First Smoke


 
B

Brian A.

New member
Hey there -

New 22" WSM owner.

Going to fire this baby up tomorrow for the first time. Planning on doing a 8lb pork butt (picnic cut) and two slabs of st louis ribs.

The plan of attack is the following -

- minion method - 11pm - going to try the water pan full, fill it up with unlit charcoal (stubbs)and have a handful of small apple chips buried throughout and then dump half a chimney of lit coals on it. even out the temp at 250 or so and place butt on and go to bed.

- Put ribs on first thing in the morning (8am) put the ribs under the butt and check temp, maybe add more coals.

- cook until about 3pm and let pork rest for an hour before serving.


Any other advise for a first time smoker? The information on this site has been a huge help and I am pretty sure i know what to do.

Thanks!
 
I think the plan is good in that you are not going to be rushing things, but I think you will find the butt ready before 3:00. Ribs may not need 7 hours.

For resting, wrap in foil. It will stay hot for some time, and will make the bark oh so good.

Your built it dome thermometer is likely to be off quite a bit. Most are. Using an alternate thermometer is a good choice.

I would use chunks instead of chip. They will last much longer and if spread properly to your full ring will still be providing smoke when the ribs go on.

Other that that, sounds like you are ready.
 
Hey Brian,

Welcome to a fellow New Englander! Jeff has some great suggestions. The cooker will run hot the first few times you use it until some gunk builds up inside. Being on the Cape, you could also have wind as a major factor so prepare for that.

Butts have a wide range of cooking time; my last ones averaged 16 hours on the 22. Some cook faster, some take longer. They are very forgiving. Click on the find button and enter different terms concerning butts and cooking time. You will find a wealth of experience and tips from all of the awesome folks on this board. Relax and enjoy it. Keep a log of what you go through and it will help for your next cook.

I'm making pulled beef on my WSM on Sunday as our Pats get ready for battle. Good luck and let us know how you make out! Keep asking questions if you run into any issues, but remember to have fun and keep it simple.

Enjoy!
 
You may want to cut the chimney to 1/4 and put the ribs on top. You'll fiddle with the ribs more so the top rack provides easier access. For the lit, less is better so you don't overshoot your temp and spend the next 3 hours trying to tame your fire.

Good Luck !
 
Enjoy the first smoke. I would go with a little more wood than a handful of chips. Try an additional two or three fist size chunks of apple oak or hickory.
 
Hey Brian, would go with wood chunks over chips if possible.

Seems like a bit long on the ribs, but I am not an expert there, have only cooked a few slabs myself.

I've been ok adding a half chimney of lit kingsford with a full water pan, but many people do seem to start with less. Just keep a good eye on it for the first hour or two until the temps settle in and you'll be fine.

Good luck!
 
My best tip I could have followed when I did my first butt is to honestly pay no attention to internal temp. estimate 1.5-2 hrs. per pound and check tenderness to determine if it's ready.

Sometimes my butts stall at 180, but are done, some are done at 195. Just check tenderness.
 
Update - Started it up at about 10pm last night and got the temp stable at 240-250 by 11pm. Stayed up until about 1am and felt good about it.

Woke up this morning to find the smoker completely cold. Turns out I had used up all the charcoal! After reading through my notes I realized that I did not fill up the charcoal bin all the way, more like only 60%. That was my fault. It also didn't help that it was blowing about 10mph and was about 15-20 degrees out.

The butt had an internal temp of about 110 when I woke up. So it must have gone out probably 2-3 hours earlier.

Got it fired up again this morning, coming up to 250 now. Should hold it stable for the next 8-9hrs and I am hoping I can salvage this thing.
 
Live and learn brother... You will more prepared for your next overnighter.

As far as the butt goes, if time is an issue you can finish it in the oven. It has already taken on all the smoke it is going to so that won't be an issue!

Getting ready to go put some beef ribs on the WSM and then add some chicken wings about an hour later!
 
Thanks Jeff. Pork butt is in the oven.

I really was a bit disappointed in the whole process.

I seemed to be blowing through a huge amount of charcoal to even maintain a 250 temp. I probably used a whole bag of the Stubbs all natural briquettes.

The butt looked good, but never really got that classic bark that I was looking for. Maybe if I left it in longer?

The ribs are still on there and I am going to try to finish them up on the WSM. I have it holding at 250 but need to keep on restocking the charcoal for some reason.
 
My one and only over mightier was 15 pound brisket. I put it on the WSM at 10 pm and it was done around noon the next day. I had to add another chimney of kb around 8:00 am to finish the cook. I started with a packed ring and added about a half a chimney to start the cook.

