1st smoke in four years, not a disaster but not great either (used a Heatermeter)

[Troy Gamm]

I pulled my 18" 7 year old WSM out of storage a couple of weeks ago since I want to get back into BBQ. Ended up learning about the HeaterMeter and built one this past week. Wanted to do a Pork Butt and a full rack of Spare Ribs. Fairly disappointed with the result but at least it was edible.

Details:
- 6.5 lb Pork Butt prepared per instructions on virtual weber bullet cooking tips.
- Started WSM up with Lazy Man's Minion method by Yianni http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?38029-the-super-lazyman-s-minion-method-w-an-ATC
- Assembled cooker with Pork Butt on top rack with a full pan of hot water and a full but not overflowing charcoal ring
- Set Heatermeter to 225 and was up to temp in about 90 minutes. I built the Heatermeter so I could get some sleep on overnight cooks but I found myself just staring at the screen admiring what a great job it was doing. I held 225 within a 2-3 degree margin until I took the lid off at 11:00am to turn the Butt over and move it to the lower rack and add the rack of ribs to the top rack. Sprayed the butt with apple juice and closed the lid. I also noticed that the water pan only had about 20% of water left but I didn't add any more since quite a few on here don't use any water at all.
-30 minutes after swapping racks and closing the lid, the wsm was having a hard time recovering and was hovering around 215 degrees with the fan max set to 30 percent. I freaked out and was wondering if I was running out of fuel so I opened the door. There was still a good amount of charcoal (250%) that wasn't completely gray. It looked like there was about 50% of charcoal left so I added a couple of scoops of kingsford and a few chunks of apple. Closed it back up and set the max speed to 50%. The WSM recovered nicely but the Butt temp dropped to 160 after opening the lid to swap racks. It was up to 170 before the rack swap and ribs were added. After an hour the butt still had not shown any rise in temp so I set the pit temp to 250 and max fan speed to 70% and then 275 with a max speed of 100% when I didn't see any appreciable rise in the butt temp.
-It hit 275 after about another hour and held it fairly well. The butt temp showed it was rising at about 18 degrees an hour until I pulled the butt when it was at 195. Double foiled it and stuck it in a cooler. I put the ribs on the bottom rack since they looked like they were getting black and cooked them for another 1.5 hours and pulled them, foiled and stuck them in the cooler.
-Let everything set for a couple of hours until dinner time. The Butt was pretty dry and the bark overdone
-Ribs weren't bad. They were better than the butt but not up to what I had been able to do in the past.

My thoughts on what went wrong.
-I was impatient with the recovery after putting in the ribs and swapping racks. I should have just left it well enough alone without opening the door and adding charcoal and opening the lid a second time to add water. Should have added the water through the door but didn't have anything to get it into the water pan from the door.
- Probably should not have set the WSM temp to 275. I am guessing that I basically overcooked the butt on too high of a temp and then pulled it at 195 instead of 190 or less. It basically fell apart trying to get it out of the wsm.
- I wouldn't say anything really went wrong with the ribs but I do think I overcooked them as well. They were fairly tender when I pulled the butt and probably shouldn't have cooked them for another 1.5 hours without checking them every 15 minutes or so.
- I should have followed the advice on the cooking techniques and put as much charcoal in the ring as possible in the beginning. I just put enough in to come to the top of the ring. I should have had it almost overflowing as described in the tips.
- trying to cook ribs and a butt in the same smoker was probably not a great choice since the recommended pit temps are 50 degrees off from each other.

Going to give it another try in the next week or so while everything is fresh in my mind.

Any thoughts from the details that I might have not noticed that negatively affected the outcome?



I have to say that the heatermeter did a phenomenal job of keeping the temp right at 225 overnight. I love that thing!!!!!

 

[Bob Sample]

"The WSM recovered nicely but the Butt temp dropped to 160 after opening the lid to swap racks. It was up to 170 before the rack swap and ribs were added. After an hour the butt still had not shown any rise in temp so I set the pit temp to 250 and max fan speed to 70% and then 275 with a max speed of 100% when I didn't see any appreciable rise in the butt temp."


This is the exact reason I recommend NOT using a thermometer in the meat when learning to BBQ. Your butt hit the stall and can sit at that temp or even drop in temp for 1-2 hrs. When your meat reaches around 160 then the fat starts to render a lot and the evaporation of the moisture keeps the meat temp from rising. By worrying about internal temps you started messing around with your pit temp and causing yourself unnecessary stress and aggravation.

Most butts I cook are almost falling apart when I remove them unless I'm looking to slice it. Remember if you remove the meat from the cooker and foil it immediately it will continue cooking in the foil.

Next time set your pit temp and forget internal temp and just let the cooker do it's thing.

 

[Andy V]

I let my wsm sit at 225 and it takes about 13 hrs for 7lbs to hit 195. Once it gets to 195, i start the toothpick test. Mine always seem to stall at 170 and again at 180.

 

[Chad Bman]

Confused why you set the butt on the top rack, then moved to the bottom, spritzed with apple juice, then pulled & foiled. That's a lot of lid-on-lid-off action.
Toss the butt on the bottom rack and forget it until it's done. Ribs on the top rack until they're done.

I love my meat temp probe as it's nothing more than just a piece of information. If I'm at the pit temp I want, the meat is done when the meat is done.

 

[Troy Gamm]

I can understand why you are confused. I was going off of very little experience in the last 4 years and trying to figure out how to cook two different meats that had two different temperatures recommended on the cooking tips section of VWB. Butt was recommended to cook at 225-250 and the ribs at 275. I knew that I needed to cook the butt for over 12 hours so I set the WSM at 225 and didn't think about putting it on the bottom rack to start with. I wish I had. My thinking was that since I thought I needed to increase the temp 50 degrees for the ribs that it would be counterproductive to put the ribs on bottom and the butt on top.

Next time 225 the whole time and the butt starts on the bottom and the lid only gets opened once to add the ribs.

 

[JimmyE]

Can't speak for anyone else, but 250 degrees works for me every time, except of course when smoking chicken. Great advice above as well, let the cooker do its thing.

 

[Chad Bman]

Thanks for the explanation Troy. Now I'm getting it.

I'm not a pro be any stretch of means, but here's my opinion. (again)
225 is too low of a temp for a pork butt. You're trying to get the internal temp of a 6-9 pound piece of meat to 190-200+ degrees. At 225 pit temp, that isn't a very big difference. I much prefer bumping up into the 250-265 target range for the majority of the cook. (pork butt or ribs) Harry Soo (pro using the WSM in comps) says the fat renders better at the higher temps and hi does 275. The pit temps will swing +/- 20 degrees from it's settling point during al all night cook, but I just let it roll.