Clean WSM before first smoke?


 
S

ScottM

TVWBB Member
I just put my 22.5" WSM together, and after a quick scare (lesson learned: don't try to pick up the bowl & midsection up at the same time. Had a fairly hard drop that landed on two of the legs, all seems fine though, whew..) I'm pretty much ready to smoke.

One quick question though. Should I clean anything prior to firing it up? The charcoal grate seems like it has some sort of grease on it (my hands were dirty after touching it).
 
Hello Scott,
first... welcom on the forum.
Well i wouldn't mind cleaning, but it is not necessary, the oil film on the charcoal grade is just to prevent it rusting, but in the first smoke it will burn when you put the lit coals on the grade, and it is burned before you put food on the grades.

gtz steven
 
Welcome Scott. This is an awesome site, with great people aplenty.
I didn't wash mine, and had zero issues with the first smoke. It's done nothing but gotten steadily better and more consistent.
 
Well, I didn't have any food in the house ready for smoking, so I decided to do a test burn. I put a full chimney worth of unlit coals in the ring and I let around 15-20 coals. I threw a chunk of pecan on there too.

Started 2:25 CST. Let's see how long this will go.
 
Scott I would recommend spraying the entire inside of the wsm with pam, and then put 2 full lit chimneys into it and keep all vents open. This is how I was told to season it.
 
The only thing I did was to wash the food grates...
While "seasoning" doesn't hurt, it's NOT necessary. All that time & fuel, you could be making dinner!
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">While "seasoning" doesn't hurt, it's NOT necessary. All that time & fuel, you could be making dinner! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Or you could look at it as becoming familiar with your cooker!
 
Went 3.5 hours and the temp dropped to around 200. I decided to shut it down rather than going on further as it's getting dark. This thing is amazing. I can't believe it held the temperature as long as it did with only a chimney of unlit coals.
 
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