First Large Smoke.......


 

Chris Mueller

New member
We planned on having about 10-12 people over last Saturday for my mother-in-laws birthday. On Friday I went to the butcher and got 8.5 lbs of pork butt. I dropped it off at home before going to the store to buy the other stuff.

When I got to the store my wife said her mom wanted to invite some of her cousins over too so we went to a guest list of 17. I was a little scared being a first time pork but smoker but I was confident and continued on.

Friday night I cooked up some corn bread, mac n cheese, 18 ears of corn and cole slaw. At 5am Saturday I woke up to rub the pork and it was on the smoker about 6am. I then showered and had to go to work but I checked the temps before leaving and it was sitting at a constant 230. I put an entire bag of charcoal in there with some hickory. I also told my wife to check on temps while I was working and how to control them with the vents. She called about 1030 to say it was still at 230. Good stuff.

I got home about 1230, six hours into the smoke. Internal temps were about 170 and the smoker was getting towards 250 with all the bottom vents closed so I added more water to bring the temps back down.

At about 430 (party starts at 5 and we wanted to eat about 630-7) I put the corn on the lower grate and put 5 chicken and 5 steak kebabs on the top grate surrounding the pork. I also threw in about 20-30 more coals because my temps were dropping. Pork was around 183 now. I also threw the mac and cheese in the oven now too to warm up slowly.

People came about 530 and at about 630 the pork was about 193 so I took it off the grill ands wrapped it in foil while I made the sauce and put the other side dishes out. I LOVED how the bone just slide out and the way the pork fell apart. Being a pork butt virgin I was amazed. The pulled pork recipe I used was the one in the WSM manual. The sauce was good but when I poured it over the pork it kind of vanished. Next time I need to make some more sauce.

Here is a shot of the meal before everyone came to eat. I will be making this meal again at the next family party! Rave reviews! Oh, store bought sweet potato fries too. lol

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Great job Chris. Congrats on a successful cook and a great looking spread. I have that same roasting pan
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. Like the keg-erator too.
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Looks really god my friend,and grats to the "at work doing great PP at home"-cook.

Even i dont have that mutch "trust" in the WSM/wife yet
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But i am a control freak into the bone.

I have never done a overnighter witch is the next step in ur progress i guess
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Well done.

//Me
 
Thanks for the kind words. Everything went awesome!

Since I bought the WSM, I knew my wife wouldn't really have to do anything to it. Everytime I checked the temp before work it held a constant 230 with all the vents practically closed. Or course, the top vent was wide open. I told my wife to open the vents if the temp drops and close them if it gets too hot, but to never touch the top vent.

When I got home she said she closed to top vent a little because all the bottom vents were closed and the temp was approaching 250. It was only then that I explained the effect the water has on the temperature and I told her again not to touch the top. lol I added some more water and coals and opened the top back up and we were back to normal.

The kegerator was a gift to myself. My wife went to Spain last July to take some classes. She's a high school spanish teacher. She got Spain. I got the kegerator. Right now it's filled with Sam Adams Boston Lager.

My wife and I have a birthday 2 days apart so I plan on doing this same meal for that in 2 weeks. It will be a different group of people. Can't wait!
 
looks fantastic! it is amazing really how the wsm just holds the temps, isn't it?

spain/kegerator seems like a fair deal to me!
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