First cook without water


 
C

ChadVKealey

TVWBB Pro
I got a late start on some spare ribs today so I decided to run with an empty (but foiled) water pan. I found that the temp was really hard to stabilize; it was either going up or going down by 20-30 degrees with even tiny adjustments of the bottom vents. Then after about 2 hours, they just starting going up. And up. And up. Closed down all the vents and the still kept rising until it leveled off around 330. It was kind of fortuitous for me because I'd planned to push it up to 325 to put on some split chicken breast, so I foiled the spare ribs and trimmings on the top rack, putting the chicken on the lower grate. An hour later, the chicken was done, so I foiled that as well and closed down the top vent to snuff out the coals.

The end result was some fantastic ribs (below) and tasty chicken (sorry, no pics of that). But, is this sort of temp escalation normal with an empty pan? Would something like sand or a terra cotta saucer in the pan help to prevent this? I'll have to do some more experimenting later, but for "real"/important cooks, I think I'll stick with water in the pan.

 
Chad,
Ribs look Great !
The only reason why your temperature took off like it did is there were some air leaks for fresh air to feed the coals. Once your WSM is 'gunked', aka seasoned, you should not have them... unless there's a bad fit around the bottom vents or around the bottom section and mid section fit.
 
Chad, I agree with Bob. After a dozen cooks temp control becomes too easy. Don't be afraid to use the top vent in conjunction with the lower vents.

I use the top ensuring it is opened more than the lower vents combined to maintain a positive chimney effect. I have been successful closing one or more of the lower vents and/or barely cracked open with the top closed a small amount to lock in temps for hours on end.
 
Dwain Pannell said:
Chad, I agree with Bob. After a dozen cooks temp control becomes too easy. Don't be afraid to use the top vent in conjunction with the lower vents.
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Closing the top down to about 50% let me keep the temp at or about 325. I know the general rule is to leave the top open 100% the whole time to prevent soot from depositing on the food, but I figured a little soot that could be wiped off was preferable to horribly overcooked food. And yeah, this was really only the 4th cook on it, so maybe some more seasoning is in order.
 
I felt the same way when I first got mine as well, it just didn't have the control everyone said it would but after a few more cooks it started getting easier so give it some time and do some more cooking.
 
First of all ribs look good! You did not tell us what charcoal/ briqs set up you used. May be you started w/ too many lit briqs.
 
Enrico said:
First of all ribs look good! You did not tell us what charcoal/ briqs set up you used. May be you started w/ too many lit briqs.
Click to expand...

Standard Kingston blue bag charcoal. And I probably did start with too much for such a small cook...filled the charcoal ring about 3/4 full (I have an 18.5 WSM) and buried 5 small chunks of hickory. At the end, I closed all the vents down, figuring I'd have some unburned briquettes to use as starters the next time. When I disassembled it (~2 hours later?), the lid therm was still showing ~130-140 and while there were still about a dozen and a half whole (slightly ashed over) briquettes left, they were clearly still lit enough to prevent re-use. I just dumped everything into my ash bucket (galvanized steel with a locking, airtight lid) and will check before the next cook to see if there's anything solid enough to put in the chimney.
 
You have the answer to your T problem! It's NOT normal to read 130/140 lid T 2 hours after having closed totally all the gents, up and down. You have serious air leak problems. You have to season your WSM!!!!!
 
LOL, Enrico. Yup, he needs to do more cooking...

Chad,
Once you get your WSM seasoned, you'll find the number of unlit coals determines how long you can cook, while the number of lit coals determines the cooking temperature range.
You will have loads of unburnt coal ready for next cook.
Mine is at ambient temperature within 30 mins after a cook. Seasoning and full gasketing, including the parts inside the Stoker ATC's fan also help ;)
 
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