This Christmas I was gifted with an 18.5" WSM, Maverick, and a few bags of smoke wood. I live downtown in an urban condominium apartment in Canada but luckily have a fairly large stone balcony with which I can smoke to my heart's content! No neighbour complaints, I likely just make the hood smell too good given the snow and cold.
I've been lurking a lot and reading a lot since December here and with the Smoke & Spice book. Here are my first attempts... apologies for occasional cell phone camera fuzziness
1. BRITU.
Loved these! The key I found was to just dust the ribs and let them sweat at room temperature for a couple of hours. Was a bit nervous as I got called away for a couple of hours but the WSM chugged along nicely at around 200F for about 3.5 hours on a cool night in the low 20's. Afterwards, I flipped the ribs and raised the temperature to 280F for the last two hours. Sauced them with some Diana Western Smokehouse. Rave reviews from family and friends, I definitely will be making these again using this method.
WSM assembled for BRITU
BRITU ribs after 5.5 hours, pre-sauce
BRITU ribs sauced sliced
2. Skinless Boneless Chicken Thighs.
Had some extra thighs on hand and decided to use the WSM. Brined them for an hour and a half in a simple brine (1/2c sugar and kosher salt each + 1 quart water per pound). Rubbed them with Wild Willy's Number One-Derful Rub prior to the cook. Took them off after about 2 hours at 220F. Served them with Alabama White Sauce, Bread & Butter pickles on buns. Great sandwich, its like chicken & bacon without the bacon....
Minion Method Prep at -4F with 40 briquettes. It was so cold the snow didn't melt during my entire cooking session.
Chicken off the smoker, great colour
3. Mr. Brown
By now I had some comfort with the WSM so I figured I'd go for a long cook. Found a great 6 lb pork butt at my local market and rubbed it with the Southern Succor Rub the night before, then smoked for around 15 hours. It was a windy evening (25 mph with gusts up to 40) and even with my balcony's wind breaks mini-cyclones tend whip up, so I kept my vents fairly closed. This likely led to the longer plateau.
Lit with MM about 20 briquettes - my charcoal bowl was near-overflowing with all the smoke wood and briquettes, my water pan was basically sitting right on top of the charcoal, since it's the deeper pan… so I had to move the wood to the sides and hope for the best.
In the end it turned out well - very peppery and moist - I probably should have taken it off at the 14 hour mark but it was 5 am and I was too tired to try to temp probe the butt in several locations, so I relied on just one. Next time I may try a different rub or cut back on the pepper, while I like it, it's somewhat one dimensional. I found that a vinegar-based sauce was almost essential to balance out the bark.
Rubbed Butt the night before
Smoke wood for the butt - per Chris' recipe I tried a 3:3:1 ratio of lighter woods (cherry and pecan) to hickory.
Mr. Brown at Hour 8 - lookin good!
Mr. Brown at Hour 15 - pulled off, falling apart in my hands
Pulled Mr. Brown
All in all, loving the WSM…. next up, Tri-Tip, then a Turkey.
I've been lurking a lot and reading a lot since December here and with the Smoke & Spice book. Here are my first attempts... apologies for occasional cell phone camera fuzziness
1. BRITU.
Loved these! The key I found was to just dust the ribs and let them sweat at room temperature for a couple of hours. Was a bit nervous as I got called away for a couple of hours but the WSM chugged along nicely at around 200F for about 3.5 hours on a cool night in the low 20's. Afterwards, I flipped the ribs and raised the temperature to 280F for the last two hours. Sauced them with some Diana Western Smokehouse. Rave reviews from family and friends, I definitely will be making these again using this method.
WSM assembled for BRITU
BRITU ribs after 5.5 hours, pre-sauce
BRITU ribs sauced sliced
2. Skinless Boneless Chicken Thighs.
Had some extra thighs on hand and decided to use the WSM. Brined them for an hour and a half in a simple brine (1/2c sugar and kosher salt each + 1 quart water per pound). Rubbed them with Wild Willy's Number One-Derful Rub prior to the cook. Took them off after about 2 hours at 220F. Served them with Alabama White Sauce, Bread & Butter pickles on buns. Great sandwich, its like chicken & bacon without the bacon....
Minion Method Prep at -4F with 40 briquettes. It was so cold the snow didn't melt during my entire cooking session.
Chicken off the smoker, great colour
3. Mr. Brown
By now I had some comfort with the WSM so I figured I'd go for a long cook. Found a great 6 lb pork butt at my local market and rubbed it with the Southern Succor Rub the night before, then smoked for around 15 hours. It was a windy evening (25 mph with gusts up to 40) and even with my balcony's wind breaks mini-cyclones tend whip up, so I kept my vents fairly closed. This likely led to the longer plateau.
Lit with MM about 20 briquettes - my charcoal bowl was near-overflowing with all the smoke wood and briquettes, my water pan was basically sitting right on top of the charcoal, since it's the deeper pan… so I had to move the wood to the sides and hope for the best.
In the end it turned out well - very peppery and moist - I probably should have taken it off at the 14 hour mark but it was 5 am and I was too tired to try to temp probe the butt in several locations, so I relied on just one. Next time I may try a different rub or cut back on the pepper, while I like it, it's somewhat one dimensional. I found that a vinegar-based sauce was almost essential to balance out the bark.
Rubbed Butt the night before
Smoke wood for the butt - per Chris' recipe I tried a 3:3:1 ratio of lighter woods (cherry and pecan) to hickory.
Mr. Brown at Hour 8 - lookin good!
Mr. Brown at Hour 15 - pulled off, falling apart in my hands
Pulled Mr. Brown
All in all, loving the WSM…. next up, Tri-Tip, then a Turkey.
