I'm no longer a virgin!!

[Jeff Langer]

Got home from Thursday (my birthday) and had a 22.5" WSM sitting in the living room! My 11 year old and I put it together in less than 30 minutes and I must say the thing is massive! Cooked two butterflied whole chickens earlier today which received rave reviews from my wife, sons, and father-in-law. I have eaten a lot of smoked chicken and what I cooked today was just as good if not better.

My wife wants me to smoke the turkey for Thanksgiving which I am SCARED to do! My big concern is heat. While smoking today, the temp on the thermostat that came on the WSM never got above 250. I used the Weber chimney and filled it full of hardwood lump coal adding it to about 20 additional pieces that were in the ring on the bottom of the WSM. Like every other newbie, I've read so many conflicting things (hardwood vs briquettes, water vs no water, etc...) and am so CONFUSED! I know that the only way I am going to learn is to just do it which I plan to do a lot of!

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciate. This site is a great source of information so thank you to whoever is in charge of keeping it up. I used both a brine and rub recipe off of the site and like I said earlier, everyone absolutely loved it!

I wanted to take a picture but everyone was hungry and didn't give me time!!

 

[Paul K]

Welcome Jeff!

You're off to a great start! Regarding the temp issue, a couple of things come to mind.
How many lit coals (lumps) did you start with? Many here use the Minion Method for smoking/cooking. If your ring of lump was fully lit at once then you certainly should have had temps above 250 especially if you were only cooking a couple of chickens. So, did you start with a fully lit ring of charcoal? Were your vents, top and bottom wide open? Did you have water in your pan? You essentially control temps by adjusting the bottom vents. Water (or sand or clay saucer) in your water pan acts as a heat sink and helps keep temps down. Using the Minion Method makes temp control even easier as you catch the target temp as the smoker heats up. Trying to bring down temps on the WSM with a full ring of lit charcoal is pretty tough. Regarding lump versus briquettes there is no 'better'; it's a matter of personal choice. Lump is a natural product - no fillers or artificial ingredients. Briquettes contain binding ingredients to hold the shape. Professionals use briquettes everyday. As beginner, I'd personally recommend starting with briquettes because it is easier to control the temps due their manufactured symmetry. A loaded charcoal ring of briquettes is very consistent; there’s few large voids (air pockets). Lump, due to its natural shape, makes it more difficult to pack a charcoal ring with minimum voids. Those voids cause spikes, up and down, in your cooking temps. Water vs. no water? Depends on what you're cooking and what temps you are after. For poultry I like a high heat (350 - 425) cook, empty water pan only lined with foil for easy clean up and vents wide open. I find no reason to use low temps on poultry. High heat crisps the skin whereas low temps don't. For a low and slow pork butt, sure fill the water pan with water as it will help keep your temps down, light your coals using the Minion Method, and adjust your bottom vents as soon as you near your target temp (250-275). You'll find there's rarely a true right or wrong way to do things. There may be more efficient ways to do things or preferred ways to do things; but it comes down to does your method produce good food? Keep reading through the various sections on this site and you'll find many answers. And keep asking questions and cooking! That's how we all learned.

Paul

 

[Jeff Langer]

Paul,

Thank you for the reply and for answering my questions!

Reading on the Internet the past couple of days I think I have figured out part of the problem with my heat. When I lit the lump wood in the chimmney I don't think I let it get hot enough. Then, when I added the lit wood to the unlit wood in the ring I did not give it a chance to get going before assembling the WSM and starting to cook.

Hopefully I don't mess up the Thanksgiving turkey! My wife dropped a bombshell last night when she said, "I think I will have you cook a brisket in addition to the turkey on Thursday." The look on my face must have been priceless because she asked me if I was OK!

Thanks again sir!

 

[Paul K]

Jeff,

Please go over the Minion Method (MM)in the link provided above; that will answer a lot of your questions. Anytime I light charcoal (lump or briquettes) in a chimmney, I let it get completely white before addding to the unlit in the charcoal ring. With the MM your temps will gradually increase because you are going from a few lit pieces of charcoal to more. As the fire spreads, it's speed of spreading is controlled by the setting of the bottom vents which regulates the amount of oxygen entering into the WSM.

If you're going to include a brisket in your Thanksgiving plans, check out the brisket section Chris has provided. Brisket takes a lot longer to cook than a turkey. You might consider the high heat method or cook the brisket the day before and reheat on Thursday if possible.

Paul