DennisMc (Oklacat)
New member
Did my first smoke on the WSM on Saturday. I decided to do a rack of ribs and a small butt 5-6 pounds. I used a brine listed on this site for the butt and let it soak overnight. Got up around 6 am and started to work on getting things ready for the smoke.
I trimmed the ribs, rubbed EVO on them and put on a commerical rub made by Grillmates. Removed the butt from the brine, rubbed in the EVO and put the same rub on it. Due to the burn ban and the deck being extremely dry, I moved the WSM to bricked area in the yard. Foiled the water pan and started the charcoal, almost a full chimney.
A series of mis-steps occurred over the process of the smoke. I deverted from my KISS plan and decided that I didn't need to use the smoker ring for a charcoal for a small short time smoke. I have an old charcoal pan from an old Brinkman smoker I owned years ago. I decided I would try that instead of the ring. The pan has a half dollar size hole in the bottom and no side holes. I questioned myself on how the charcoal could get enough oxygen. Anyway, I put the pan on the charcoal grate added unlit charcoal, 4 oak chunks, and then put the lit charcoal on top. Put on middle section, filled the water pan up to three-quarters full. Let out the lower grill grate and put the butt and ribs on the upper rack. First hour it looked good, running about 240 on the half hour and hour by the dome temp. Checked again 30 minutes later and it had dropped to 200. I opened lower vents to full, they were at half, stirred the charcoal, noticed a lot of ash. Check again in 15 minutes and temp was down to 190. Decide the charcoal pan was a bad idea so I move the meat over to by Webber kettle, take off the middle section and I dump the pan of charcoal on the grate and put everything back. Temps move up to 270 and stay steady for the next few hours. Around lunchtime, the ribs look ready and the sample ribblets are good. By that time the ribs had been on about three hours after the change in charcoal method, so a total of four hours.
I had some last minute obligations coming up at 3 o'clock and was hoping the butt would be ready to put in the cooler to rest at 2. At 2 the meat temp was not at 190, but I had to remove it anyway to rest because I didn't know when I could be back. In the next smoke I will start earlier and make sure I have the whole day to watch over thing. Also, get a better internal thermometer.
I didn't get back until 7. Checked meat and could tell it wasn't ready. I rewrapped in the foil and put it in the oven to finish up. I was finally able to funish up around 10 pm.
Final opinion by my 10 year old granddaughter was the ribs were too salty and spicy and dry. I agreed that the salt and spicy flavor was a little too much. I need to check on a different rub. But when I gave her a piece of the pork while I was pulling it, she took some in to her grandmother and said it was like a taste of heaven.
It was pretty tasty. The rub flavor wasn't as spicy on the butt as it was on the ribs. I think I will try a rerun on the ribs and butt next week. Going to try a different or less rub on the ribs. I think the butt just needs to have more time in the smoker.
Thanks for any suggestions you may have.
I trimmed the ribs, rubbed EVO on them and put on a commerical rub made by Grillmates. Removed the butt from the brine, rubbed in the EVO and put the same rub on it. Due to the burn ban and the deck being extremely dry, I moved the WSM to bricked area in the yard. Foiled the water pan and started the charcoal, almost a full chimney.
A series of mis-steps occurred over the process of the smoke. I deverted from my KISS plan and decided that I didn't need to use the smoker ring for a charcoal for a small short time smoke. I have an old charcoal pan from an old Brinkman smoker I owned years ago. I decided I would try that instead of the ring. The pan has a half dollar size hole in the bottom and no side holes. I questioned myself on how the charcoal could get enough oxygen. Anyway, I put the pan on the charcoal grate added unlit charcoal, 4 oak chunks, and then put the lit charcoal on top. Put on middle section, filled the water pan up to three-quarters full. Let out the lower grill grate and put the butt and ribs on the upper rack. First hour it looked good, running about 240 on the half hour and hour by the dome temp. Checked again 30 minutes later and it had dropped to 200. I opened lower vents to full, they were at half, stirred the charcoal, noticed a lot of ash. Check again in 15 minutes and temp was down to 190. Decide the charcoal pan was a bad idea so I move the meat over to by Webber kettle, take off the middle section and I dump the pan of charcoal on the grate and put everything back. Temps move up to 270 and stay steady for the next few hours. Around lunchtime, the ribs look ready and the sample ribblets are good. By that time the ribs had been on about three hours after the change in charcoal method, so a total of four hours.
I had some last minute obligations coming up at 3 o'clock and was hoping the butt would be ready to put in the cooler to rest at 2. At 2 the meat temp was not at 190, but I had to remove it anyway to rest because I didn't know when I could be back. In the next smoke I will start earlier and make sure I have the whole day to watch over thing. Also, get a better internal thermometer.
I didn't get back until 7. Checked meat and could tell it wasn't ready. I rewrapped in the foil and put it in the oven to finish up. I was finally able to funish up around 10 pm.
Final opinion by my 10 year old granddaughter was the ribs were too salty and spicy and dry. I agreed that the salt and spicy flavor was a little too much. I need to check on a different rub. But when I gave her a piece of the pork while I was pulling it, she took some in to her grandmother and said it was like a taste of heaven.
Thanks for any suggestions you may have.
