I did my first cook today in my 22.5 WSM. I just made a couple racks of baby backs for a test. Here's the rundown:
I put a full chimney of unlit briquettes in the charcoal ring with 3 apple wood chunks.
I lit a half chimney of briquettes and dumped them over the unlit.
Poured 1 gallon of hot water into the pan.
Waited about 45 minutes to get the smoker up to 250.
Put the meat on, and the temp dropped to about 118.
Top vent was wide open. I tried keeping the bottom vents shut, but the temp would drop if I did that. I tweaked them, and for most of the cook, all the bottom vents were between 1/3 and 1/2 open. The temp was between 230 and 250 the whole time.
I hadn't removed the lid for the whole cook. When I went to check the ribs at the 5 hour mark, I removed the lid and noticed just a little ask floating around. I could see the slightest bit on the rack, and a little around the edge. Didn't see any visible ash on the meat, but I'm assuming a little got on there. Most of the charcoal is totally spent, and there did seem to be quite a bit of ash in the bottom of the cooker, although I've never used a WSM before, so I don't have anything to compare it to.
Has anyone had this issue with a WSM, specifically the 22.5? Any ideas as to what might have caused it, based on my methods? I want to get this figured out before I cook for other people.
I put a full chimney of unlit briquettes in the charcoal ring with 3 apple wood chunks.
I lit a half chimney of briquettes and dumped them over the unlit.
Poured 1 gallon of hot water into the pan.
Waited about 45 minutes to get the smoker up to 250.
Put the meat on, and the temp dropped to about 118.
Top vent was wide open. I tried keeping the bottom vents shut, but the temp would drop if I did that. I tweaked them, and for most of the cook, all the bottom vents were between 1/3 and 1/2 open. The temp was between 230 and 250 the whole time.
I hadn't removed the lid for the whole cook. When I went to check the ribs at the 5 hour mark, I removed the lid and noticed just a little ask floating around. I could see the slightest bit on the rack, and a little around the edge. Didn't see any visible ash on the meat, but I'm assuming a little got on there. Most of the charcoal is totally spent, and there did seem to be quite a bit of ash in the bottom of the cooker, although I've never used a WSM before, so I don't have anything to compare it to.
Has anyone had this issue with a WSM, specifically the 22.5? Any ideas as to what might have caused it, based on my methods? I want to get this figured out before I cook for other people.
