BobJ
TVWBB Super Fan
Hi folks, Bob here from Southwick Ma.
Just starting out in smokers, have a 14.5 that I've used twice in the last month or so. 1st cook was a whole chicken that tasted like a house fire and got tossed. I suspect it was from the startup smoke of the KBB charcoal. I had filled the fire ring with charcoal then added maybe a dozen lit coals on top and put the chicken on right away, what a ton of smoke that caused.
The next cook was a rack of spare ribs cut in half, half on each rack. This time I added less lit coals to a hole in the center of the filled ring, waited about 20 min for the heavier smoke to clear then added the ribs. 6 hours later the ribs came out great although I had gone a bit heavy on the rub for our liking. Started keeping a log on this cook, will continue doing so for awhile.
Bought a set of butts from Costco the other day and am going to give that a shot tomorrow. Debating on the cooking temp to shoot for, I see some at 225, some 250, and some at 275, as well as with or without water. From what I read the coals will last longer without water, as I'm thinking about 11 hours for 7 lbs I'll either have to try no water or figure on reloading after 6-7 hours which is what they lasted in the rib cook.
Thanks to all for the forum, it's come in very helpful in my so far short smoking career.
Didn't realize how many Weber grills I had till I started reading here seeing all the little icons at the bottom of posts. Have a Smokey Joe, 18" kettle (I think), a Q2000, a Skyline 3 burner that's getting close to end of life, and now the WSM 14. Guess this is the right place for me.
Just starting out in smokers, have a 14.5 that I've used twice in the last month or so. 1st cook was a whole chicken that tasted like a house fire and got tossed. I suspect it was from the startup smoke of the KBB charcoal. I had filled the fire ring with charcoal then added maybe a dozen lit coals on top and put the chicken on right away, what a ton of smoke that caused.
The next cook was a rack of spare ribs cut in half, half on each rack. This time I added less lit coals to a hole in the center of the filled ring, waited about 20 min for the heavier smoke to clear then added the ribs. 6 hours later the ribs came out great although I had gone a bit heavy on the rub for our liking. Started keeping a log on this cook, will continue doing so for awhile.
Bought a set of butts from Costco the other day and am going to give that a shot tomorrow. Debating on the cooking temp to shoot for, I see some at 225, some 250, and some at 275, as well as with or without water. From what I read the coals will last longer without water, as I'm thinking about 11 hours for 7 lbs I'll either have to try no water or figure on reloading after 6-7 hours which is what they lasted in the rib cook.
Thanks to all for the forum, it's come in very helpful in my so far short smoking career.
Didn't realize how many Weber grills I had till I started reading here seeing all the little icons at the bottom of posts. Have a Smokey Joe, 18" kettle (I think), a Q2000, a Skyline 3 burner that's getting close to end of life, and now the WSM 14. Guess this is the right place for me.
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