Getting WSM up to temp.


 
JeffB

JeffB

TVWBB Pro
So today I'm doing my second smoke in my 22.5" WSM. Last time I cooked 2 racks of baby backs and had trouble getting the temp above 200 degrees. Today I'm doing a bunch of chicken, perhaps 5 or 6 lbs, and I started with 2x the number of lit Kingsford Mesquite briquettes and in my WSM I added more briquettes and a decent amount of lump hardwood. It's been on for 1 1/2 hours and never made it above 250. All the vents are wide open. I wonder if the location of my grill in the corner of the year, fenced on both sides, prevents air flow and keeps the air temps down.

Is it safe to took chicken at 250 degrees as long as the internal temperature gets high enough? Thanks.
 
I use Trader Joe's Briquettes when I smoke. I generally start with a full or nearly full chimney and get it REALLY going. I dump on top of what I have in my smoker (usually a pretty full ring) put on smoke wood and then let it sit for a few minutes - no body, nothing. It helps get the charcoal below and smoke wood started. I obviously have all vents open at this point as well. After a bit, I put the smoker together and put my meat on. As it climbs I start my adjustments. IMO I think its easier to bring the temps down then it is up. So if my targets 250 - I usually let it get up to 275 before I start adjusting the vents.

TJ's is a pretty slow to start, but I have Zero experience with Kingsford, so can only offer what I know.

I used to bury the smoke wood in with the charcoal in the ring so it would catch later - but after much reading, smoke flavor is absorbed in the beginning, so having it way down & starting later in the cook was pointless and wasteful.

Also, once you know how your vents work out, its very consistent. I know that for 250 my top vent is open, 1 bottom vent cracked and the other 2 closed - every single time with TJ's charcoal.

HTH
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Jeff Bryson:
Is it safe to took chicken at 250 degrees as long as the internal temperature gets high enough? Thanks. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Yes
 
Is your charcoal ring full, to the top?
The weber is a cylinder, open to the air, with vents to control oxy. There should be no reason why your temps are that low, unless something inside is blocking air flow. There is no location on planet earth that would cause that.
 
Nothing inside would block airflow - unless you foiled the grates.

Using water in the pan? Cold water? If using water, when are you adding it?

The other thing is a faulty temp reading - not atypical with installed therms (hate 'em - won't use 'em). If you cooked 2 racks of babybacks at < 200? they should have taken a LONG time. If they didn't...

P.S. to David: Smoke isn't absorbed at all. Smoke sticks to the meat. This continues as long as it is present. Beginning, end - doesn't matter. However, I see no need to bury wood.
 
Below are some pics of my setup and my results. Turns out the chicken was pretty good but the white meat was a bit dry. The drumsticks and thighs were REALLY moist, which is probably typical of dark meat.

I do believe that I may have used too little charcoal on my first 2 smokes--live and learn. I'm a newbie. I certainly did NOT fill the charcoal ring to the top--I filled it less than 1/2 way on yesterday's chicken. See pics.

Charcoal.jpg


ChickCooked.jpg


ChickMarinade.jpg


GrillSetup.jpg
 
Kruger, to answer your question, yesterday I used hot water in the pan. I used water from the tap as hot as I could get it. It was going to be really hard to carry it from my kitchen, down the back steps, around my garage and to my smoker across the yard without dropping or spilling it, so I poured about 1/3 of it out at the sink. At the end of the cook (about 3 hours) there was some water left in the pan.
 
Jeff,

I'm not sure what to tell you on the temps, but on another note, that's a lot of smoking wood you've got in the ring, especially for a lighter meat like chicken, and especially when there's mesquite packed into your Kingsford briquettes. Most people here use 1-4 fist sized chunks of wood, and charcoal that doesn't have mesquite or hickory built in.

How was the smokiness level when you were done?

Oh, and a full ring of charcoal should probably get you 12-15+ hours of cook time, so that's not the issue.
 
Matt, the smokiness was good. I didn't find it offensive or overbearing. I understand your point though.

Can you confirm what you mean when you say 1-4 fist size chunks of wood? Do you mean smoking wood? That's about the amount I had in the ring...perhaps a bit more.

