First WSM cook

[Clark "Harbormaster" Hodgson]

Did my first WSM cook Friday night Saturday. 2 butts totalling just over 15 pounds and 4 big sweet potatoes. I rubbed the butts w/ yellow mustard and then with my rub recipe. While they rested, I fired up the WSM. Royal Oak Lump and Grove lump arranged on the grate so larger pieces were on the bottom perpendicular to the grate. I laid in 4 sticks of Hickory and 2 sticks of Apple (this totaled about 2 and 1 fist sized pieces) buried under more lump. I started a chimney full of RO lump, and when it was all going and cooked down to half a chimney, I poured it on top, and laid another piece of Hickory on the coals.
Assembled the smoker, pan full of warm water, vents 100% and let her heat up to 250. Closed down to 25% and put on the meat. No trouble keeping temp, in fact it got up to 260 at one point. Woke up at 3:30am to find the water gone and the drippings cooked. Added a gallon of water, and went back to sleep. Woke up at 8:00am to find smoker down to 150, and meet down to 160 (lost over 10 degrees), even though there was plenty of fuel. OOPS. Opened vents, added 4 very small sticks of Hickory, and a little charcoal. It took a while, but the meet started warming up.
After 14 hours (planned cook time) meat was at 196 (195 planned) and I shut down the vents (not the top) and let the meat sit there for 1-1.5 hours. I never mopped or turned the butts.
I could barely take the meat off, falling apart tender. And was it good. Nearly 1/2 inch smoke ring, fat nearly rendered off. Good smoke flavor but not to strong. I pulled it and gave some to the guy I "stole" the WSM from ($10 garage sale buy).
Not bad for a first cook, but I need to work on controlling temp a little.
I know for sure I need to fabricate a charcoal basket for using lump, and I should have filled the water pan before I crashed for awhile.
With the lump, there wasn't even 2 inches of ash in the bottom, and plenty of unburned charcoal.
All in all a pretty successful cook. Far less fire control required compared to my Brinkman offset (although a charcoal basket using the Minion Method in it would help).

Thanks to all on this site for the advice and insight.

And a Happy Fathers day to all you Dads out there.

 

[K Kruger]

Excellent, Clark. A great first WSM cook.

Feel free to put the meat on when you add the lit and assemble the cooker. This way the meat heats as the cooker does. Simply start closing lower vents as you get within 30-50 degrees of your target cook temp. If you wait to put the meat on you're adding much cooler mass to the cooker and this can take a while to be reflected by your therm--especially if using lid temp as the reading. The therm reading can be unchanged for some time after putting in the meat (letting you think all is well) but then drop substantially as the meat's mass absorbs heat. If you're cooking 2 or more butts and you wish to wait to put the meat on it's then best to stay up at least an hour--perhaps two--to monitor the situation and adjust vents. Or, put the meat on at the beginning, adjust as the temp rises, and be done with it for a while.

Another charcoal grate placed atop your current grate and turned so that the grates form a grid is helpful when using lump.

Nice of you to show your neighbor what $10 can do.

 

[Ted Lorson]

For overnight cooks you can replace the Weber water pan with the charcoal pan from Brinkmann. It fits well and holds a lot more water than the Weber pan. Here's the one...

http://www.brinkmann.net/Shop/Detail.aspx?category=Outd...eriesname=Pans&id=67

 

[Craig Castille]

Like Kevin said, you can use another charcoal grate to create a grid for the lump. I bought one at Bass for around $5.