Jake Wilson
TVWBB Fan
Little bit about me...I'm late 50's, back yard grilled for most of my life using charcoal grills, cooked professionally in my younger years and as of late in my early thirties, cooked in the lower Fla. Keys, mostly fresh seafood at a dinner rest. First Weber kettle had back in my Michigan days and brought down to the lower Fla. Keys with us in the mid 80's but it didn't make the move to north central Fla. 16 years ago and can't remember why
About 15 years ago we (Mrs. Jake and I) had a New Braunfels horizontal off set wood smoker but it rusted out here and there through neglect. Had a few nice wood smokes on it, chicken in particular but alas, that was before my internet days and I had no idea how to run that smoker properly. IOW's, I had a hard time keeping a steady temp/fire going in it
So in the back of my mind, although I've been grilling on a charcoal grill (several models) since the new Braunfels smoker, I've always wanted to get back into another horizontal wood smoker with the off set fire box, and looked a lot lately at a few smokers then during my searches (internet) for all things wood smoked related, I ran into the WSM, found most if not all of those who were using it, were totally enamored with it and the rest they say is history
I thought the 22" would be too big so I ordered an 18" and a 14" and thought I'd work with both and see which one will fit the best and sell the other... Haven't put the 18" together yet but that day will come. Read the seasoning thoughts (how to) here and there and decided to start seasoning my 14" WSM using some fat I got from the butchers @ N/C from my local Publix grocer
this is the seasoning fire I built using lump charcoal and some fresh cut live oak branches, in my 14" WSM-
placed the pan of fat in/on the lower grill and away we go
Feeling cocky=
I felt I was ready for my first cook which consisted of two slabs of Pork ribs cut in two (each slab) and placed in the rib rack most buy for the little WSM
Today is Friday, I smoked these last Sunday
I followed the recipe here for the 3-2-1 ribs, using that rub recipe. I held the fire at or near 275 for 2.5 hours then wrapped each 1/2 slab in heavy Duty Reynolds aluminum foil using light brown sugar and drizzled honey (on both sides) along with 3 tablespoons apple juice in each foil packet
I put two foil packets on the lower grill and two on the upper grill and timed them for 100 minutes before checking done ness. FWIW I read the bit where the poster said to go for 90 minutes in the foil and if not done, put back and cook for another 10 minutes, so I figured why not just go 100 minutes and test for doneness. I did and felt the ribs were ready. they weren't quite fall off the bone done and needed a little tug to pull the meat from the bone, and there was a little resistance felt pulling the meat from the bone
Sorry, no pics of the finished product, but let me assure you they were mighty tasty if I may say so myself=
You'll notice I used the Maverick ET 732 for this first cook, only using their grill probe to keep an eye on temperatures at the upper grill level where the ribs spent most of their time smoking. the Weber dome thermometer was off as much as 25 degrees f lower than the temps I was seeing at the upper grill grate
After reading on the web and especially here on this forum how happy others were using the Maverick temp probe transmitter and receiver, I felt buying one was the right thing to do and was I ever glad I had it hooked up on this first cook. Why? The outdoor temps last Sunday were in the 90's with the humidity level around the same mark, so I spent most of the cook time in the air conditioned indoors on the sofa peering occasionally at the Maverick receiver LED temp read out
For sure, the temps went up and down but using the lower vents to control temps was fairly easy. I used Publix brand charcoal for this first cook but I bought a couple 20 lb bags of Kingsford Blue (Bundled two together from Home Depot) for the next rib cook, which might come as early as later today= since I bought two more slabs of ribs to do up yesterday from Publix...but I'll play it by ear, see how the weather shapes up, my work load
All in all I'm pretty happy with the 14.5" WSM, despite only seasoning it once and having only one cook in it. Happy in that I went for the WSM instead of going the horizontal offset wood fire box smoking route. Again, and I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but most everyone that uses these having nothing but good to say about them, and I can see why, they're simple to operate, fun to use (I'm having fun with mine=
Best,
Jake
Reddick Fla.
About 15 years ago we (Mrs. Jake and I) had a New Braunfels horizontal off set wood smoker but it rusted out here and there through neglect. Had a few nice wood smokes on it, chicken in particular but alas, that was before my internet days and I had no idea how to run that smoker properly. IOW's, I had a hard time keeping a steady temp/fire going in it
So in the back of my mind, although I've been grilling on a charcoal grill (several models) since the new Braunfels smoker, I've always wanted to get back into another horizontal wood smoker with the off set fire box, and looked a lot lately at a few smokers then during my searches (internet) for all things wood smoked related, I ran into the WSM, found most if not all of those who were using it, were totally enamored with it and the rest they say is history
I thought the 22" would be too big so I ordered an 18" and a 14" and thought I'd work with both and see which one will fit the best and sell the other... Haven't put the 18" together yet but that day will come. Read the seasoning thoughts (how to) here and there and decided to start seasoning my 14" WSM using some fat I got from the butchers @ N/C from my local Publix grocer
this is the seasoning fire I built using lump charcoal and some fresh cut live oak branches, in my 14" WSM-
placed the pan of fat in/on the lower grill and away we go
Feeling cocky=
I felt I was ready for my first cook which consisted of two slabs of Pork ribs cut in two (each slab) and placed in the rib rack most buy for the little WSM
Today is Friday, I smoked these last Sunday
I followed the recipe here for the 3-2-1 ribs, using that rub recipe. I held the fire at or near 275 for 2.5 hours then wrapped each 1/2 slab in heavy Duty Reynolds aluminum foil using light brown sugar and drizzled honey (on both sides) along with 3 tablespoons apple juice in each foil packet
I put two foil packets on the lower grill and two on the upper grill and timed them for 100 minutes before checking done ness. FWIW I read the bit where the poster said to go for 90 minutes in the foil and if not done, put back and cook for another 10 minutes, so I figured why not just go 100 minutes and test for doneness. I did and felt the ribs were ready. they weren't quite fall off the bone done and needed a little tug to pull the meat from the bone, and there was a little resistance felt pulling the meat from the bone
Sorry, no pics of the finished product, but let me assure you they were mighty tasty if I may say so myself=
You'll notice I used the Maverick ET 732 for this first cook, only using their grill probe to keep an eye on temperatures at the upper grill level where the ribs spent most of their time smoking. the Weber dome thermometer was off as much as 25 degrees f lower than the temps I was seeing at the upper grill grate
After reading on the web and especially here on this forum how happy others were using the Maverick temp probe transmitter and receiver, I felt buying one was the right thing to do and was I ever glad I had it hooked up on this first cook. Why? The outdoor temps last Sunday were in the 90's with the humidity level around the same mark, so I spent most of the cook time in the air conditioned indoors on the sofa peering occasionally at the Maverick receiver LED temp read out
For sure, the temps went up and down but using the lower vents to control temps was fairly easy. I used Publix brand charcoal for this first cook but I bought a couple 20 lb bags of Kingsford Blue (Bundled two together from Home Depot) for the next rib cook, which might come as early as later today=
since I bought two more slabs of ribs to do up yesterday from Publix...but I'll play it by ear, see how the weather shapes up, my work loadAll in all I'm pretty happy with the 14.5" WSM, despite only seasoning it once and having only one cook in it. Happy in that I went for the WSM instead of going the horizontal offset wood fire box smoking route. Again, and I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but most everyone that uses these having nothing but good to say about them, and I can see why, they're simple to operate, fun to use (I'm having fun with mine=
Best,
Jake
Reddick Fla.
