I have been reading this board for about 6 months storing away the wealth of information shared amongst all of you ‘Cue experts and finally took the plunge and picked up my WSM 18.5” this past week. Saturday morning I set up to cook 5 racks of St. Louis cuts for the in-laws summer picnic we were heading to later that day. Got up nice and early, rubbed up the ribs, got the charcoal going and was ready to get the ribs on the smoke a bit after 7am. Used a mixture of oak and a piece or two of hickory and was off to the races. I was worried about running hot with the new smoker but actually had some trouble getting it up to temp (would not push much past 200-205 with all vents opened).. I audibled and got some briquettes ready in the chimney and added a few about 2 hours in.
Between the open door and the new briquettes the temp shot up and then worked its way down to in-range. At the halfway point I rotated and hit the ribs with some mop.. 3 racks looked to be well ahead of 2. For the rest of the cook the temp stayed pretty well controlled, I pulled 3 of the racks a little less than 5 hours in, foiled them up and stored them in a cooler. I had to leave the other two on right up until we were getting ready to head out the door a bit over 6 hours in. They stayed piping hot in the foil and were very well received at the picnic. They were probably a bit “too tender” for my personal taste but probably perfect given the ‘lay’ audience that was eating them.
A buddy stopped by to check out the happenings Saturday and insisted I give it another go on Sunday so I decided to have a few people over and picked up an 8lb Pork Butt. Cooked it with one rack of spares I had leftover that I was originally going to freeze and used the foil method on the butt going 4.5 hours on the smoke(was about 170 when I took the temp), about 2.5 in the foil and then took it out and put it back on naked for another 45 mins. Got it up to about 210 degrees internally. Had a bit more trouble keeping temps down on the Sunday cook, was running hot. Pulled the butt, let it rest for an hour, pulled it by hand, added some of my rub and sauce to the mix and served it up with some jersey corn, smoked beans and a jersey tomatoes and cucumber salad my wife made. My criticisms fell on deaf ears and the attendees were more than happy to take home so doggie bags my wife made.
Key learnings.. I definitely need a thermometer for the grate level. I used the lid thermometer and a spare candy thermometer in a cork in the vent that I had lying around and there was a weird discrepancy between the two for most of the cook time (lower on in lid Weber thermometer by 15 degrees). I checked them along with digital meat thermometer I have using hot water and they all came out the same so not sure what the story is.
I did not account for running lower at the grates versus the lid and will need to keep temps a bit more consistent in the future.
Used Wicked Weekend Warrior Saturday and Royal Oak Sunday.. don’t think I started with enough lit on my Saturday smoke for 5 racks.
I know ribs don’t necessarily retain a ton of heat but I feel like they definitely cooked a bit while in foil and on quick ride to in-laws?
Sorry for the novel of a post but was a great first experience, mostly as a result of having read these boards… going to have a pretty big cook coming up on labor day and hope to get one smaller cook on in-between for practice.
Between the open door and the new briquettes the temp shot up and then worked its way down to in-range. At the halfway point I rotated and hit the ribs with some mop.. 3 racks looked to be well ahead of 2. For the rest of the cook the temp stayed pretty well controlled, I pulled 3 of the racks a little less than 5 hours in, foiled them up and stored them in a cooler. I had to leave the other two on right up until we were getting ready to head out the door a bit over 6 hours in. They stayed piping hot in the foil and were very well received at the picnic. They were probably a bit “too tender” for my personal taste but probably perfect given the ‘lay’ audience that was eating them.
A buddy stopped by to check out the happenings Saturday and insisted I give it another go on Sunday so I decided to have a few people over and picked up an 8lb Pork Butt. Cooked it with one rack of spares I had leftover that I was originally going to freeze and used the foil method on the butt going 4.5 hours on the smoke(was about 170 when I took the temp), about 2.5 in the foil and then took it out and put it back on naked for another 45 mins. Got it up to about 210 degrees internally. Had a bit more trouble keeping temps down on the Sunday cook, was running hot. Pulled the butt, let it rest for an hour, pulled it by hand, added some of my rub and sauce to the mix and served it up with some jersey corn, smoked beans and a jersey tomatoes and cucumber salad my wife made. My criticisms fell on deaf ears and the attendees were more than happy to take home so doggie bags my wife made.
Key learnings.. I definitely need a thermometer for the grate level. I used the lid thermometer and a spare candy thermometer in a cork in the vent that I had lying around and there was a weird discrepancy between the two for most of the cook time (lower on in lid Weber thermometer by 15 degrees). I checked them along with digital meat thermometer I have using hot water and they all came out the same so not sure what the story is.
I did not account for running lower at the grates versus the lid and will need to keep temps a bit more consistent in the future.
Used Wicked Weekend Warrior Saturday and Royal Oak Sunday.. don’t think I started with enough lit on my Saturday smoke for 5 racks.
I know ribs don’t necessarily retain a ton of heat but I feel like they definitely cooked a bit while in foil and on quick ride to in-laws?
Sorry for the novel of a post but was a great first experience, mostly as a result of having read these boards… going to have a pretty big cook coming up on labor day and hope to get one smaller cook on in-between for practice.
