Jason Chiovitti
New member
Hello all! A happy hello and a Happy Thanksgiving to my US neighbours!
Got my first WSM last week up here in the great white north and couldn't wait to give her a whirl.
Not my first rodeo. I have several other Weber products and a large Traeger Texas Pellet Smoker but this was my first foray into the more traditional way of smoking with charcoal and wood chunks.
I stuck with a shorter cook with a pretty straight forward product and technique. I can pull together some pretty great ribs on the Traeger so this would give me a good A to B comparison with an expected result.
I'm excited to report that the result was better than expected. I normally smoke my ribs using all Hickory pellets or an Apple based hybrid pellet. With the WSM I was able to use apple chunks sourced from a locally orchard earlier in the year. I found the apple-only ribs had a more pleasant taste and actually a bit smokier than with the pellets, but in a good way. Another things was how tender they turned out without foiling. 3 racks took 5 hours and the other thicker 3 took 6 hours. They were side ribs. They had a great bite through and pulled right off the bone. Perfect! I don't usually get that without foiling wit some liquid in a modified 3-2-1 technique. These were perfect just straight on and off.
Was able to hold consistent temp at 225 most of the time. Wind picked up for a bit with blowing snow (was about 20ºF) which caused me to play with the vents for a while and temps fell down closer to 200 in the 6th hour just cause I was low on fuel and didn't want to add anymore so close to the end of the cook. Used more fuel than I anticipated. Started with a full chimney unlit and about 2/3 of a second chimney lit using the minion method. Had to add about another 1/2 chimney unlit about 4 hours in. I put it down to the weather and having to run all the vents pretty much full open the whole time to maintain temp. I'm sure it won't use nearly as much fuel in the nicer weather.
Cleanup was/is a bit of a bugger compared to the pellet Q. I foiled the bottom of the water pan which was a good idea (that sucker is huge on the 22") but still had to wash a giant pan that doesn't fit in the sink because of all the grease drippings. Was able to wedge the wire racks in an empty dishwasher and, with a brief scrub with a nylon brush part way through the cycle, came out pretty clean. The porcelain coated racks in the Traeger brush off much easier. As for cleaning out the actual WSM cylinder... well that will have to wait for another day. just too crappy outside to deal with it. The insider was coated with condensation after it cooled which has since resulted into frozen smokey drops, drips and runs and the bottom will be full of soggy frozen ash I'm sure. Something I didn't anticipate to be honest.
Anyway, sorry for the long intro. Figured some people might be interested to hear the perspective a new WSM owner coming over from the pellet pooper world. If anyone has any questions on the pellet side of things and differences or perspectives I may have just let me know.
I'm sorry I don't have any pic of the cut, sauced and plated final product but the family was too hungry and I completely forgot until it was too late
Cheers and glad to be here. Always up for listening to advice.
Jason.
Got my first WSM last week up here in the great white north and couldn't wait to give her a whirl.
Not my first rodeo. I have several other Weber products and a large Traeger Texas Pellet Smoker but this was my first foray into the more traditional way of smoking with charcoal and wood chunks.
I stuck with a shorter cook with a pretty straight forward product and technique. I can pull together some pretty great ribs on the Traeger so this would give me a good A to B comparison with an expected result.
I'm excited to report that the result was better than expected. I normally smoke my ribs using all Hickory pellets or an Apple based hybrid pellet. With the WSM I was able to use apple chunks sourced from a locally orchard earlier in the year. I found the apple-only ribs had a more pleasant taste and actually a bit smokier than with the pellets, but in a good way. Another things was how tender they turned out without foiling. 3 racks took 5 hours and the other thicker 3 took 6 hours. They were side ribs. They had a great bite through and pulled right off the bone. Perfect! I don't usually get that without foiling wit some liquid in a modified 3-2-1 technique. These were perfect just straight on and off.
Was able to hold consistent temp at 225 most of the time. Wind picked up for a bit with blowing snow (was about 20ºF) which caused me to play with the vents for a while and temps fell down closer to 200 in the 6th hour just cause I was low on fuel and didn't want to add anymore so close to the end of the cook. Used more fuel than I anticipated. Started with a full chimney unlit and about 2/3 of a second chimney lit using the minion method. Had to add about another 1/2 chimney unlit about 4 hours in. I put it down to the weather and having to run all the vents pretty much full open the whole time to maintain temp. I'm sure it won't use nearly as much fuel in the nicer weather.
Cleanup was/is a bit of a bugger compared to the pellet Q. I foiled the bottom of the water pan which was a good idea (that sucker is huge on the 22") but still had to wash a giant pan that doesn't fit in the sink because of all the grease drippings. Was able to wedge the wire racks in an empty dishwasher and, with a brief scrub with a nylon brush part way through the cycle, came out pretty clean. The porcelain coated racks in the Traeger brush off much easier. As for cleaning out the actual WSM cylinder... well that will have to wait for another day. just too crappy outside to deal with it. The insider was coated with condensation after it cooled which has since resulted into frozen smokey drops, drips and runs and the bottom will be full of soggy frozen ash I'm sure. Something I didn't anticipate to be honest.
Anyway, sorry for the long intro. Figured some people might be interested to hear the perspective a new WSM owner coming over from the pellet pooper world. If anyone has any questions on the pellet side of things and differences or perspectives I may have just let me know.
I'm sorry I don't have any pic of the cut, sauced and plated final product but the family was too hungry and I completely forgot until it was too late
Cheers and glad to be here. Always up for listening to advice.
Jason.
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