I'm still learning but one thing I have read is every cook is different. Learning something from each cook is the key. I was freaking out about my overnight cook but everything turned out OK.

Let me know how the butts and ribs turned out!
 
Brian A.,

You've gotten some good thoughts already. Don't be too disappointed on your first cook, especially an overnighter with cold temps and wind. The WSM has a way of humbling a person, ask me how I know.
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Last week I did an overnighter with a 8lb pork butt (shoulder cut). 32 degrees outside, no wind. Filled ring with Kingsford B, large chunk of apple wood and minion started with about 3/4 of a chimney. Used about 1 gallon of water in pan. Put butt on at about 8:30 pm and got cooker temps stabilized at about 270 degrees in about 2 hours. Did see it go up to 288 one time so shut down one vent completely. Others opened maybe 1/4.

Went to bed around midnight and got up at 5:00 am. Checked cooker temp, was 260 degrees and butt was in stall at 170 degrees. At 10:00 am with butt at 195 degrees (WSM still at 260) probed and all meat was tender with good bark.

Held the butt in cooler till 4:00 pm and was still 140 degrees (this amazed me) so wife and I pulled it. Best butt I've ever done.

Please don't think I said all the above to make you feel bad. The first butts I ever smoked looked like and were about as hard as hocky pucks. Cooked way too long. I've learned the whole experience of using a WSM is about experimenting,learning and, most of all, having fun. Looking forward to hearing about your future cooks.

Scotty W.
 
Thanks so much for the help guys.

The food actually came out really good.

Like I mentioned above, the butt went into the oven for the last hour. I just put it in my dutch oven with a bit of apple juice to steam it. After an hour it was fall apart tender. While I may not have had the bark that I was looking for, the smoky taste was there and it was really tender. I just wish I had the confidence and the time to do the entire thing on the WSM.

The ribs were entirely done on the smoker and came out great. Fall off the bone tender, though I may have actually over cooked them a bit.

Overall it was a positive learning experience. I learned that even though you think you prepared, you really just need practice with this thing.

the biggest learning experience is that I severely under estimated the amount of charcoal I need for a long smoke.

Probably going to try it again in a couple of weeks with another butt, and even try a brisket.

Anything else I should try out to get my skills up to where they need to be?
 
Practice and reading are what I am doing to increase my smoking IQ. The WSM is very forgiving which I am thankful for because I have really messed up a couple of times.

One of the greatest bits of advice I have received on this site was to get a dog if you don't have one... You might not like that way something you cook turns out but the dog always will appreciate it!!
 
I'm only on my second year of smoking and have had my share of "smokes gone wild" too. The good news is that it is a absolutely wonderful feeling once you start figuring things out and perfecting your own style (and you will). Keep at it.
 
To build confidence between now and your next butt, I'd advise trying a chicken spat chocked or halved. There's a good recipe on the main site.

For me, turning out the most delicious chicken I've ever had was very reassuring. It's an easy cook that tastes like it was hard.
 
Well sticking the butt in the dutch oven is what killed your bark. It can take a long time to become confident with the way things cook and just fly by the seat of your pants but I think you did good for your first cook. Once your wsm is gunked up you will go through less charcoal.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Well sticking the butt in the dutch oven is what killed your bark. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
The apple juice didn't help either.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">the biggest learning experience is that I severely under estimated the amount of charcoal I need for a long smoke </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Once your wsm is gunked up you will go through less charcoal. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Brian,
Sounds like you had a good first overnighter. Your smoker being new probably didn't help with the amount of charcoal you went through, I'll tell you the number one thing I have found that causes you to burn through the charcoal is the wind. Once I started using a wind block my charcoal cosumption went way down. You can find lots of information on Cooking in the Wind on the main site here.

Another thing that increases your charcoal consumption is the use of water in the pan as a heat sync. I personaly use a clay pot base wrapped in foil. This provides a nice steady radiant heat sync and I don't have the water absorbing all my BTUs. Search the boards here, lots of information on different ideas in this area.

Keep it up.
 
Never one to give up, I am trying yet another overnight smoke tonight.

Supposed to get down to 20 degrees with light snow but I am ready.

I have the ring filled to the brim with kingsford briquettes and cherry wood. Smoking a 10lb Boston Butt. Going for around 16 hours. Since it will be so cold I am going with no water so that I can try to keep the heat up. Expecting to have to restock the coals tomorrow morning but fingers crossed that it does not go out again in the early morning.

Should start it up at midnight.
 
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