Mike Force
New member
....and my wife is already salivating over the thought of the ribs I'm gonna smoke-cook in the new WSM this coming weekend! They've always turned out well in the big Weber kettle, but this is somehow different, like graduating to the next grade level if you will.
However, I recently spoke to Rick Naug from Apple Creek Timber (near Auburn, WA.) after a couple replies to a previous post suggested I contact him for smoke wood, and he indicated he actually prefers smoking in his kettle! He certainly wasn't dissing the WSM (called it a wonderful little unit), it was just his experience after extensively using both methods. I told him I was enthusiastically looking forward to forming my own opinion, and he was VERY supportive (basically urging me to give it a few years to develop)!! I'll gladly take his advice!
So what do the masses say? What are your preferences to these two "smoke" methods, and why? Taste? Texture? Appearance? Do you prefer to use one unit for some cooks, and the other for others? (BTW, I'm not talking about grilling vs. smoking, as I've used my kettle to smoke-cook for a couple years now, by simply offsetting the charcoal basket to one side and augmenting with various smoke woods as taste dictated.)
For me, having not had the chance to use my WSM yet, my first impression is that the biggest difference will be the volume I can do on the WSM will far surpass what I can do in the kettle, and I won't have to mess with the fuel as much on longer cooks. But this doesn't really say anything as to the end product. Both methods can produce excellent results as attested to by my experience with the kettle, and everyone else's with the WSM that posts here.
So whaddya think?
However, I recently spoke to Rick Naug from Apple Creek Timber (near Auburn, WA.) after a couple replies to a previous post suggested I contact him for smoke wood, and he indicated he actually prefers smoking in his kettle! He certainly wasn't dissing the WSM (called it a wonderful little unit), it was just his experience after extensively using both methods. I told him I was enthusiastically looking forward to forming my own opinion, and he was VERY supportive (basically urging me to give it a few years to develop)!! I'll gladly take his advice!
So what do the masses say? What are your preferences to these two "smoke" methods, and why? Taste? Texture? Appearance? Do you prefer to use one unit for some cooks, and the other for others? (BTW, I'm not talking about grilling vs. smoking, as I've used my kettle to smoke-cook for a couple years now, by simply offsetting the charcoal basket to one side and augmenting with various smoke woods as taste dictated.)
For me, having not had the chance to use my WSM yet, my first impression is that the biggest difference will be the volume I can do on the WSM will far surpass what I can do in the kettle, and I won't have to mess with the fuel as much on longer cooks. But this doesn't really say anything as to the end product. Both methods can produce excellent results as attested to by my experience with the kettle, and everyone else's with the WSM that posts here.
So whaddya think?
