22" WSM vs. Offsets

[Dave Alvarado]

This weekend my stepdad did his annual big BBQ smoke, a dozen pork butts to give away as gifts.

He's a stick burner, he had one pit and just recently bought another. Even with both pits, he could only get 10 of the butts in the smoke. I happened to be over there and volunteered to fire up my WSM to handle the other two. His rub, his prep, the only difference was the pits and the fuel. He fed hickory logs to his stick burners, I used KC with hickory chunks.

In terms of final product, his stick burners were better. He gets a better smoke flavor in the meat than I do, which is why he loves the stick burners so much. Now it's not that what I made was bad, it's just not quite the same.

On the flip side, I fired up my pit at 7pm, brought it up to temp, and set the dampers to hold 250F. When I got up at 5am, the pit was at 225F and was almost out of fuel. I dumped in a starter full of unlit and opened the dampers wide open. In 20 minutes I was back up to temp, where it stayed until 7am when I pulled the butts off. My stepdad had an alarm set every hour to put another log in the pit, while I was sleeping like a baby.

Which is better? To each his own really. I'll probably end up adding a stick burner to my patio. Playing with fire is fun, and I like the smoky taste of the meat. But I'll keep the WSM for sure. I like overnight smoking big hunks of meat, and my WSM works like an oven--no attention required. In the heat of TX summer, I've gotten a 20 hour burn out of a bag and a bit of KC in my 22". I run my water pan dry, so once I button up the smoker and get the dampers set, I don't have to touch a thing until the meat is done.

 

[Gene_N]

Yes, different tools for the generally same result. It is all good. Once I smoked six 9-lb butts in my 22.5; I suppose I could have squeezed in 2 more. Living in NVa, getting ample supplies of smoke wood for a stick burner is extremely problematic whereas I can get pallets of KO for cheap. Like you, once my WSM gets to temp and stabilizes, there is less intervention. As a weekend warrior, tending to a fire over a weekend is not a good use of time.

Smoke flavor is relative. If you experiment with your wood, I'm sure you can get similar or better flavor than your stepdad. There is a point in the cooking process where the meat can't absorb anymore smoke flavor then it comes down to cooking to desired tenderness. My personal preference is to use apple/cherry mix rather than the stronger hickory or mesquite flavors.

 

[Dave Alvarado]

Smoke flavor is relative. If you experiment with your wood, I'm sure you can get similar or better flavor than your stepdad. There is a point in the cooking process where the meat can't absorb anymore smoke flavor then it comes down to cooking to desired tenderness. My personal preference is to use apple/cherry mix rather than the stronger hickory or mesquite flavors.

Oh, I've done plenty of experimenting. I've cooked quite a lot of Q in my WSM. The result is just different. Maybe "more smoke flavor" isn't the right description. It's obvious that it was cooked with wood, rather than with charcoal. A WSM just won't do that--it's a charcoal cooker. You *could* burn wood, but you'd spend so much time tending the pit you might as well be using an offset stick burner.

 

[Frank H]

And really . There's no way I'm going to have a big ol stick burning pit in my back yard here in the suburbs...(much as I'd like that) I have room for my WSM and it does a good job for me.

 

[Bill Schultz]

One other thought on that subject, you can do, and many do an all night cook on the stick burners when they need to. They have a metal extruded metal type basket that fits in them and will hold lump. Quite a bit of lump too. They work very well like that as some of them are sealed up and made very well, once that heavy gauge metal gets up to temp will hold it well.

 

[Chris Hosston]

I've got a 18.5 and I know what you mean. The Weber is great and produces awesome meat but there is something about the flavor from burning pure wood and nothing else that adds a certain something to the end product.

 

[Ken Keating]

I have both an offset and two WSMs. Just add more wood chunks to the WSM to get more of a smoke flavor.

The offset is much more labor intensive regarding temp control while the WSM is so much easier to use. For the offset, you have to go out and get wood and cut it to a particular size(wrist size, that's where the term stick burner comes in). Then during barbequeing you have to carefully watch the fire and add wood incrementally to keep the temperature withing range. Sometimes I start the meat in the offset, cook for approximately 4-6 hours and then move the meat to the WSM for an all night cook.

For comps, I don't use the offset as it imparts too much smokey flavor. I'd say it's 50-50 offsets/WSM regarding the winners, so that tells me it's really not the smoker, it's really how well one controls and knows the particular smoker he's using.

It is fun to use the offset, just to learn how to operate it and see how it works. If you have the money, time and patience, then purchase a used one and give it a try. If worst comes to worst, they're easy to resell. But again, they'll really be no difference in the results, you'll just be a lot more tired staying up all night with the offset.

 

[Bob Bass]

Dave,

Seems the fresher the wood chunks, the more intense the flavor. Had some pecan, red oak and cherry chunks sitting around unenclosed in the garage for 6+ months that lost all of its goodness. Wonder how a stick burner's product would turn out if using old wood...

 

[Grant Y]

I disagree that the WSM can't impart smoke flavor like a stick burner. I prefer the stongest flavor in my BBQ to be the smoke itself....I use hickory almost exclusively, and I use more what I normally see recommended on here (4-6 fist sized chunks is usual) . As such, everything I make has a heavy smoke flavor. It's all in how you run your smoker.

 

[Garry W.]

I have both and to me, it really comes down to the style of Q I am looking to make. If I have time to babysit the stick burner and I am in the mood to apply a mop I use the offset. For me using the stickburner is a more personal experience since you have to baby sit it and you get to play with the fire more. If I am multitasking or its just to cold outside I go with the WSM. Both produce excellent results and you cant go wrong either way.