Chuck Simon
TVWBB Pro
Last week I bought the 14.5" WSM. I had also bought some pork shoulders. I decided to give it a whirl this weekend. I have never had a smoker before, so this is the first time playing with one. Here is the 8.5 lb pork shoulder
I trimmed it up some
Then I slathered it with some yellow mustard
I made up my own spice rub and rubbed it all over the shoulder and let it sit overnight
I woke up around 0600 to get this thing started. I tried doing the minion method, but I accidentally lit too many coals, so it didn't work so well. I got the coals going and put the WSM together and started bringing it up to temp
Once it hit the 220 mark, I threw the shoulder on around 0655.
It was cold and windy, so I found some scrap plywood and made a little makeshift wind break using my grills.
Things were going along great for the first two hours and then it happened. The temps dropped on me. I opened all of the air vents completely to try to bring the temp up, but it was not working. I played around for a while with no luck. I checked the charcoal and it seemed to be cooking along just fine. At the 4 hour mark, I needed to add some more charcoal. I took my mini chimney and lit up some charcoal in my kettle. I walked away for a bit to get some cleaning done and when I came back, I had a mess on my hands. The wind had knocked over my kettle along with all the hot coals all over my patio. I grabbed a couple of the coals and threw them back in the chimney along with some fresh ones. I was able to get them all burning. I threw them into the WSM. I was able to get the temps back up to around 235. Around the 5 hour mark, the temps had dropped again. I thought maybe there was too much ash in the bottom of the WSM, so I took it apart and cleaned the ashes out of the bottom. This is already a long post, so I won't go into more detail, but I never was able to get the temp back up to 235. It was around the 10 hour mark, the temps dropped quite drastically. It was at this point I decided to bring the pork inside and finish in the oven.
I brought it in, wrapped it in foil and threw it in the 250 degree oven.
It was at this point that I knew this was not going to be done in time for dinner. Off I went to go pick up some Mexican food. I left it in the oven for another 2 hours. It finally came up to about 185. I pulled it out and let it rest for 30 minutes before pulling.
All in all it was a good experience. I kind of figured it was going to be a hard day due to the wind, but I went ahead and tried my best. I figure I might as well get a hard cook out of the way first, so the rest of them will be easy from here on out. I hope at least. Sorry for the long post. Thanks for looking!
I trimmed it up some
Then I slathered it with some yellow mustard
I made up my own spice rub and rubbed it all over the shoulder and let it sit overnight
I woke up around 0600 to get this thing started. I tried doing the minion method, but I accidentally lit too many coals, so it didn't work so well. I got the coals going and put the WSM together and started bringing it up to temp
Once it hit the 220 mark, I threw the shoulder on around 0655.
It was cold and windy, so I found some scrap plywood and made a little makeshift wind break using my grills.
Things were going along great for the first two hours and then it happened. The temps dropped on me. I opened all of the air vents completely to try to bring the temp up, but it was not working. I played around for a while with no luck. I checked the charcoal and it seemed to be cooking along just fine. At the 4 hour mark, I needed to add some more charcoal. I took my mini chimney and lit up some charcoal in my kettle. I walked away for a bit to get some cleaning done and when I came back, I had a mess on my hands. The wind had knocked over my kettle along with all the hot coals all over my patio. I grabbed a couple of the coals and threw them back in the chimney along with some fresh ones. I was able to get them all burning. I threw them into the WSM. I was able to get the temps back up to around 235. Around the 5 hour mark, the temps had dropped again. I thought maybe there was too much ash in the bottom of the WSM, so I took it apart and cleaned the ashes out of the bottom. This is already a long post, so I won't go into more detail, but I never was able to get the temp back up to 235. It was around the 10 hour mark, the temps dropped quite drastically. It was at this point I decided to bring the pork inside and finish in the oven.
I brought it in, wrapped it in foil and threw it in the 250 degree oven.
It was at this point that I knew this was not going to be done in time for dinner. Off I went to go pick up some Mexican food. I left it in the oven for another 2 hours. It finally came up to about 185. I pulled it out and let it rest for 30 minutes before pulling.
All in all it was a good experience. I kind of figured it was going to be a hard day due to the wind, but I went ahead and tried my best. I figure I might as well get a hard cook out of the way first, so the rest of them will be easy from here on out. I hope at least. Sorry for the long post. Thanks for looking!
