Anyone else's 1st Smoke today?

[Scott Schaeffer]

I got my WSM this week and I had all the other things ready to go. I am smoking an 8.5lb Mr. Brown today. Things are going well so far. It was a little windy earlier, but the WSM held the temp, probably thanks to the worlds most expensive wind screen... my Genesis Gold C /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif Thanks to all the help that I have gotten here I have been able to stabilize temps around 235-240 for the last few hours. I just flipped and mopped and everything looks good. I am getting hungry and I still have 5 hours to go.

Let me know how you are doing.

 

[Doug Walker]

Good luck. Sounds like your well on your way.Enjoy the meal.

 

[Mike Parrish]

How did it turn out?

 

[Scott Schaeffer]

So it seems that I learned a lot today. I have a newfound respect for those true masters of the pit. It is a learning experience. What I learned...

1.) I would have really wasted a lot of time and money without learning a lot from this site.

2.) Barbecue really is a lot of fun. When you turn out a good product it is really a great feeling.

3.) Don't panic, relax. I was a little worried that I did not have enough time...I didn't but things worked out, we ate a little later than I would have liked but oh well.

4.) Really load the charcoal chamber. I filled it to the top and added about 25 lit coals to the top. This burned for a while, but then I got a temperature drop and I had to add fresh hot coals about midsmoke. This was just an annoyance, no big deal.

5.) The ET-73 is a great help. I don't know what I would have done without being able to monitor both meat and grate temp.

6.) Foil can REALLY speed up a cook when you are in a jam.

These are really all that I can think of right now. If I think of others I will post them.

The meat was good, it could have gone on longer, but I did what I could. I am really prepared for next time. Oh yeah, and I am going to build in a much bigger buffer in terms of time.

 

[Guest]

*LOL* about using the Genesis Gold C as a windbreak!
Thanks for the very good post, Scott! Oh, and a hearty congratulations on your "baptismal smoke". I hope you kept a log of your first smoke. From what I learned, ya'll gotta do the paperwork too, in order to become better at what we all love to do..BBQ!! (Hey, that rhymes!!)

Mark