Getting My First WSM


 
C

Corey S

TVWBB Fan
Hey All! I have mostly been lurking on this site for a couple of years now, And I have learned a lot from all you knowlagable contributors, resulting in some really good BBQ. I have two 22.5 Kettles, and a smokinator. I have had reasonably good success with the smokinator, (and many a sleepless night tending it!)I have known for a very long time, I was going to have to pull the trigger on a WSM someday. Last night, I just happened to be reading the thread entitled "Do I Really Need A WSM?", and the impulse struck me, that yesterday was that Day!, I clicked the Amazon link and orderd a 22.5 WSM. Just in time to particpate in Smoke Day VI ! I also ordered a stainless door from the Cajun Bandit folks so I would not have to deal with the door fit issues that most 22's reportedly seem to have.
My first question is:
How important is "seasoning" the WSM prior to the first actual cook? is this really necessary, if so How do I properly season it?
My second question is regarding temp control:
I have read that new WSM's tend to run a little hot!.. should I try to counter this on early cooks by choking down the vents more than one would normally expect to? any advice from the experienced here would be appreciated !
 
Congrats Corey,

I would wash the WSM with soap and water, go get some RO or other quality lump and a pork butt and q with the foiled clay pan method. That will season it right up!

If you run w/o water the WSM will gunk up so much better (even after 1 butt q)

If yours is sealed well it will not run more than 25 deg hotter than a well used one.

Don't get caught in the trap of temp worries. If your between 225 and 275 you will be fine, wait at least 20 or so min after each vent adjustment.

As I noted if yours is well sealed and you keep the bottom vents at 15-25% and the top vent at 50-100% you will be in the q'n zone!

Good luck and keep us posted
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Thanks for the advice Glenn !... I expect arrival of the new 22.5 WSM tomorrow, or Thursday, and I will be anxious to get it together, and start smoking, might even smoke on Friday, providing I dont have to make any un-expected sales calls.
I was wondering about using the clay pot method vs: water, I had not thought about using one for seasoning, it makes sense though.
I know it is somewhere, in some thread on this site, but spare me the hunt to find the info, anybody know off the top of their head, what size clay pot bottom will properly fit in the 22.5 WSM ?
 
According to "Slap Yo Daddy" BBQ. He never seasons his WSM. I just got a new one and I'm gonna season it by cooking some Ribs & Chicken. JMHO...
 
Corey,

http://tvwbb.com/eve/forums/a/...30022865/m/152106724

As long as it fits between the bottom 1/3 and the top 2/3 of the pan it will be fine.

There is alot of opinions on the subject of the pan (water, sand, clay or nothing) keep in mind that nothing but a foiled pan will use less fuel than any method. Water the most. Sand 2nd and clay 3rd.

I like the clay because it is like a shock on a car. Without it would bounce (temp spike) up and down. Mostly when you remove the lid to tend to the meat.

IMHO the clay takes nothing away but gives you a nice safety net.

Just my 2 cents.
 
Thanks for the replies guys, I think I will wash it out, and then I will definately season it with some sort of meat. I will check my local garden centers, Lowes, H/D etc.. to see if I can find an 18" or close size, clay saucer, foil wrapped bricks is an option if an appropriate sized clay saucer cannot be found.
Thanks for the link Glenn, I know I could have found it myself, if I were not so lazy !
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">foil wrapped bricks is an option if an appropriate sized clay saucer cannot be found. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Not sure of what kind, but I have heard of some bricks exploding due to heat.
 
Yes, I have read that about some bricks, fire bricks,(olfactory bricks?) are a safe bet. From what I have heard, the exploding bricks, (standard bricks), explode as a result of water content trapped within the bricks themselves. I have also read of many people using standard bricks with no issues. Last time I looked even standard bricks are fired in a kiln, at many times more temp than we will ever see in a WSM. So temp alone is probably not the cause of exploding bricks. I would think those that experienced exploding bricks had examples that had been exposed to, and absorbed moisture sometime after being fired in production.
Regardless, I will definately use caution (or fire bricks) should I elect to go the brick route for a heat sink!
 
Corey, if you choose to use bricks only in the water pan, the clean up is going to be a bit messy. Drippings on the bricks, yuch. The clay saucer wrapped in foil makes a great drippings catcher. Let cool and wrap up and thro away. Easy. I have only used water once just to see the difference in temp control. The messy clean up with water tells me never use water again.

Enjoy you cooks and remember the camera, so we can all see your success.

Mark
 
Good point MK, I intend to find a clay saucer somewhere. Sounds like it will be the best way to go, especially in the clean up deptartment.
As far as pictures go, I will have to figure out the best way to get them up on this site, or post a link to somewhere else to see them, I have never uploade photos here before. I will have to look into that.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Corey S:
Good point MK, I intend to find a clay saucer somewhere. Sounds like it will be the best way to go, especially in the clean up deptartment.
As far as pictures go, I will have to figure out the best way to get them up on this site, or post a link to somewhere else to see them, I have never uploade photos here before. I will have to look into that. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I use www.photobucket.com for all web site forum pics and it works great. Just remember not to move pics on Photobucket once you post to forum otherwise they will disappear. I put mine in a folder on PB and am not tempted to move them .
 
