Got my new WSM 18.5 for Christmas and finally fired it up yesterday to make a couple of pork butts, a fattie, and some ABT's.
I did a minion start with a full ring and 45 lit K and I used a foiled 14" clay saucer on top of the water pan. The temp was in the 20's and the wind was calm. The WSM ran steady around 225-245 for the entire 15 hour cook with only minor vent adjustments. The foiled clay saucer made cleanup a breeze. Not sure I'll ever use water.
Everything turned out great. I rubbed the butts with BRITU and brined one butt in the Alton Brown butt brine. The bark was fantastic and the meat was tender and moist. My only goof up was not burying the apple smoke wood better or not using enough. Pretty much all the wood burned up early and the food had very little smoke flavor. Better too little than too much, I guess. The brined butt had better flavor than the non brined one.
Thanks to everyone who answered my newbie questions along the way!
I did a minion start with a full ring and 45 lit K and I used a foiled 14" clay saucer on top of the water pan. The temp was in the 20's and the wind was calm. The WSM ran steady around 225-245 for the entire 15 hour cook with only minor vent adjustments. The foiled clay saucer made cleanup a breeze. Not sure I'll ever use water.
Everything turned out great. I rubbed the butts with BRITU and brined one butt in the Alton Brown butt brine. The bark was fantastic and the meat was tender and moist. My only goof up was not burying the apple smoke wood better or not using enough. Pretty much all the wood burned up early and the food had very little smoke flavor. Better too little than too much, I guess. The brined butt had better flavor than the non brined one.
Thanks to everyone who answered my newbie questions along the way!
