My first smoke ever! Stop by and yell at me or give me tips!


 

J A Petty

New member
As the title says, today I am smoking for my first time ever. I bought a WSM 22.5 last week and other than a load of charcoal run through with no meat this is the first time I've used it. I have three 8.7 lb pork butts on as well as 3 plain fatties to see if I can get a little more fat out to season the beast!

My setup is a WSM 22.5 using the minion method and burning KBB. I used Meathead's memphis rub on the butts and nothing on the fatties. I am also using pecan and apple wood. I have 2 butts downstairs and 1 upstairs with the fatties. I am using a Maverick 733 and it has been sitting at 250 pretty steadily with everything closed off. Well, it was until I opened it to put more wood in and now it is slowly climbing again. Currently at 233 with the top vent open a bit. Should I shoot for 250 doing pork butts or is anywhere in the 225-250 range ok?

Hopefully the pictures come out alright. I think I went too light on the rub. Should it be heavier? Any advice or comments are more than appreciated. Should I start spraying the butts with apple juice or something? Internal temp of the top one is at 124 and its only about 3 hours in. Yeah, I started late so it could be a late night, but that's alright! I have links to individual pics below, here is a link to the album i think, http://imgur.com/a/RlRbE

http://imgur.com/23G3dNh
http://imgur.com/uf5NgXB
http://imgur.com/yNcxG65
http://imgur.com/91AZKVt
http://imgur.com/iCe5RVc

If the pics aren't working let me know so I can try and fix anything! Thanks for looking
 
My advice is open that top vent all the way or you run a risk of creosote taste on everything.
You're breaking it in, it's gonna run hotter than you may want, but butts do fine at higher heat.
And the fatties will be done well before the butts get to a pullable temp.
I don't spray, mop or spritz, never saw the need or better results when I did.
 
Oh, not at all Bob! Thanks for the advice. I opened the top up as you said. I hesitate to even mention this, but I kinda didn't have the water bowl in the right place. Yes, I had it sitting on the freaking coals basically. *sigh*

Ah well. I have fixed that problem and am now running hot, with the water pan in the correct place, but at least my idiocy didn't have any real bad consequences other than feeling like a moron lol.

Live and learn I guess! I thought that the water pan sitting on the coals was a stupid design. I feel better about those engineers now. I'm just going to call it an experiment. Yes, that's the ticket!
 
Ha! Good to know.

One question, I have my probe in my top lvl pork butt and have 2 underneath it. All the pieces are the same size, should I have my probe in one of the lower ones rather than the top one? I guess it would make sense to have the probe in a lower one since I could use my instant read thermometer on the top one. Of course, that means I have to open it up too. Any opinions on probe placement as far as which lvl?
 
The thing is you could have a 5 lb butt and a 9 lb butt cooking on the same level and the 9 lb one might be done first.
Learn to cook by doneness, not temp.
Probe tender, and the bone wiggling freely is what I go by.
If one gets done first, then no big deal if it stays on until the others get there.
Or warp it in foil, then a towel and put in a cooler to hold.
 
All things considered I think things turned out very well. My 3 butts took 13 hours and were all around 203-205F when I took them off. I pulled them and bagged them and will deal more with them tomorrow when I'm not quite as tired! I tasted quite a bit as I was pulling, for research of course, and it was delicious. Who knows, next time I might even put the smoker together right from the get go and who knows how much easier it will be!

0bligatory pics of the end product! http://imgur.com/a/nRaXM

Bob, thanks a ton for your help, it was great to get some good advice in the middle of my first smoke.

First of many! I got a membership to Costco last weekend and I think pork belly is next on my list with maybe a rack or 4 of ribs!
 
Nice, J A! Thanks for sharing your experience and thanks to Bob for the tips. I'm a new WSM owner (lurking and absorbing the collective knowledge of this board) and working up the courage (and time) to kick this thing off.
 
Nice, J A! Thanks for sharing your experience and thanks to Bob for the tips. I'm a new WSM owner (lurking and absorbing the collective knowledge of this board) and working up the courage (and time) to kick this thing off.
Welcome to the forum Brian!
Jump on in, the water's fine! (although many of us don't use water anymore) :)
 

 

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