Bob Marlatt
TVWBB Member
After all these Qs I decided to try my first Minion Method on a 4.6lb pork shoulder. I made some errors and would like to share my experience. If only I had consulted the discussions first! My mistakes:
1. Too many coals to start. I fired up 25. Kingsford.
2. Too much coal in the ring. I really loaded up...filled the ring right to the top.
3. Hot water in the pan
Too hot? After adding the hot coals just before 7am and assembling the WSM, my temp showed around 245. Cool, just as planned. I added the meat to the top grate and 2 chunks of apple wood to the fire. Closed the bottom vents and started to keep a lazy eye on it. At hour 2 it was up to 270. hour 3, 4, and 5 a little over 290. It sure holds steady as we all know!
With all the bottom vents closed there ain't much you can do other than scoop out some fuel (which I did not). At the 4 hour mark I added ice water to the pan and spritzed with apple juice. The cooker never started to cool until hour 7 (250) Then started a slow descent to 230 when I shut down after 11 hours, with lots of unused coals leftover.
Interestingly the internal temp was over 185 after 8 hours but it was still firm so I figured I couldn't hurt it by cooking more. As the cooker temp dropped so did the internal meat temp. I checked it once an hour and it was hovering in the mid-170s.
Of course with the WSM you usually have a happy ending, and we did. I removed it after 11 hours because it was literally falling apart. Maybe after all those probe pokes it just said "no mas!" The meat pulled real easy, wasn't dried out, and most of the brown made it to my tummy before it hit the plate. My wife calls it the burnt part...he he he. And the best part was my 4 year old loved it.
In conclusion I realized that I was using way too much charcoal for so small a cut. I was worried about my first Minion Method atempt and didn't want to chase the temps too low all day. I ended up watching helplessly instead as my temps hovered near 300 for 4 hours. But the meat was fatty enough that it took it like a champ and yielded a very tasty meal with plenty of leftovers.
Bob Marlatt
1. Too many coals to start. I fired up 25. Kingsford.
2. Too much coal in the ring. I really loaded up...filled the ring right to the top.
3. Hot water in the pan
Too hot? After adding the hot coals just before 7am and assembling the WSM, my temp showed around 245. Cool, just as planned. I added the meat to the top grate and 2 chunks of apple wood to the fire. Closed the bottom vents and started to keep a lazy eye on it. At hour 2 it was up to 270. hour 3, 4, and 5 a little over 290. It sure holds steady as we all know!
With all the bottom vents closed there ain't much you can do other than scoop out some fuel (which I did not). At the 4 hour mark I added ice water to the pan and spritzed with apple juice. The cooker never started to cool until hour 7 (250) Then started a slow descent to 230 when I shut down after 11 hours, with lots of unused coals leftover.
Interestingly the internal temp was over 185 after 8 hours but it was still firm so I figured I couldn't hurt it by cooking more. As the cooker temp dropped so did the internal meat temp. I checked it once an hour and it was hovering in the mid-170s.
Of course with the WSM you usually have a happy ending, and we did. I removed it after 11 hours because it was literally falling apart. Maybe after all those probe pokes it just said "no mas!" The meat pulled real easy, wasn't dried out, and most of the brown made it to my tummy before it hit the plate. My wife calls it the burnt part...he he he. And the best part was my 4 year old loved it.
In conclusion I realized that I was using way too much charcoal for so small a cut. I was worried about my first Minion Method atempt and didn't want to chase the temps too low all day. I ended up watching helplessly instead as my temps hovered near 300 for 4 hours. But the meat was fatty enough that it took it like a champ and yielded a very tasty meal with plenty of leftovers.
Bob Marlatt