First time cooking pork on my 22.5 WSM


 
S

Stephen Kennette

New member
I got my first WSM a few weeks ago and I smoked 4 fryers. With that being a success, I decided I would do some pork for around 30 people this past Saturday.

I used a combination of hickory, pecan, and cherry.

I have done butts in the past that have taken as long as 12 hours on my Old Smokey Electric. With that in mind, I wanted to give myself plenty of time. I rubbed the two 6 pound butts using the Mr. Brown rub the night before. I fired the smoker using the Minion Method at 3:30am and the butts went on at 4:30am. Dinner was set for around 7pm.

I was going to put the ribs on around Noon. Before putting on the ribs, I checked the butts. The butts temped 205 at Noon (After 6.5 hours at 270 degrees). I wrapped them in foil and held them hot in a "cooler". They temped at 150 when I pulled them at 5:30pm.

I rubbed the ribs with the BRITU rub the night before. After 5 hours at 250, the weather was threatening and I took the ribs off and put them in foil pans with apple juice to finish in the oven at 275 for about an hour. I sauced the ribs with 5 parts Sweet Baby Rays and one part honey.
Pictures

My apologies for not having any pictures of the finished ribs. Things got a bit crazy with the weather.

The pulled pork was liked by the crowd but they really raved about the ribs.

I definitely won't have to get out of bed so early next time to cook butts for an evening meal.

This site was a great help in getting ready for this cook.
 
Thanks Jim.

I bought two of those rib racks a couple of years ago to use on my Landmann smoker. Here is the link:

http://www.southernsteamers.com/rib-racks.htm

One rib rack barely fits onto the top rack of my 22" WSM. The rib rack will not go onto the bottom grate of my WSM. I think I will end up cutting the one section out of the middle of the rib rack and end up with two racks with 4 spaces instead of one rack with 9 spaces. That will allow me to try 8 racks on the lower cooking grate.

I really love the WSM. Temperature control was a pain on the Landmann. The Old Smokey was a good buy for $100 but it isn't charcoal. Now I have much better control of the cook on a charcoal smoker. I'm thrilled with the WSM so far!
 
Originally posted by Stephen Kennette:
One rib rack barely fits onto the top rack of my 22" WSM. The rib rack will not go onto the bottom grate of my WSM.
Click to expand...
Hmmm ...

According to the website, those racks measure 18"x13"x6". Are those accurate?

What's the diameter of the 22.5's bottom grate?

According to my calculations, a 22.5" has a radii of 11.25" and the rack should give an apothem of 6.5" (13"w/2) which results in a chord of 18.36" which should more than enough for the rack's 18" length.

(yes, it's a slow day today.)
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D'oh! I knew that page existed too!

S'okay, for that rib rack to fit on the lower grate, it cannot exceed 16.6" in length.

Shortening it by 2" or one section as you planned should work and having 2 pieces would be more flexible as well.

Thx!
 
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