Set up for my second WSM smoke yesterday morning. Lit her up Minion style with a half chimney of RO lump dumped into the depression in the charcoal ring. Twenty minutes later, dead stable at 280, clear blue wispy smoke, everything is lovely. Put on ribs on bottom rack and sirloin roast on top. Problem occurred two hours in when I pulled ribs to foil and rotate to top rack while I put spatchcocked chicken and thighs on bottom. I left the lid off for about ten minutes while I reshuffled things and when I came back,flames were shooting above the (empty) foiled water pan. Put everything back on and replaced lid. Temp shot up to 400. Closed bottom vent and removed door until temp went back down to 275. Replaced dorr, temp went back to 350. End result, I fought with temp spikes for two more hours, ribs got somewhat overcooked (bones fell out, but meat was still excellent), sirloin overran to 160 IT but after foiling and resting in cooler still tender. Spatchcocked bird was almost perfect, thighs a bit overcooked. I guess the moral is to put the bloody lid back on when you are rearranging stuff so the air doesn't get crazy. WSM is very forgiving.
Temp spike - live and learn, I guess
- Thread starter GB King
- Start date
Jeff Brown (KY)
TVWBB Super Fan
Leaving the door off didn't do you any favors either. With the door off the coals are still getting to much air. All you were doing was letting the heat out the door instead of the lid lowering the lid temp. You should have closed everything up tight with the door on, choking the fire to bring the temp down.
Clint
TVWBB Olympian
Sounds like it came out ok. I've had the same thing happen when I was cooking a brisket (I think). I left the lid off & the fat in the empty water pan ignited & flames shot up.
Jeff's right about the door too - while it won't cause your temps to go up as high as I like, it provides an unlimited source of oxygen to your fire....so choke the oxygen to lower the temps.
Jeff's right about the door too - while it won't cause your temps to go up as high as I like, it provides an unlimited source of oxygen to your fire....so choke the oxygen to lower the temps.
That's what I eventually did. Closed everything off for ten minutes which had more of a choking effect than I expected. All that air apparently got all of the remaining fuel going at once, which meant that I had a lot more coals going than I should have. Lesson learned - put the lid back on while rearranging meat. Luckily the WSM is a very forgiving piece of equpment and nothing got harmed too much. Results weren't perfect, but still got compliments from those partaking. Funny, but i haven't noticed this issue being brought up around here previously.