Hey all,
I'm a complete novice when it comes to smoking, let alone grilling. I've been wanting a grill for years but the 14.5 WSM clearance at walmart last month for $96 finally did it.
Anyways, I did a lot of reading and learned a lot about smoking and grilling for the past month and finally cooked some dark meats and ribs already.
Here are the logs (1 tab for dark meats and 1 tab for pork spare ribs) + some pics.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jp6V24YWWTIj2BL85W1Xw0PVs60fpMxeabu8_x8A_XE/edit#gid=0
Right now my main concern is seeing flames coming out of the chimney even after I poured it into WSM. The first time there were a lot of flames and probably due to using way to much newspaper. The second cook, I used 2 smaller pages and it helped a lot, but the the flames were still there.
What I had to do was assemble the WSM and close all vents and lids for a minute or two for the flames to go out. Is this how it's supposed to be? I'll try using even less paper to light the chimney and see what happen next time.
I also seared those dark meats to crisp them up a bit, but they turned out more chewy and tough instead of crunchy. Maybe I'll try sweeping coals to one side and do a semi-indirect searing next time because they were getting burnt.
Next on the menu are chicken wings and ABT's!
Anyways, is that how smoking cook log is supposed to look like? Or am I completely off track here? Those dark meats and ribs sure tasted good, and I'm still alive, so I think I did alright.
And lastly, does it matter much if just put the cover over thermometer instead of using the rubber grommet? I can see a bit of smoke coming out from under the lid.
Any other tips and advice would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers.
I'm a complete novice when it comes to smoking, let alone grilling. I've been wanting a grill for years but the 14.5 WSM clearance at walmart last month for $96 finally did it.
Anyways, I did a lot of reading and learned a lot about smoking and grilling for the past month and finally cooked some dark meats and ribs already.
Here are the logs (1 tab for dark meats and 1 tab for pork spare ribs) + some pics.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jp6V24YWWTIj2BL85W1Xw0PVs60fpMxeabu8_x8A_XE/edit#gid=0
Right now my main concern is seeing flames coming out of the chimney even after I poured it into WSM. The first time there were a lot of flames and probably due to using way to much newspaper. The second cook, I used 2 smaller pages and it helped a lot, but the the flames were still there.
What I had to do was assemble the WSM and close all vents and lids for a minute or two for the flames to go out. Is this how it's supposed to be? I'll try using even less paper to light the chimney and see what happen next time.
I also seared those dark meats to crisp them up a bit, but they turned out more chewy and tough instead of crunchy. Maybe I'll try sweeping coals to one side and do a semi-indirect searing next time because they were getting burnt.
Next on the menu are chicken wings and ABT's!
Anyways, is that how smoking cook log is supposed to look like? Or am I completely off track here? Those dark meats and ribs sure tasted good, and I'm still alive, so I think I did alright.
And lastly, does it matter much if just put the cover over thermometer instead of using the rubber grommet? I can see a bit of smoke coming out from under the lid.
Any other tips and advice would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers.
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