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Guest
Guest
So, Saturday morning, the wife pulls a 9lb butt out of the freezer and says..."Can you smoke this today?" WHAT?!?! I said, "Let's shoot for tomorrow...MAYBE.
OK, so now it's Sunday afternoon at 2:30pm. The butt is thawed, scored, and rubbed. "Holy cr*p! The only charcoal I have has been sitting out on my deck OPEN for the last 2 weeks! It's rained, it's been humid, I'M SCREWED!!!" Well, I fired up the ol' chimney, and to my suprise, the charcoal lit JUST as fast as fresh from the bag. The outside temp is hovering in the low 50's, so I go ahead and dump the hot coals on bottom, fill it up w/ unlit ones, and top it off of 4 pieces of 1" x 2" x 7" cherry scraps. I allow the coals to catch slightly.
I line the water pan, place the butt on the top shelf, put a probe in it, one on the top grate to monitor the temp and replace the lid. It's ready to go as soon as the fire is ready.
15 minutes later, the charcoal that's been sitting out for 2 weeks, opened, is now slightly ashed over and ready to cook. I replace the midsection/meat/probes/lid on to the charcoal bowl and plug in the probes. The vent in the wind is at 1/3 and the other two are open all the way.
5 hours later, the butt is at 165?F. I pull out the plastic wrap and foil. I wrap my butts tightly in plastic wrap then foil and return them to the cooker to allow them to reach 210?F.
2 hours later, the butt is at 209?F. Close enough. I shut down all the vents in the cooker. I let the butt sit for 15 minutes, unwrap it, let the bone fall out, and then gently pull into chunks for about 20 seconds.
So when I go out to clean up my 'doings' outside. My WSM had already cooled down to a VERY manageable temp, and had the normal amount of charcoal left over on the fire grate.
The moral to this story....
The charcoal hadn't gotten wet, but was exposed to a good days worth of rain (humidity) about 3 days before I used it.
I also NEVER touched the vents. Thank God for the WSM!!!!
I'm doing 40lbs of flats on them this Friday night for a catering job. I've done a whole case of butts split between the two of them before and LOVE the fact that I don't have to baby sit them.
OK, so now it's Sunday afternoon at 2:30pm. The butt is thawed, scored, and rubbed. "Holy cr*p! The only charcoal I have has been sitting out on my deck OPEN for the last 2 weeks! It's rained, it's been humid, I'M SCREWED!!!" Well, I fired up the ol' chimney, and to my suprise, the charcoal lit JUST as fast as fresh from the bag. The outside temp is hovering in the low 50's, so I go ahead and dump the hot coals on bottom, fill it up w/ unlit ones, and top it off of 4 pieces of 1" x 2" x 7" cherry scraps. I allow the coals to catch slightly.
I line the water pan, place the butt on the top shelf, put a probe in it, one on the top grate to monitor the temp and replace the lid. It's ready to go as soon as the fire is ready.
15 minutes later, the charcoal that's been sitting out for 2 weeks, opened, is now slightly ashed over and ready to cook. I replace the midsection/meat/probes/lid on to the charcoal bowl and plug in the probes. The vent in the wind is at 1/3 and the other two are open all the way.
5 hours later, the butt is at 165?F. I pull out the plastic wrap and foil. I wrap my butts tightly in plastic wrap then foil and return them to the cooker to allow them to reach 210?F.
2 hours later, the butt is at 209?F. Close enough. I shut down all the vents in the cooker. I let the butt sit for 15 minutes, unwrap it, let the bone fall out, and then gently pull into chunks for about 20 seconds.
So when I go out to clean up my 'doings' outside. My WSM had already cooled down to a VERY manageable temp, and had the normal amount of charcoal left over on the fire grate.
The moral to this story....
The charcoal hadn't gotten wet, but was exposed to a good days worth of rain (humidity) about 3 days before I used it.
I also NEVER touched the vents. Thank God for the WSM!!!!
I'm doing 40lbs of flats on them this Friday night for a catering job. I've done a whole case of butts split between the two of them before and LOVE the fact that I don't have to baby sit them.