Any input appreciated.

[Wayne MacMartin]

Trial by fire! I finally received my Weber Smokey Mountain last night, and had planned to do a trial run before I go on vacation to South Lake Tahoe for a week this Friday. I've been cooking for almost 10 years on my Performer, but will be cooking at least 4 dinners on the WSM during this vacation. I've read all the basics on starting up controlling temp etc. Here is what I'm cooking, I'd love to hear any feedback or things I may need to keep i mind doing the following recipes.
Menu includes but not limited to the following:
4 Beer Can Chickens
A Chuckie
A Tri Tip
3 racks of baby back ribs
I have done all of these recipes before slow cooked on the Performer. Obviously I won't cook them all on the same night, rather this is the plan over the week. My most important requirement is to have fun, learn, and not stress out about it being perfect, I mean I am on vacation right?
Any input appreciated!

 

[Mike Freel]

Since you are on vacation I suggest you sit back with a cold beer and watch the temp gauge. Just remember that you will be smoking at a lower temp than you used on the performer. I generally smoke at about 225 to 230. At that temp my gauge points straight up. I generally use 3-4 fist size chunks of wood for smoke. Beyond that just sit back and enjoy.

Mike

 

[Mike Hartwell]

Your itinerary looks pretty good.
A couple of suggestions...go easy on the smoke wood for poultry, a little goes a long way.
Also, for poultry, open all the vents and let it roar. you will easily hit temps of 300+, and that's a good thing.
If you haven't got a good quick read thermo, invest in one, this one is great for the money.
You will learn to use it for just about everything.

 

[Barry McCorkle]

Now that's a menu! Definitely agree with Mike on going easy on the smoke wood for poultry. A little smoke wood goes a long way with chicken.

As far as using the smoker, I would recommend using the water pan with water. Use the Minion method for fueling the smoker. Don't forget the charcoal chimney and some newspaper to get it going.

 

[Wayne MacMartin]

Thanks for the good input. Ill be using the maverick et 732.one question on the miniOn method. Do you use less coals for items requiring less cook time (ie tritip)?

 

[Mike Hartwell]

I always use a full ring of fuel.
The fewer coals lit in the chimney, the slower the initial heat rise.
With about 20 lit coals, it will reach 220 in about 1/2 hour, then all lower vents go closed.
It will stabilize at 240 and chug along as long as I let it.
After 5 hours (baby backs), when shut down, there will be about a third of coals that haven't ignited. These will be recycled.

 

[Russ Harris]

My only suggestion would be to try higher heat for the chicken. Otherwise your meat will turn out good but the skin might be questionable. From my experience and also seeing what others have said - good chicken skin requires higher heat. What you could do to save time is this. Once you finish one of your other meats that you did low and slow, remove the cooking section. This will give your low fire a good blast of oxygen and very quickly the temp will go up. Put you middle section back on, get your temp dialed in (I suggest somewhere in the 300 to 350 range) and then put your chicken on. I discovered that technique once before by accident and it worked perfectly for what I was doing that day. Good luck.