1st smoke (mostly success) but some basic questions


 

DmitryM

New member
Good afternoon everyone,

I'm a newbie with smoky mountain so please bear with me. I have a couple of questions after my first (mostly successful) smoke:

- adding coal
- adding water

So, it turns out that I didn't add enough coals at the start. The temperature was in the low 40s and my 6lb pork shoulder required nearly 12 hours and towards the 9th hour, the temperature
started dropping sub 200f. I started another bunch of coals with the chimney at which point I opened the side door and dumped the new bunch of coals in. It worked fine except it generated a bunch
of ash that covered my meat -- no worries I still ate it and it was good. I gather that this is not the right way to do this?

Secondly, after the smoke was done I noticed that the water was completely gone from the bowl. How do add water to it throughout the process?

Thanks in advance!!
 
For adding water I have a funnel with a foot long hose on the bottom. Open door hose in pan, pour water in the funnel. It works. For adding charcoal i have a section of snap together round metal ducting. I bolted it together at one end and left the rest open spread a little wider at the not bolted end and that is a coal chute the fits through the door and into the charcoal chamber. If the bolted end doesn't quite fit just press it into an oval and it fits. BTW, anytime I am doing a big hunk of meat I fill the charcoal ring to max capacity.

When stirring charcoal or doing something that can kick up ash I use one of 3 methods to keep the ash off the food. 1. Remove the meat from the cooker, let the ash subside and put the meat back on. 2. Close the top vent to slow air flow up the center body. 3. And if you have center body handles you can do a hot squat - pick up the center section plus contents, set aside, work the coals, and put the WSM back together. Don't spill the water. :eek:

Hope you can use something from this. Keep having fun.
 
I load the charcoal ring up to hopefully avoid the situation, but that doesn't always work out. I do #3 in Lew's response above. I put on my gloves and lift the middle section and lid off of the base. Then I knock off the ash and gather all of the remaining coals in the center of the ring. I dump new unlit charcoal around the lit in the center. Sort of a reverse load of the minion method. That is if you need several more hours like you mentioned. If running low while trying to finish a smoke, I just toss a few unlit briquettes in the door.

To add water, I just use a gallon jug and carefully and slowly pour it in from the top (moving meat to the side if needed). If you don't have a temp spike, you can also just run it without water, but you will most likely have to shut some vents down to maintain the same temp as it runs out.
 
Buy a couple garage door handles and put them on the middle section. I bought my smoker used and the handles were already installed. All I have seen are put on vertical for some reason. I'm not sure why. Some good leather gloves because the handles get hot.
Makes lifting the mid section easier. But i am of the camp that does not put water in the water pan. But even if you use water you can let it get low before reloading charcoal.
Another plus for not putting water in the water pan is you burn less charcoal. I myself always load the ring to the top. When you are done cooking just close all the vents. The fire goes out fairly quickly, so that way you really aren't wasting any. I have a metal bucket i keep old charcoal in and put it on top of the new the next cook. I can usually get a good 12 hours or more out of a loaded ring with kingsford blue bag
 
I put my garage door handles on vertically because that doesn't require drilling. I used the bolts and holes for the straps that hold the grate in place. My WSM was new then and I didn't want to drill a hole in it.

I'll second Fred's advice on leather gloves. I bought a pair of long welding gloves and I never burn my forearm when working the WSM.

The water/no water discussion will never end. I started with water for a year and then went no water and I just started a cook with water in the pan. I'm trying something new and want as much smoke on the pork butt as I can get. I'm hoping the water helps with that.
 
When it’s cold IMO go no water. The only time I run water is if the cooker is getting too hot and there’s no other way to get the temp to drop. Since it was low 40s that should solve your issue. If I have to add coals I usually just add them unlit via the door and use a long set of tongs to stir them in.
 

 

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