Couple of quick questions

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Hi all... I have been reading about some of you taking the dome tempature... what is the best way to do this? I bought a Weber Replacement Food Thermometer at Lowes. They showed me where they had one inserted into a regular Butane BBq. He said I could probably put one in the dome vent...so I bought it. Does this work ok?
Also, I am going to try to make a pork or beef dinner with the WSM as my first attempt at smoking. I have been looking at the various rubs and printed off a bunch. But with so much, and with such a choice of cooking the first time (I never was able to do the Turkey on Thankgiving due to unexpected family commintments), I am getting "a little anxious" as to what to try for the first time.. I have printed off the Prime Rib - Herb Crusted (thanks for the receipe and how to do it) and I thought this might be a good first shot. Anyway, any suggestions as to the dome temp (oh, I have one of the dual remotes I bought for the center grate meat and potatoe trick)and other suggestions on first easy (but great rub, brine etc) and finally any suggestions on the first BBQ would be great. AND THIS TIME, I AM GOING TO DO IT AND YOU CAN TAKE THAT TO THE BANK! THANKS A LOT FOLKS...LOOKING FORWARD TO THE ANSWERS. /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif
 
I don't have any experience with your type of thermometer, so I'm no help there. I simply hang my polder probe in the top vent for dome temp.

As for the first cook, I heartily recommend BRITU ribs off this website. I have smoked those ribs far more than any other recipe and they are always a family favorite from my finicky 5 year old daughter to my dieting wife (she only eats 4 ribs). In fact, the favorite Christmas gift to get poppa this year was rib cookbooks (I received three of them) The BRITU rub and glaze are easy to make and apply to the ribs. The baby back ribs cook in 4 to 5 hours, (I usually go the full five), and are hard to screw up. Just my 2 cents from a family of rib lovers.
 
Hi Robert,
I'm not familiar with the Weber therm. either but if it has a long probe and will read between 100* & 400* it should be fine. Most folks use a candy therm. cause thats what they're like and it comes with a holder that you can invert so you can adjust the probe length (so it don't touch da meat) and will sit on the top vent hole easily. Since you've got the dual probe your set.
When I took the Paul Kirk course he taught the anatomy of a rub and made you build your own. Most rubs are a combination of salts, sugars, parika, peppers and seasonings. Basically pick one with the seasonings you like in the recipe and play with it from there. If you and I cooked side by each with the same rub our BBQ would taste different. That's part of the fun.
As for first cook, do the beef with the therms. you have you'll have no problem. Pork butt is probably less tense and really hard to screw up and gives good rewards. But go for it -no problema!
Keep us posted on how it's going.
Dave
 
Robert,

Test the thermometer stem immersed in boiling water and then wait a few minutes and test it in ice water. It should be within a few degrees of freezing (32 F) and boiling point of water (210 F). As far as where to insert it try the top vent. That way you don't have to drill a hole in the porcelain finish. A lot of folks do that.

As far as your first cook, I really think you should try a smaller boston butt first off. Butts and shoulders are very forgiving. Get a meat thermometer and don't take it off until you reach 190 F internal meat temp for pulling. You can use the various rubs as noted on this site.

The ribs and the beef will be much harder to cook properly the first time out than the pork shoulder and butts, and the ribs and beef are a much more expensive cut of meat.

You need to focus on the setup and running of the smoker first time out and getting your confidence and establishing your techniques on the WSM and not worry about wrecking a more expensive cut of meat and suffering disappointment first time out.
 
It will work. Until mine died, (the weber would not calibrate and out of frustration one day I killed it) I used it to keep an eye on the temp. Just stick it through the top.

A simple long (10") turkey thermometer also works. Best thing is to learn how to approximate the time.

What is best for me is to look out the kitchen window and see that the temp pointer is pointing to what the red outer ring is set to.
 
Bob,

I bought a replacement Weber thermometer for their Genesis grill from Home Depot for $8.00 then put it through a wine cork and stuck the cork into the upper vent hole...works great. I use a Taylor probe thermometer for my top grate/meat temps (Target $14.00) My first cook about three weeks ago were the BRITU ribs, mine took 5.5 hours turned out great, GOOD LUCK!!!
 
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