Jason M. Park
TVWBB Super Fan
OK, I've been on this site for a while now, but only as a Kettle Jocky... until Christmas, when I got a WSM... finally. I have done 3 cooks with my WSM, and I have to say that I'm fairly dissappointed in the performance of my WSM! /infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif I have done numerous (30+) successful cooks on the kettle, but all 3 of my WSM cooks have been difficult, and only once was I satisfied with the way the meat came out.
The biggest problem seems to be that the fire wants to go out on me. I'll detail my cook from yesterday, perhaps I'm doing something wrong or maybe my WSM has a "bad wheel."
The weather was ideal, low 70's, sunny, no wind. The WSM was in full shade all afternoon. Menu was 5 racks of pork back ribs, all but one of them were over 2 lbs each. I prepped them with a modified version of the BRITU recipe, as I always do. I fired up the WSM, using the standard method, I made sure all coals were gray, got the wood chunks fully engulfed in flame, then assembled the cooker. I filled the water pan with cold water and put on the lid. Initial temp reading was 330. I closed all 3 of the bottom vents to roughly 1/3 open, and the top one to about half way.
I'm pretty sure that my thermometer is accurate, I tested it upon purchase and again after my first cook, and it reads about 210 in boiling water, which is within the realm of accuracy. The cooker got down to 300 and I decided it would be a good time to start cooking, knowing that the temp would drop with the addition of 10+ lbs of cold meat. It did, and after 10 minutes the temp appeared to stabalize at 240. So far so good, right? Well after about 30 minutes at 240, the wsm started to rapidly lose heat. In 5 minutes it dropped to below 200, down to 180! I opened all the vents to 100% open and stirred the fire a bit. It looked as if most of the coals were no longer burning and only a few were still lit in the middle, toward the bottom. (this was the case with the other 2 previous cooks as well) Once the vents were opened, the temp started to rise, and eventually settled again at 245, where it stayed for the rest of the cook. I followed my usual regiment of basting every 2 hours and then saucing at the end. They turned out a bit dry, and not falling off the bone like my previous Kettle rib cooks. The guests still raved, but I knew these were far from as good as I have done in the past.
Did I do omething wrong? Is it because it is still rather new? I did notice a small amount of smoke escaping from the access door, and some from where the lid meets the center section, but I thought this was considered normal. Any advise from you folks would help me out alot. I KNOW that the WSM is capable of great things, all of your testimony is proof of that, but as of now, I feel like I missed the bus or something.
The biggest problem seems to be that the fire wants to go out on me. I'll detail my cook from yesterday, perhaps I'm doing something wrong or maybe my WSM has a "bad wheel."
The weather was ideal, low 70's, sunny, no wind. The WSM was in full shade all afternoon. Menu was 5 racks of pork back ribs, all but one of them were over 2 lbs each. I prepped them with a modified version of the BRITU recipe, as I always do. I fired up the WSM, using the standard method, I made sure all coals were gray, got the wood chunks fully engulfed in flame, then assembled the cooker. I filled the water pan with cold water and put on the lid. Initial temp reading was 330. I closed all 3 of the bottom vents to roughly 1/3 open, and the top one to about half way.
I'm pretty sure that my thermometer is accurate, I tested it upon purchase and again after my first cook, and it reads about 210 in boiling water, which is within the realm of accuracy. The cooker got down to 300 and I decided it would be a good time to start cooking, knowing that the temp would drop with the addition of 10+ lbs of cold meat. It did, and after 10 minutes the temp appeared to stabalize at 240. So far so good, right? Well after about 30 minutes at 240, the wsm started to rapidly lose heat. In 5 minutes it dropped to below 200, down to 180! I opened all the vents to 100% open and stirred the fire a bit. It looked as if most of the coals were no longer burning and only a few were still lit in the middle, toward the bottom. (this was the case with the other 2 previous cooks as well) Once the vents were opened, the temp started to rise, and eventually settled again at 245, where it stayed for the rest of the cook. I followed my usual regiment of basting every 2 hours and then saucing at the end. They turned out a bit dry, and not falling off the bone like my previous Kettle rib cooks. The guests still raved, but I knew these were far from as good as I have done in the past.
Did I do omething wrong? Is it because it is still rather new? I did notice a small amount of smoke escaping from the access door, and some from where the lid meets the center section, but I thought this was considered normal. Any advise from you folks would help me out alot. I KNOW that the WSM is capable of great things, all of your testimony is proof of that, but as of now, I feel like I missed the bus or something.