First Run


 
I don't like to keep taking my lid on and off. I put in the probe so the dial points up or such an angle that I can hold a small flashlight and look through the top vent holes. I can monitor temp movement and just open to move to different area.

Don't try this with a thermometer that has a plastic dial cover.
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I learned the hard way. I noticed the longer it was in the smoker the harder it was to read. It looked like condensation on the glass. I figured out what it was when I opened it up to check a different area of the butt. One of these days I am going to spring for a nice wireless unit, but until then this works nicely.
 
Hi Charles
How did it go ?
IMHO Lose the expanded metal mod, its bound to impede the airflow as the ash builds up. Perhaps the two charcoal grates at 90* mod would be more appropriate.
Also, I have never been able to get a butt done in less than 2 hours/pound, I've also never been able to ruin one yet either, and I've left a big one on for 26 hours, which was close to 3 hours/pound (my mistake, not intentional).

morgan
 
I have the same cooking times as Morgan. Luckily, butts are particularly forgiving. They also take really well to an oven finish. Once you've made it thru the plateau (let's say you're into the high 170s or even better, the 180s) you can foil 'em and pop 'em in a 300* oven and you'll be eating before you know it.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Doug D:
My Sunday cook was similar in temperature and weather conditions to yours-- I ended up adding about 4 pounds of unlit Kingsford at the 6 hour mark to make sure I would have plenty of controllable, burning charcoal all the way to the end. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Doug,
How did you add your charcoal? Lid off or through the door?
How long did your cook take? How big a butt?

The expanded metal is 1/2" mesh. That's probably too small an opening.
 
Charles

How did the butt turn out? did y'all get 'Q for dinner last night?
Of course Susan Z is right 2hrs per pound is the bench mark I use. The butt I did monday was 8.5lbs and it went in the pitt at 12.30 mon. afternoon and came out at 6 am tuesday at 193F.
I dont understand the grate mods, but I imagine half inch diamond plate would hold alot of ash in the fire.

One point about your use of the instant read therm. opening the lid twice in 60 seconds is just dumpping all your heat out of the pitt and then it takes a long time to get it back up where you want it.

Hope dinner turned out
Art
 
One other item that was never mentioned was foiling. I know that this is no fun for the purist, but if you are in a time crunch, you can always take the butt off and wrap it tightly in heavy duty aluminum foil and return to the WSM. In my experience, this helps break down the fat and collagen faster and the temp will climb a lot faster.


Let us know how it turned out.
 
Agreed Scott,
I just always give myself loads of time, and then foil at the very end, shut all the vents and leave it on the grate for a few hours.

morgan
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Scott Schaeffer:

Let us know how it turned out. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yes, do. Charles? Charles, are you there? [Perhaps he is sleeping off a night of barbecue, romance, and wild abandon.]

I routinely do 18-24 hour cooks with Kingsford and find I stir twice (gently, through the door) and tap the legs once or twice, to deal with the ash, and that's sufficient. I cook at a lower lid temp though, but only because that makes the timing work out for me ; it's not required.
 
Art -
I took it off after 12 hours. 4.7 lbs x 2 hrs/lb = ~9 hours. WAY long enough @ 2 hrs/lb.
You cooked 2 hrs/lb and it got over 190.
I cooked about 3 hrs/lb, and couldn't get past 170*. Go figure...first run, windy, over adjusting vents...?

When checking the temp with the thermometer, the probe went in very easily, making me think it was done. However, there were lots of areas where the meat was red, rather than light gray or light brown, making me think it wasn't done.

We ate, it was pretty good, but not great.
But no one has gotten sick yet...?

Gonna toss the 1/2" expanded metal and see what happens.

I'm going to get a remote thermometer asap.
 
Charles,
Been there, done that, as far as cooking times go.

My first few butts were started based on a 9-12 hour cooking time and I had to finish them in the oven. Since then, I finally learned and accepted (thanks to this board) that bone in butts in the 5-8 lb range are going to take 16-20 hours plus resting time. I typically pull the butts when the coldest one is at 195 and occaisionally the hottest one may be as much as 10F higher. The result is that I am producing better, leaner Q with less cleaning effort while pulling/chopping.

