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First Cook


 
T

Thomas Hall

New member
Wow ... what a piece of equipment. Having the right tools to do the job really matters.

Katie Mae did pretty well her first time out but she ran a little hot. I lit a full chimney and poured it on another unlit chimney of Kingsford. Assembled the WSM and closed all the bottom vents. I used a Maverick probe for a thermometer and could not ever get the smoker below 250. She pretty much ran at 270 plus or minus the whole time and I never opened the bottom vents. It was just above 70 degrees here today and the cooker was in full sun. I used water in the pan.

Put one slab of babybacks on (my wife is having a girl's night out tonight so its just me and the slab) and smoked them for 3 hours. I used hickory as it is all I had. Foiled the slab for one hour and then finished them off for 15 minutes with some sauce.

They were the best ribs I have ever made that is for sure. My 5 year old son wolfed some down too and said he loved them.

Next time I will use a little less lit Kingsford and hopefully my white oak and cherry will have arrived.

All in, I am pretty pshyced with the results and the ease of using the WSM! I never had to add fuel or open it except to baste with apple juice at 2 hours, foil at 3 hours, and final saucing at 4 hours. Amazing pice of equipment. Next time I will take some pics and upload them if I can figure that out.

Thanks for all the info on this board.
 
Nice job Tom. Nothing beats queing some ribs when the wife is gone. No sharing required
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Next time maybe go with the traditional Minion method. Put only a handful of lit coals on the full ring of unlit. I think a whole chimney of lit got the fire up too quick thus making it hard to bring back down.
Happy Smoking!
 
Great You did it just right. My only suggestion is that you get a spiral notebook and keep a log of every cook. Enter the recipe, rub, marinade, whatever your do to the meat. Also enter all the cooking details, charcoal, times, everything. If you do this you can duplicate or improve every cook.

Congratulations, you are well on the way to some great food and good times.
 
Thanks for the comments and advice. They are appreciated. By the end of this summer I hope to really have the food part down to a science.

The rest ... sun, a few beers (maybe more), the smell of wood smoke, the taste of pork and smoke ... that I don't want to get to scientific with.
 
I'm surprised you were able to stop at 270 starting with a full chimney of lit. I found starting that way zoomed me up to 325 or higher in no time. As suggested above, go with the Minion Method for ribs. It gives you much more flexibility in hitting your target range. Try it, you'll like it
 
Congratulations Thomas...your first cook is like your first love, you will never forget it.

I also have great difficulty keeping the temps down with the standard method. I am a complete convert to Minion (and clay dish modification). I also find that a full ring is a waste of coals on anything shorter than 8 hours or so.
 
Yep. I see your point. After it was over and done, I thought 'what a waste of coals.'

Anyway, I just went outside to feel ole Katie Mae ... she is finally cooling down. What a great piece of equipment.
 
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