First smoke on the Bullet, am I doing too much?


 
G

Grant Y

New member
Just wanted to get some opinions on my first smoke on my new 22" WSM. My old horizontal smoker was pretty much ribs only (and almost exclusively baby-backs) and I'd like to branch out a little and try to do some new things

So, that being said...I'm planning on doing 3 different meats. 2 racks of Spares and 2 racks of Baby backs on the top grate, w/ a pork butt on the bottom grate.

I'm figuring a temp between 250 and 275...pull the BBs at 3 hours, the Spares at 4......and wait for the pork butt to finish up (any thoughts on moving the butt up to the top rack after the ribs are cleared off?)

Does this sound feasible? Any input is appreciated, thanks!
 
I've only done a couple of things myself, but the first thing i did was some chicken legs for a couple of hours just to get used to the temperature control. things like figuring out how much lit charcoal to use (not a lot), how quickly it comes up to temp (very quickly with mine, hard to imagine keeping it low and slow without a heat sink IMO, maybe mine is too new), how much i have to fiddle with the vents (not much). i found it helpful because i did 6 racks of ribs after that and pretty much set it and forgot it after the first cook where i was fiddling the entire time.
 
You can do it...I have done it before. Once the ribs are done you can bring the pork butt to the top grate. You should have enough fuel depending on weather.
 
I think you have a great plan...but instead of planning to pull the ribs off at 3 and 4 hours, I recommend CHECKING them at the 3 and 4 hours and see if they're ready. If not, continue to check them every 30 min or so until done. I 've found rib go as long as to 4 and 5 hours and more to get done.
 
Sounds like a good plan. One thing I would suggest that took me a while to learn(got good advice on this forum) is that the top grate temp is most likely 25-50 degrees hotter than the dome thermometer is reading. I was cooking at 275 and was wondering why my ribs were cooking faster and were darker than I liked. Try buying an inexpensive oven thermometer at the grocery store and placing it on the top grate and compare to the dome thermometer.
 
You obviously have to open the lid to see a grate placed thermometer. If you're looking.............................................. If you compare thermometers, you'll spend the whole cook chasing your tail. Use one and forget the other
Cook the ribs until they test tender with a toothpick or something between two bones per Dwain above. If you pull strictly based on some idea of how long they should take, you probably will be very disappointed.
 
Last edited:
Dave/G said:
You obviously have to open the lid to see a grate placed thermometer. If you're looking.............................................. If you compare thermometers, you'll spend the whole cook chasing your tail. Use one and forget the other
Cook the ribs until they test tender with a toothpick or something between two bones per Dwain above. If you pull strictly based on some idea of how long they should take, you probably will be very disappointed.
Click to expand...

I put my oven thermometer on grate as cooker is coming up to temp. I take it out when food goes on.
 
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