1st WSM Cook


 
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Bruce Bissonnette

Bruce Bissonnette

TVWBB Guru
Well sports fans, thought I'd give you a little play by play of my first WSM cook. The temperature at game time is 39* with a slight wind out of the West. I've got the WSM just inside my garage, so the wind is not really an issue.

Following the BRITU recipe with the Minion start method. Put the ribs on at 12 noon MI time with temps at the lid of 250 and the top grate at 230.

At 1:15pm the lid temp is 240 and the top grate is at 222. Temps seem to have settled in at 219 to 222, however in the boil test of my Taylor probe water was boiling and it registered 210.5*

I am right where I want to be. Planning on a 4-5 hour cook. Putting the baked beans on the lower grate at about 2:30pm.

Will keep you posted...It's gonna be good!
 
Well here we are it's 2:30pm the WSM is humming right along. The temp is 221 at the top grate the lid temp is 245. i just added the baked beans to the bottom grate.

At 3pm I will turn the ribs and check if the water in the Brinkman pan needs replenishing. I can't believe how this thing holds the temp at the correct level....It's gonna be good!
 
At 3pm I turned the ribs, added water and stirred the beans. The lid was off for awhile and I got a temp spike up to 258* not too bad. I fought the rest of the day though to get it back down to the low 220's and never did. At 4:45pm I took off the ribs and layed the sauce to them. They tasted excellent, with a good smoky flavor from the 2 1/2 chunks of hickoy and a can of apple wood, tender and juicy.

They were not falling off the bone but they were nearly pull clean from the bone. I think the lower air temperatures probably had something to do with the cook not being done where I wanted it to be in 4 3/4 hours. Overall though I would rate this cook in the low 8's on a scale of 1-10.

Thanks to all of you who have contributed to this site prior to my joining for instructing me, especially Chris, your dedication in putting this site together and keeping it up and running is amazing. I thank you most of all for a successful first cook. Looking forward to my next adventure.
 
Congratulations, Bruce!

Sounds like a "9 1/2" cook to me. Mmmm, I can almost taste 'em! If they tasted good, that's what it's all about.

Don't get too hung up on the exact length of the cook. To quote Professor Minion, they're done when they're done. And those temperature spikes can be hard to get down, but yours weren't bad at all.

What's on the menu for the next cook? Keep us posted.
Rita
 
Bruce
A temp spike is over 275?, where you start to burn the sugars in the rub, under 275? is the low and slow range.
As a cook goes on the normal operation of the pit will be that as more charcoal lights off the pit temps will climb. It's normal for you to finish a cook with pit temps in the 260? range.
After the vent adjustments early in the cook I do very little with vents unles there is a weather change, mainly wind.
The ribs were not done within your timetable, your going to find that meat has it's own timetable, that's why BBQ is an art and not baking, we only get to use time as a loose guide.
For a first cook I'd say that it went extremely well, also, ribs not falling off the bone, that's over done unless that's the way you want them.
You done VERY good!
Jim
 
Jim M.

Thanks for the encouragment, coming from you, that makes my day! /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif I was really happy with the results. Another question, even though I didn't have wind problems, does the air temp (mine was 36-39) prolong a cook beyond what you would think is "normal"?
 
I run WSM's in Oregon and in Arizona. They do find in the teens and the hun's. There is a difference in running the WSM when it is 17 outside vs when it is 100. But once you get temp stabilized they run similar in both situations. In cold times I just open vents a little more. I believe it is actually a little easier running in cold weather than in the summer in Phoenix.

Got two more briskets on now, put on at 7:30am, 145 internal at 10:30am, giving to a friend for dinner.
 
Congrats on the cook! Personally, I don't like the fall off the bone texture. I like what you had, clean pull off the bone wiht a little tug.

If you are really concerned about getting the temps down, you can try misting a little water on the coals. Go easy though, you don't want to kick up any ash.
 
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