thin-cut beef shoulder steak and a leg of lamb steak (with a bone). I think they are all pretty lean cuts and the flank steak is grass-fed. I put them in the fridge with a lemon, pepper, paprika and salt rub. They will not be seared but will be low-smoked (with a full chimney) starting at about 1:00 pm for our evening meal. They are pretty big so we'll have some of each tonight with leftovers for tomorrow. I don't think they will be overcooked because of the low temp.
I'm so excited .. this seems too easy.
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