First time smoking on a WSM.

[Jacob Bonness]

I'm a novice smoker who had the itch to get back into smoking this year after being away for three years. Grabbed a WSM from my local big box store. Lucked out and ended up with the floor model. Saved me some time and money getting it set up. Rubbed a pork butt up with Dirty Ash and American Sweet Heat from a Discord friend and it turned out better than I was expecting. Was a bit of a wresting keeping it under 285 degrees but was able to get it down to 270-275 for most of the cook. Figured I either added way to much charcoal or it needs a few more cooks to break it in. Overall very happy with how it turned out and looking forward to putting it to the test on the 4th of July

https://imgur.com/a/SHBfKpz

 

[JimK]

Welcome aboard! Nice inaugural run!

 

[ChuckO]

That's starting off on the right foot. Nice cook

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

Way to go!

 

[B.A. Poole]

Pork shoulders always comes out good. Good job!

 

[Tim-wannabe-smoker]

I had the same challenge with my WSM-22. For me to keep it at 250-275 I had to dial the vents all the way back, use water in the pan and stack my briquets into a snake method so no more then about 10-12 briquets were burning at once. I also learned to use cheap charcoal like Kingsford Original or the Home Depot house brand. The good stuff always ran hotter for me then I wanted. Additionally, I learned not to worry about temps too much as long as it was at or below 300. As long as I kept enough moisture on the product and stayed on top of the meat tempature, most my cooks turned out really well. Experiment with it till you find the sweet spot. The WSM is a great old school smoking rig.

 

[BFletcher]

Nice work!

 

[James Bea]

Temps will control better once you get it “greased in”. All the buildup will help seal it up and keep unwanted air out.