Hello from Eastern Oregon


 
T

Tony Z

New member
HI. Just enjoying the educational reading on the site. Got our first smoker (WSM 18.5) Friday; testing it this morning with a pair of 7 lb pork shoulders.
 
Welcome from the east coast. I'm another WSM fan. You will love it. Good luck , brother.
 
Hi tony - I too, at one time, was a resident of Eastern Oregon. A small town with board sidewalks, false front buildings, spring and fall cattle drives down main street and learned the not so graceful art of Rodeo on all three rides known as "Roughstock". lol. Bulls, Saddlebronc and Bareback. We actually learned to ride by riding at buckinghorse sales in John Day put on by Mel Kelley for rough stock at the Pendleton Roundup and the Emerald Empire Roundup in Eugene, Oregon. I graduated from Highschool not far from you in a little town called Prairie City. That was many many years ago though. Since then I've lived with my High School Sweetheart (wife) Del in Alaska for 40 years. Now that I've told you my life story about Eastern Oregon. W E L C O M E to the forum. You are going to enjoy cooking with your new WSM my friend. And you will have plenty of great local home grown beef to accomplish that. Bob B
 
Thanks for the warm welcomes!

I started taking pictures but didn't take pictures of the results. They were not too bad, but certainly a learning process.

Also, I was a little handicapped by a lack of thermometer. Evidently that "hood ornament" on the top is just that. I figured I could deal with it if it was simply off like I'd been reading since I had a probe thermometer with which I could double check...unfortunately my dome thermometer was not a functional model. The needle stayed pegged at 0 the whole time (Weber is replacing it now that they know it exists).
smoker02.jpg


For the first half of the time I used my thermometer to monitor the grill temp and kept it around 225-240, but when I opened up to mop I switched the thermometer to inside the meat, hoping I could just maintain the inside temp by doing what I had been doing. Unfortunately, shortly after that, it started raining and a cold wind started blowing and in compensating I may have driven the heat up higher than I should have and finished the meat a bit fast. I don't think the connective tissues had enough of a chance to dissolve fully so pulling was a little tough.

Next time will be different. I've ordered the Maverick thermometer probes. I'll use a little less wood next time as the meat is very smoky. Anyway...my wife still thinks I'm crazy but I can hardly wait to get out there again.
 
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