I have used fire bricks in the past and had no issues with clean up. I simply covered the pan in foil (bricks in pan) so that the bricks weren't exposed to the drippings. I think that others have even placed foil balls in the pan and covered the pan in foil. All that folks are looking for is some sort of heat sink. In my case I use an empty foiled pan as I can get good results that way without the extra stuff in the pan.

-Don
 
Welcome Corey. I've never concerned myself about the seasoning issue. I give my WSM a good scrubbing every 3rd smoke or so; I guess mine never gets seasoned. It runs fine. As far as running hot -- I've never noticed one way or the other. You can use the built-in thermometer, but rememeber it will probably read about 25 degrees hotter than the upper grate (where your meat will be resting). Like others have said, don't worry it too much. 225-275 degrees is a good smokin' zone. Have fun!
 
Got it !... UPS delivered it today ! I ordered Monday night at 10:00 PM, From Amazon.com, and it was here Today about 1:30 PM (Dang ! What took them so long!) 39.5 hours from order till delivery, That is amazing, and much appreciate when you are anxiously awaiting something like a new WSM.. It is already assembled, sitting on the patio, beckoning me!... It is large, I expected large, but the photos just cannot convey how big it really is.
I looked for an 18" clay saucer today, Lowes, H/D, & Wallmart, no dice, biggest I could find was a 16.25" at H/D. I will check out a couple of other places locally Tomorrow. I might just have to order one online?.
I will set up a photo bucket account to use in posting pictures here.
Now that I have a real smoker I feel a little more comfortable posting, as opposed to just lurking.
I am not too worried about temp control issues, as most have advised.
After two years of mastering temp control with the smokinator on my Kettle, I feel the WSM should be a breeze. By no means am I knocking the Smokinator, I have had very good success with it, and it is actually very controllable, and predictable, once you get it dialed in. (just dont overshoot, and you are in good shape) It has served a very good purpose during a time when I could not afford, or justify a WSM purchase. With it, and all the advice and recipes I have absorbed while lurking here, I have made some pretty good BBQ.
Thanks for all you help and replys guys,
Now the real journey begins, with the new WSM !
 
Hey Corey...congrats on your new WSM. You are in for one of the best cooking adventures you ever had!
I have a 22.5 WSM and bought the 16 inch clay saucer at Lowe's Home Improvement. I foiled the water pan twice, then foiled the saucer separately. The foiled saucer will nestle down in the foiled water pan and sit down in there about an inch or so below the water pan lip. I considered this ideal since it wont get in the way of the cooking grate which basically sits almost on top on the pan. If you have a big lip of saucer sitting on top of the pan, the cooking grate will sit on that and not on the bracket as designed.
The 16 inch saucer works well for me and provides the temp stability I was looking for.
 
Thanks for that bit of Clarification Morrey, I will get the 16" or 16.25" it was one of those. Now that I have seen the actual water pan, I see what you mean. and an 18" saucer might give better coverage, but is likely to stand up above the rim of the water pan.

I am going to smoke something tomorrow ! Unless I am interupted with work issues..
 
I measured the water pan and quickly thought that an 18" saucer looked just right. However, considering the slope of the pan sides and the depth of the clay saucer lip, 18" would not fit and sit down like it was "nested". I am sure you will be pleased with the foiled saucer system. For the sake of making you feel you are doing the right thing, I judged a BBQ competition in Myrtle Beach last weekend which was an invitational featuring the top ten teams in SC. The 3rd place in the state went to a team which uses WSM's. He personally told me he used to use sand in the pan but that set up like cement after several cooks so he switched to clay saucers. See Corey, without doing a thing except reading lots of posts on the TVWBB, you have designed a system like a pro would use!!!! Enjoy your new cooker!!
 
I am all set Morrey, I picked up the 16" clay saucer Thursday, at Lowes, Then I hit Sam's Club and got three nice racks of Spare Ribs. I will prep them St Louis Style... Providing my business does not interupt my day too much, and require me to be out in the field, (Most of my work these days is done right here at my computer, my new WSM is about 18' away from me, I can smoke and work at the same time) I expect I will be smoking by early afternoon Friday !... I still have about half of a smoked pork butt sitting in the freezer, and I just did a briskett a couple weeks back, so I was not inclined to do either of those long smokes right now !... So ribs will get to break in the new machine!
Thanks for all the great advice guys!
 
Good luck on your first big cook Corey. Let us know how it works out on the ribs. I cooked 3 sets of trimmed out spares from Sam's last weekend myself. Mighty good eats! I also cooked the trimmed out riblets for my girlfriend's son. He eats like a bulldozer so he ate the riblets off all three racks before he slowed down to ask if there was dessert?
I also like that heavy duty industrial roll of foil from Sam's Club. I really nailed the foiling technique this last cook. I smoked 3 hours at 250, foiled an hour, then one more hour unfoiled to firm back up staying at 250 the entire cook. Used four chunks of hickory maybe the size of the palm of your hand and regular Kingsford briquettes ($14.97 for 2-20 pound bags). Light subtle smoke flavor with gorgeous deep smoke ring.
This technique works well for St Louis cuts, but I have never gotten back loin ribs exactly competition quality like this. I guess just buy spares and trim them out. The WSM is magic! Hope you can post some feedback indicating good results!
 
"I am wi-iting, I am wi-iting. For you (for you)." To tell us about those ribs. And your overall experience. Smoking at work! Sounds downright sinful!
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Rich
 
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