I was under the impression that a lot of folks used charcoal with built in wood (mesquite, etc.). Is that not the standard practice?
 
Right. 1-4 chunks of smoking wood (oak, mesquite, hickory, apple, etc....)

Most people don't use charcoal with the wood built in, because then you can't really control the amount of smoke you get. I edited my last comment after you posted as well. You shouldn't need anywhere NEAR a full ring to do chicken or ribs.
 
Your pic shows roughly 8 (9?) pieces of smoking wood. Of course size matters so when one says 1-4, they are rougly the same size of say 1 1/2" by 2" by maybe 1" thick.

Size is relative (ask any woman
icon_wink.gif
) but as said, most smoking is done at the start and if you see smoke coming out of the top vent after say 2 1/2 - 3 hours, it's wasted (going up the chimney so to speak).

Too much in most cases is not good. It tends to overpower everything. For example, I did ribs with hickory smoke. I also had baked beans to which I added some hickory smoke liquid as it seemed the right thing to do.

It was ok but in hindsight, too much of the same flavour. IMHO.
 
Smoke particulates stick to the meat as long as they are present. It is an often repeated - yet erroneous - notion that smoking occurs only or more predominantly at the beginning. Still, though, no need to bury wood to lengthen smoke time
 
Dave, I'm not familiar with the older version of the Cowboy so I can't say for sure if this is an improvement.

In the interest of full disclosure, the shots of the finished chicken was only about 1/2 of what I cooked. I also did 2 full large bone-in breasts and 3 more drumsticks.

Dark meat was moist and perfect, but the white meat was a bit dry.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Jeff Bryson:
Dave, I'm not familiar with the older version of the Cowboy so I can't say for sure if this is an improvement.
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Neither am I. Never bought it. The knock on it here is that it had scraps and lots of small pieces, but I was told it changed recently. Maybe I'll try a bag just to see what's in it.
 
Kevin,

I read another veteran member say recently that having burning coals over the smoking wood will burn off some of the "stuff" (sorry, I forget his word) that you don't want on the meat as the smoke passes through the hot coals.

Does that make sense?
 
You said the breasts were kid of dry,have you ever tried brining? It helps keep the breast meat from drying and adds a lot to the flavor. If you have never brined here is the way I do mine. 1 cup sugar,1 cup kosher salt to 1 gallon of water, of course this can be cut down as long as you keep the ratio some what in tact. You can add anything you like to the brine as well to enhance the flavor more to your liking. Boneless breasts I go about 4 hrs and bone in you could go a little longer I imagine and the whole bird can go 8 easily. Remove chicken from the brine and rinse real good and pat dry then allow to air dry for a couple of hours to over night in the fridge add rub before cooking.
I've only bought 2 bags of Cowboy lump and have never used it for smoking only grilling because of the bad reviews most give it but the Naked Wiz speaks pretty highly of it. The smaller bag I had was full of small pieces that fell through the chimney,that bag was purchased quite awhile back. Just recently I picked up a 20# bag and was some what impressed with the size of the chunks,of course it still poped and sparkled like all get out but burned nice.
 
Hi Jeff,

Not sure if anyone already mentioned this but have you tested your WSM temp probe for accuracy? Some members have found the probe to be inaccurate. Put it in a pot of boiling water and make sure it hits 212 F.

Best,
Brian
 
All I can guess is to get more charcoal lit before you put the meat on.

The Cowboy Charcoal I've used in the past, but it's been a while, didn't have pieces NEAR the size lumps in the pic posted. Maybe they HAVE gotten their stuff up to snuff.
 
Dave, exactly right I think. I am guessing that I just don't put enough lit coals on the fire in the first place and that may be the culprit.

Don, I have not tried brining although I have read and heard others mention it here. You totally submerge the meat in the brine and let it soak? I will try that--I'm really a newbie and this was my first chicken and only my second smoke on my WSM. I keep promising folks in my neighborhood a good dinner but I don't want to fail so I'm still trying it out on family first. =D

Brian, I will check my thermometer for accuracy. I have a good instant read thermometer that I read about on another website and bought online. So much to learn!!

Thanks for all the input.
 
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