First Shoulder - Issues arose and continue to


 
M

M_Strasser

New member
Hello all. New owner, long time drooler. I have the 18.5" model

I started my first shoulder ever (7.5lbs bone in) last night at midnight. I just checked the temperature just now (Just over 12 hours later)... 170. I know this is not what it should be, and I have some good ideas why.

I have been having trouble getting the temp to stabilize. Charcoal ring is full, 1 full chimney on top. Water pan dry with a flower pot base in it (read on here that this works well) and foiled. I held all grates open as temp rose, closed them down to ~1/8 open at 210 as i had read to do and watched it climb to about 240. I tried to back it down further to hit that 225-230 sweet spot, but was unable to achieve it. Instead the temperature sank like a stone to about 190 over the course of an hour or two. I got it back up to about 230, but it never leveled off and kept slowly climbing, so after another hour of watching it crawl back to 240 and beyond, I closed the vents low and it dropped to just above 230, which I thought acceptable.

I then went to bed.

Came down about 5 hours later to find the temperature at 178! I don't know how long it stood at that temp, but it was certainly too long.

I now have it at 235 and am working regularly to get it to remain steady, but I was wondering how much longer I can expect to babysit this thing before it hits the 200 degree mark? I have plans for this thing come dinner...

Any advice that can be shared as far as keeping the temperature stable would be very much appreciated as well. I am still quite new to the WSM so I am sure I will get better with time, but I am most worried about the temperature holding for a while and then dropping off, as that can be disastrous if it happens overnight and I lose literal hours of cooking time.

Thanks in advance for any tips or tricks in this regard.
 
M, the first thing that I can say is that regulating the temps on a new smoker is more difficult as you will have air leaks until the smoker gets a little gunk on it

Next thing I will say is that if you are using the lid thermometer, it does make it more difficult to determine accurate temps, (although some will disagree with me) and the temps may seem to bounce around more

Third, when you say you are adjusting the vents, how much are you moving them? Make sure you make minor adjustments and let the temp stabilize. I used to have a bad habit of expecting the temp to move almost right away when I opened/closed the vents. If you over correct then you will be trying to chase it back the other way. Adjust the vents a little. For most of my cooks, at least one lower vent is all the way closed, the second is almost closed or closed completely and I use the third for most of the adjustment. Unless the temp really soars, the top vent is always open all the way

Fourth, a full chimney on top is not necessary. If you put 12-20 lit coals on top and let the temp come up, you will be fine

and lastly (phew, catching breath), although your temps did get a little low, don't sweat it, it will cook. If the temp goes up, don't sweat it. I regularly smoke butts and ribs at 275 because they seem to me to take more than 2 hours per pound at 225. That's just me, but my point is, you can cook low or high and your barbeque will probably still come out fine.

Good luck

p.s. If you are worried about it not being done, let it run up to 275-300, and or foil it. If it gets done early you can always wrap it and put it in a cooler and it will stay warm for around 4 hours
 
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Yeah, don't worry about the 225 thing. I often run my butts up to 250 or more, because it is more stable and worry-free. Even at those temps, it takes more than 12 hours to cook an 8 to 9 pound butt. Relax, don't worry, and pour yourself an adult beverage!
 
Hopefully you have this figured out by now. Vent adjustments are very touchy when not using water. Small changes make a big difference. You are worrying more than is probably needed here. Crank up the temp and get that meat done. Shoulder is very forgiving.
 
Best thing I ever did was (after getting a Maverick 732) commit to not touching the vents during a butt cook and just watch the temps do what they do. It's amazing how they'll go in waves when you're doing nothing but watching football all day with the temp receiver next to you for monitoring. For butts - 225 isn't a sweet spot. It's too low of a temp when you're trying to get internal temps of 190-200+
 
When I first got my WSM, I could not get temps to stabilize. The temps were either going up or going down, just as you describe. Have faith. I don't know what happened, but after a few cooks, either I got better or the WSM got seasoned and now I can maintain temps rock solid all night. Hang in there. As for today, let the temp go up and get er done. Pork butt (shoulder) is very forgiving.
 
Imho, getting an ATC makes this fool-proof, and a real time saver. Instead of tending the smoker frequently, especially during a long overnight cook, it's pretty much set it and forget it. With the DX2 and Maverick, I use the Mav remote with alarms if the temps go +/- 10 degrees, and I can monitor the meat temp. Besides spritzing once in a while after the bark sets, I'm free to cut the grass, do other things, watch the football game, even take a nappy. I'm done playing with vents.
 
Scott C. said:
Imho, getting an ATC makes this fool-proof, and a real time saver. Instead of tending the smoker frequently, especially during a long overnight cook, it's pretty much set it and forget it. With the DX2 and Maverick, I use the Mav remote with alarms if the temps go +/- 10 degrees, and I can monitor the meat temp. Besides spritzing once in a while after the bark sets, I'm free to cut the grass, do other things, watch the football game, even take a nappy. I'm done playing with vents.
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I *totally* agree with you Scott !! I use the same DX2 & Maverick setup; I did hesitate over the cost - but NO regrets on the purchase after installing and then running a great packer cook (my first packer, btw). All grins here!
 
Alan Soden said:
Would cooking with water in the pan help gunk up a new WSM?
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Only if you cook a retired Packer. The active ones seem to have just a little less fat on them.

j/k - I admit I'm a Bears fan, and couldn't resist. ;^)

Anyway, on your question, I think water in the pan makes the WSM easier to clean as the residue isn't quite as hard if you try to clean it right away. That said, I don't think it has a bearing on how much residue you accumulate? Don't worry about gunking it up - just use it. It'll get gunked up quick enough.

While you do have to monitor a new WSM a little more closely at first, it's really not that big of a deal. I think most of the problem is with the newbie just getting the hang of things and avoiding over and under shooting. All you got to do is set the vents and let it stablize. I think too many new guys just play with them too much and are constantly chasing the temps up and down, and making too many adjustments. If you don't want to use an ATC, I think it's best for a newbie to use water in the pan. That helps alot with maintaining stable temps. Once you step up to an ATC, then you can foil the pan, as the temps will be regulated automatically.
 
Scott C. said:
Only if you cook a retired Packer. The active ones seem to have just a little less fat on them.

j/k - I admit I'm a Bears fan, and couldn't resist. ;^)

Anyway, on your question, I think water in the pan makes the WSM easier to clean as the residue isn't quite as hard if you try to clean it right away. That said, I don't think it has a bearing on how much residue you accumulate? Don't worry about gunking it up - just use it. It'll get gunked up quick enough.

While you do have to monitor a new WSM a little more closely at first, it's really not that big of a deal. I think most of the problem is with the newbie just getting the hang of things and avoiding over and under shooting. All you got to do is set the vents and let it stablize. I think too many new guys just play with them too much and are constantly chasing the temps up and down, and making too many adjustments. If you don't want to use an ATC, I think it's best for a newbie to use water in the pan. That helps alot with maintaining stable temps. Once you step up to an ATC, then you can foil the pan, as the temps will be regulated automatically.
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ok sorry to put you through this but -
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x27ykw_chicago-bears-superbowl-shuffle_music
totally agree though with allowing your vent adjustments to take hold - even though we are doing 6, 8, 12, 16 hour cooks, I think we all have a tendency to expect immediate results when we make changes. last weekend I added a bird to a long cook, which sucked some heat out of the steady coals, and i did it about 12 hours in so the coals were totally ashed up. I shook off the ash AND added fuel and the temps yo-yo'ed for the rest of the cook... good thing is this is a pretty forgiving hobby we have
 
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