Greetings all! First post here. Not having the cash for a WSM right now, I was determined to get my 22½" one-touch kettle in use as a smoker. I found some bricks to use, dried them out completely, and used them to stack up the coals.
My first time out went OK...not great, but OK. Did a rack of baby-back ribs and a few chicken pieces. Should have taken the chicken off a half hour sooner, but the ribs came out quite good, even though I had a few hitches.
I started that cook off with quite a heat flare. I had to run to the store for 45 minutes, and the heat was way up when I got back. I lit up using the Minion method with five blow-torched Kingsford briquettes, and it was quite rip-roaring hot when I got back. To me it seemed like it took too long for the coal bed to ignite, but no need to worry--it indeed does! I was also fighting a very windy Michigan afternoon (if anyone remembers how windy it was on Easter Day). Luckily I was on the downwind side of the garage which blocked a lot of it. I finally managed to level out the temp at 275°F (at the grill surface) for the remainder of the cook.
Today I attempted a boneless pork shoulder. I lit it again with five briquettes and put the shoulder on at 6am. The temp never went above 300° (it was close), but I never could get it down to between 225-250° at the grill surface. Even with the vents almost all the way closed. I have the ash bucket marked for the lower vent, and I had the top vent only open enough to feed a thin thermometer probe wire through. I think during the last hour, I finally got it down to around 250° (give or take 10 degrees).
By about 2pm, the temp of the meat had risen to about 215 internally and, not wanting to produce a huge brick of pork jerky, decided to take it off the grill. Just about eight hours on the kettle. I tugged on a piece of the bark and off came this moist, tasty sliver of pork.
Oh my!
So, I took the shoulder in the house, let it rest for awhile, then sliced it every couple of inches...or attempted to. It was falling apart like nothing I've cooked on the grill before. (I have done a pork shoulder over indirect heat in about two hours, but it was never this tender.) Slicing made it much easier to shred, not that it took much effort. Early dinner at 3pm! A major food coma hit me around 4pm.
Verdict on the coals? I had a good amount of fuel left. I would have had to stoke the coals in another hour or so, but I got a nice eight hour burn out of a batch of Kingsford.
I wanted to thank everyone here for the discussion--it helped me figure out how to do this.
My only concern is how hot the kettle is running (I only check the temp at the grill surface--I can peek at it through the top vent with a flashlight if I open it), and if there is anything else I could do for it. The lid seems to seal well, as does the top vent. I may mess around with the bottom one-touch vent a bit as it does not scrape the bottom of the kettle like it used to, but it is not loose at all.
Or should I even be concerned? The ribs were still good, although the initial flare-up did dry them out a bit. This shoulder, on the other hand, came out excellent, and I'd say the temp probably averaged around 275° at the grill surface throughout the cook. For a second attempt at using a kettle as a smoker, I'd say it was quite successful.
