2nd cook, looking for advice


 
B

B. Harrington

New member
I'm doing my second cook on my WSM. I put a 6.5 lb pork butt on at 5 am this morning. I had trouble getting the heat to come down into the 225 range but after a few hours it is nice and steady at ~225. After 5 hours I was out looking at the the WSM and realized that somehow I closed the top vent. I know it was open when I set it up last night because there was water in the bottom of the smoker from rain earlier in the week. I most have just shut it without thinking and didn't think to check it this morning since I was still half asleep for the most part. My concern is that for the first 5 hours of the cook the top vent was closed, am I screwed? Is the meat ruined? I guess I'll find out in another 7 hours but I've got people coming over to eat and I'd like a heads up on what to expect.

Thanks!
 
Shouldn't be a problem. Closing the top vent usually causes your fire to go out but if your cooker is new you must still have lots of air leakage that hasn't been gunked up yet. You'll need to keep an eye on the temps now that you've opened it back up.
 
Bob Sample said:
Shouldn't be a problem. Closing the top vent usually causes your fire to go out but if your cooker is new you must still have lots of air leakage that hasn't been gunked up yet. You'll need to keep an eye on the temps now that you've opened it back up.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I had trouble keeping the temp under 280 and that was with all the vents closed so maybe I will be fine.
 
As long as you stay between 225 and 275 you will be fine for low and slow. 280 is close enough. You will see when people cook them hot and fast they cook all the way up to 350 and the results still turn out great.
 
The only thing I've noticed doing hot and fast is that you may get some larger junks of fat that didn't have time to render. I just separate those when I pull it.

If you are cooking at that temp with your vents closed you should check your sections to make sure they are round for proper fit and check the door for proper fit.
 
If it was staying steady at ~225 with the top vent closed you were getting plenty of airflow. You'll be fine. As Bob said, now that the top is open you may have a hard time keeping it that low (225). Btw, I saw a marked improvement in my butts when I started targeting temps in the 275 range versus 225. It's going to be great!
 
Just a quick update, it came out perfect. It spiked a bit at first once I opened the top vent and closed the bottom ones, but it settled down after about an hour. I slowly started opening the bottom vents as needed and all was good. It tasted just like I was hoping it would.

Thanks for calming my fears, I had visions of the butt coming out and tasting like creosote.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top