Ignore the hours/lb calculation.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Charles Howse:
Doug,
How did you add your charcoal? Lid off or through the door? How long did your cook take? How big a butt? The expanded metal is 1/2" mesh. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I made a scoop from a plastic one gallon jug, and shoveled it in thru the door.
The 6.35-pounder took 10 hours to reach 190° at an average of 250°, measured at the top grate. It was rested in foil in a dry cooler for another hour.
I use a Weber 18" kettle charcoal grate (18" kettle, not 18" grate), postioned at 90° to the WSM's.
 
Vern -
If you knew me better, you'd know I have almost no patience at all, I'm the guy who honks to get you to notice that the light has changed to green. ;-)

What I need to do, is stop cooking pulled pork for dinner and start cooking something "quick" like ribs or chicken.

Scheduling a 20 hour cook is going to be hard, too. We'll have to see how that works out.
 
Charles, my lack of patience is legendary. (ask any of our superintendents -- are you done yet? why arent you done yet? why cant you start this yet? where the he** is ___, etc.) Ya just gotta drink a beer, switch gears, drink a beer, resign yourself to the inevetable, drink a beer, acknowledge that no Q is done before its time, drink a beer . . . now it is about time to put the meat on, drink a beer . , ,
 
I forgot, you put the butts on the evening before. Say we want to eat on Saturday night, you put the butts on Friday at say, 10:00 pm, they finish off somewhere between 1:00 and 5:00 Saturday afternoon, into the cooler they go to rest. Pull and chop at your convenience. Of course during Saturday, you have been faithfully tending the WSM, adult beverage in hand, consuming enough to acquire patience and relaxation and not enough to be so cooked when you start chopping with the cleaver that you can still tell the difference between pig meat and things that you should not cut.
 
Wow! Lots of great information...

Patience, patience, beer, patience, beer.

Put 'em on the night before. That's scary for a newbie.

shut off all the vents and foil in the WSM...that's a GREAT tip!

Thanks a lot!

Ooops! Almost forgot...
How many of you have modified the charcoal grate in some manner? I know Doug D has (and I have become a member of his web site, and posted concerning container gardening).
I'm tossing the expanded metal. Using nothing for the next cook (been can turkey).
 
I use the same grate mod as Doug. It's especially useful for cooks using lump, some of which can be quite small. They easily lodge themselves in a single grate hindering stirring and ash fall-through. Not a problem using the double grate mod.
 
Only grate mod is handles for two reasons. 1. easy removal of grate/fire ring for quick change over on back to back cooks -- like butts or brisket and then a hi temp turkey cook. 2. easy to shake the ash out and reuse most of the unburned charcoal from the last cook. HIGHLY recommended!
 
Welcome aboard, hope you enjoy your new hobby, try not to sweat the small stuff, you will get the hang of it. Give yourself lots of time at first and backup dinner plans aren't a bad idea either
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We had prime rib on the weekend and I received a round of applause, not for the fantastic meat but that WSM prepared dinner was actually ready on time for once. <blush>
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I've been at it 7 months now and thanks to this board and it's great members I think I'm doing pretty good these days.

I use two charcoal grates perpendicular to one another lump. For the ovenight cook check outMinion Method

About adding more unlit charcoal, I prefer to add a couple of handfulls of unlit at a time every couple of hours until I'm sure I will have enough rather than dump a bunch of unlit on once (especially if it is cold/windy outside). I added nearly a chimney of unlit once and saw my pit temp plummet to 170ºF or so and it took a few hours to recover. If I do add a bunch of unlit I throw some lit on top of it, either new lit or some that is already burning (take some of the lit coals out of WSM and put them in your chimney, then put them on top of unlit).

About closing your vents for cooking, make sure you always leave the top one wide open. I can't run my WSM very long with all bottom vents closed but others have said they can. I'd suggest keeping an eye on it for a bit and see if it will work for you or not.
 
Don't sweat the night cooks. I remember my first night cook. It was a butt and perfect night,slight breeze. I got the butt on at midnight using the minion method. I stayed up until 2am checking my temps. I got up every 2 hours to check on it. Added water a couple of times. It ended up awesome.

It has been my experience that after getting the temp regulated 1 maybe 2 hours it will hold with little to no adjustments made for the next 8 -10 hours. Now days I get up after 4 - 5 hours
I could probobly go longer if I had a different water pan. I am going to do that one of these days.
 
Yes, a Brinkmann pan as described in Tips&Mods is your new best friend for overnighters if you are going to use water in a pan.
 
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