My first boston butt

[Juho A]

Those Performers certainly look good. But I just bought this one and thus I am gonna need to stick with it for a while. I am sure my low&slow's will get better once I have my heatermeter built and running. And today I am going to be grilling some sausages and halloumi etc with it, actually it's only the second time grilling anything on it. The first time I only grilled some sausages, which turned out very nice. Quite a bit less black on the outside than they tend to get on my gas grill, but they felt much hotter inside. Slowly I'll get a feel to how the grill works...

 

[Jerry N.]

Slowly I'll get a feel to how the grill works...

Exactly. Keep cooking and you'll be getting what you want out of it, no matter the brand. FWIW, my first several cooks on my WSM were pretty rough. Temps were anything but stable and me tinkering with it all the time didn't help. However, before long, I could get it to hold temp rock solid for several hours. At that point, I was able to sleep through the night on overnight cooks and, in general, relax. You will too. Not sure what a heatermeter is, but unless it's something you're doing for fun, save your money and just keep practicing. You already have an oven, you'll do fine with your cooker soon enough with a bit more practice.

 

[Juho A]

EDIT: The direct image tags seem to be failing after a while for some reason, so please use this link to see the pics

Made ribs today. The cook succeeded quite well, although the fire almost died on me five times in the first part of the cook. Second part (foil) went with minor adjustments. Next time I will be a bit more brave with seasoning, the taste was quite mild altogether. But happy with the results for a first try on a smoker. I only ever did ribs once before in the oven.

 

[Jerry N.]

Too bad the pictures do not seem to have showed up (at least not for me).

Why did the fire almost die on you (5 times)? What did you do to get it going again?

 

[Juho A]

Thanks, I fixed the pictures now. I am not sure why it almost died, I figured I wouldn't open it and remove the meats, drip pan etc to see, if I was able to get it going again. When I saw the temps start dropping, and opening the dampers a bit didn't do anything, and opening them a lot more didn't do anything either, I opened them wide open and blew into the inlet valve. That way I was able to get it going again, and once the temperature started rising I would put them half way and then even further closed.

The core reason could be that I only had old coals in there. There was quite a pile, so I just piled them all into a pyramid and put two lighter cubes on different sides of the pyramid top. I only put the two hickory chunks in right before I put the drip pan and the meats in.

 

[Jerry N.]

The pictures look great! You did well. It sounds like the ash was choking out the fire. If it wasn't that, it very well could have been the use of old charcoal. For awhile, you should start with fresh charcoal, just to rule out any issues. However, when you say you blew into the inlet valve and that worked, it sounds like you cleared away some of the ash along with giving it a kick of air. Again, looks like good eatin'.

 

[Juho A]

Thanks Jerry, yeah both me and the wife liked those a lot. Unsurprisingly, the kids thought it was icky as there was bones in it. The wife actually separately praised me for my new hobby (or a rather advancement / new angle of an existing one), it is actually near impossible to get this kind of meats in a restaurant in my town. There just isn't any. And I am a big fan of american-style BBQ. Just had a pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw for lunch, out of some leftover pulled pork from a bit over week ago, just froze it freshly then and now thawed for lunch and it was perfect. Not bad with cherry pepsi for a drink either, although on the weekend I prefer to have beer with it.

Good point with the charcoal, I will definitely start the next low&slow with only fresh lumps.

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

You’re getting there, I have to clear the vents on mine too, maybe once during a long cook.
I also think the old coal might be a contributing factor. I always use fresh coals for a smoke and use partially used ones as part of a higher heat cook on the kettle.