1st Smoke - The Renowned Mr Brown

[Jo Rhi]

Just completed my very first smoke in my brand new WSM. I smoked a 6.5 lb Pork Butt and am pleased with the results.

1. Cooked it 11 hours. Used Minion method but ran out of heat/fuel after 11 hours. Had to finish it in the oven so my ego took a bit of a bruising.

2. I never added fuel and guess I should have. But I've read several posts about people running their WSM @ 225 degrees for 18 hours without adding fuel. I started with a full bowl of Kingsford and 2/3 of a Weber chimney of hot coals. The last hour I had troubles getting the lid temp to get much above 200. All 3 bottom vents were 100% open

3. I never let the lid temp get above 250 degrees, I never peeked until I turned & basted at about 4 hours. My brand new Poder-style thermometer failed so I had to remove the lid at least 3 times (after the8 hour mark) to take a manual read of the meat temp. This did not help.

4. I'm being overly-critical of myself. The end result was fabulous with a beautiful pink smoke ring.

I know this is a matter of learning the proper technique, but I'm not sure what I'd do differently next time, except add coals mid-way through the process. Can't wait to try again!

 

[Bruce Bissonnette]

You stated you used "...2/3 of a Weber chimney of hot coals." You might want to try using less coals. Only light about 10-15 briquettes in the chimney then after they are hot put them on your full charcoal ring. 2/3 chimney is about 4 additional pounds of briquettes, way too many for a MM fire.

Another thing that has really helped me is to get yourself a rubber mallet from the hardware store. About halfway through your cook just give a gentle tap around your bottom section to dislodge any ash inside and have it fall through the grate, seems to help keep temps up there.

Go to a Target store and get a Taylor digital therm, much better, IMHO, than Polder.

Other than that it sounds like you had everything under control.

 

[Jeff T Miller]

I am going to have to get one of those rubber mallets.

I know for me 9-11 hours is all I can get before the temp starts dropping. I use a piece of wood and tap on the grate the charcoal sits on. Knocking the ash down usually gets the temp back up pretty quick. I usually start adding charcoal about the same time. I only add 5-6 pieces at a time.