Darrel Williams
TVWBB Super Fan
Put together my 18.5 WSM yesterday and propmptly lit it up. Put about 6.5 pounds of K-Comp (Kingsford Competition briquettes, which I bought because that is what Costco sells, and I was at Costco buying large amounts of meat.)
I lit 2 Weber started cubes under the pile, in the ring at about the 12:00 and 6:00 positions, if the ring were a clock. I let that pile go with the middle section off for 10-15 minutes, then I put the middle on, filling the water bowl about 2/3 full with hot tap water. On the top grate I put 2 whole chickens, breast side up, using a rub of vegetable oil and a basic rub of salt, pepper, and a spice blend(paprika based).
Top vents were wide open throughout, and I had 2 different probe wires running through those.
I used no wood for smoke. I wanted to try just the k-comp on the 1st usage.
Put it all together and watched the temp quickly go to to nearly 300 (all bottom vents 1/2 open), so I closed 2 vents completely and held one at about 1/3 open. The temp got back to 275, but without touching it, it crept slowly and steadily down to 200 over the course of 3 hours. By then the chicken was only 157 interal, so I opened up all the vents, but I couldn't get the temp to rebound upward. I threw in 7 more briquettes, then the temp got back to 215 with the vents opened wide. Another hour and a quarter the chicken registered at 168 in the white meat, so I took them off and we ate.
The chickens were a mild blond in color, not a robust gold and nowhere near brown. I'd like to see more GB&D : gold brown and delicious. Even though I though 168 would "medium well" for chicken, it was thoroughly moist- prolly the most moist chicken I have ever had. Undercooked chicken gives me the heebie-jeebies, so I tend to overcook it. It was nice to have moist chicken without the hint of pink under-doneness. They had relatively little smokiness in the flavor of the meat- I'll chalk that up to a lack of smoke wood.
I had 3 thermometers going:
1st) THe weber one in the lid.
2nd) A Polder probe style reading just inside the lid, so close to the chicken and not far from #1 above
3rd) A new fangled two-reading Polder whose probe, in the chicken, senses both the internal temp of the food and the air temp of the cooking environment
#2 was consistently 50 degrees above #3. A possibility is that the temp of the chicken itself was pulling the reading for #3 downward.
#1 was consistently halfway between #2 and #3.
I will have to check them all in boiling water for an independent test.
It was fun and delicious. I will have to practice getting a temp to remain constant for hours and hours at a time, because my main goal is cooking many pork shoulders.
I didn't notice how much k-comp was left. The temp also dropped significantly during the 5 hour afternoon smoke. The warm afternoon temp (65) in the sun turned to cool evening air in the shade - maybe a 20 degree or more drop.
So questions: How do I get the birds more golden?
Is K-Comp a good choice?
Is keeping a steady 250 as easy as finding the exact balance point on the bottom vents?
What is the temp at which the coals are "out"? In other words, if I let it drop to 180, is it even possible to stoke it back up to a higher temp without relighting? Is that number 170? 190?
Do people oil their meat before cooking? {hey, quit thinking that, let's try to keep this rated G okay?}
I lit 2 Weber started cubes under the pile, in the ring at about the 12:00 and 6:00 positions, if the ring were a clock. I let that pile go with the middle section off for 10-15 minutes, then I put the middle on, filling the water bowl about 2/3 full with hot tap water. On the top grate I put 2 whole chickens, breast side up, using a rub of vegetable oil and a basic rub of salt, pepper, and a spice blend(paprika based).
Top vents were wide open throughout, and I had 2 different probe wires running through those.
I used no wood for smoke. I wanted to try just the k-comp on the 1st usage.
Put it all together and watched the temp quickly go to to nearly 300 (all bottom vents 1/2 open), so I closed 2 vents completely and held one at about 1/3 open. The temp got back to 275, but without touching it, it crept slowly and steadily down to 200 over the course of 3 hours. By then the chicken was only 157 interal, so I opened up all the vents, but I couldn't get the temp to rebound upward. I threw in 7 more briquettes, then the temp got back to 215 with the vents opened wide. Another hour and a quarter the chicken registered at 168 in the white meat, so I took them off and we ate.
The chickens were a mild blond in color, not a robust gold and nowhere near brown. I'd like to see more GB&D : gold brown and delicious. Even though I though 168 would "medium well" for chicken, it was thoroughly moist- prolly the most moist chicken I have ever had. Undercooked chicken gives me the heebie-jeebies, so I tend to overcook it. It was nice to have moist chicken without the hint of pink under-doneness. They had relatively little smokiness in the flavor of the meat- I'll chalk that up to a lack of smoke wood.
I had 3 thermometers going:
1st) THe weber one in the lid.
2nd) A Polder probe style reading just inside the lid, so close to the chicken and not far from #1 above
3rd) A new fangled two-reading Polder whose probe, in the chicken, senses both the internal temp of the food and the air temp of the cooking environment
#2 was consistently 50 degrees above #3. A possibility is that the temp of the chicken itself was pulling the reading for #3 downward.
#1 was consistently halfway between #2 and #3.
I will have to check them all in boiling water for an independent test.
It was fun and delicious. I will have to practice getting a temp to remain constant for hours and hours at a time, because my main goal is cooking many pork shoulders.
I didn't notice how much k-comp was left. The temp also dropped significantly during the 5 hour afternoon smoke. The warm afternoon temp (65) in the sun turned to cool evening air in the shade - maybe a 20 degree or more drop.
So questions: How do I get the birds more golden?
Is K-Comp a good choice?
Is keeping a steady 250 as easy as finding the exact balance point on the bottom vents?
What is the temp at which the coals are "out"? In other words, if I let it drop to 180, is it even possible to stoke it back up to a higher temp without relighting? Is that number 170? 190?
Do people oil their meat before cooking? {hey, quit thinking that, let's try to keep this rated G okay?}