My first EVER Pork Butt Smoke on WSM 22.5" with QMaster Lite ATC and Apple wood


 
G

Gary F

TVWBB Member
I have been gearing up to this for a while and thought I would share my journey with you all.

I got the WSM for my Birthday off my better half and am keen to get cracking! Months of research have brought me to this point and I am almost ready to go this weekend. The only things outstanding are for me to sharpen my knives!

So far I have purchased:
WSM
Weber chimney starter
Qmaster Lite automatic Temp control
Maverick Et 733
Aussie Heat beads (I'm in the UK)
6lb pork shoulder (just a shop bought cheap one to cut my teeth on)
lots of spice for my rub

Progress to date:
I have set the WSM up and done a run with a pound of bacon just to get some grease and smoke in it. The Qmaster lite has been received from China in double quick time and with no import duties so that's a win! Normally in the UK we get hit pretty bad and have to pay import duties on the product and shipping and then tax on top!

I have bought a few extra adaptors to keep my options open on mounting it but at the moment the fan is mounted inside a plastic container with an open bottom (no pun intended) and sealed to the side. This should survive most of the UK weather and I won’t be smoking in torrential rain in any case.

All the electronics will be in an ip68 rated box. The QMaster mounting hardware has a none-return air damper that I have tested, it works fine and even with a modest airflow it opens nice and easy so there are no concerns on that front.

I have also made sure all the thermometers are reading around 220f in a pan of boiling water.

ToDo:
When I get back tonight I will be sharpening my knives as they are incapable of cutting the skin (yes they leave it on in the UK!) or fat off the pork. I will then be putting my rub together and liberally applying to my meat, it will then go in the fridge overnight.

I still need to perform a final assembly of the Qmaster for fit and functionality and attach it to the WSM. I will leave the adapter on the WSM and using the screw thread remove the fan when not in use.
Tomorrow around 9am I will be taking the food out of the fridge and after applying a little more rub. Setting a full charcoal boal with aussie heat beads and then making a well in the middle. Putting 5 good sized chunks of apple wood on top and setting light to about 30 briquettes.. then place them in the well.

I will place my Qmaster temp probe on the grill (using hardware provided) and 1 Maverick probe in the pork and 1 more on the grill. I will set my alarms for the meat to be done at 195 and for the grill temp to alarm for temps lower than 200 or higher than 275.

I plan to smoke at 250 until the meat is at 195! I will then double wrap it and leave for 40 minutes, then shred and serve on home-made bread rolls with coleslaw and sauce on the side (if anyone wants to taint my beautiful meat with sauce) mouth is now watering.

Pictures to follow!

Do you all get this obsessed? And what have I missed?
 
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You might be starting a little late in the morning if you want to eat the same day. Also your smoker is going to take about an hour to come to temp and stabilize. I would shoot more for a 6am light and 7am meat on time.
Your grill temp will drop when you chuck that cold hunk of meat on it. This is normal, don't freak out.
 
My wife doesn't finish work until 20:30 so I was thinking get it fired up at 9am - stable at 10am, 6 lb = 9 hour cook, done by 19:00 - rest until she's ready..
 
I go to bed around 1am.. so I could get the meat out at that time and let it come to room temp... that should hopefully not bring about such a large temp reduction to the grill when the meat is added.
 
Got to have a sharp Knife! not a bad result from my first sharpen.. the blade was pretty nicked in places, after doing about 20 strokes on each side in a pushing motion on both the 400 and 1000 grit it went through the meat very easily.. nowhere near "razor sharp" but sharp enough.

 
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The meat unprepared, as I said being my first smoke this is just cheap supermarket meat. I don't want to go all out on the good stuff until my skills are much improved.



Prepared and tied, it weighs around 5.3 pounds with all the fat and skin removed. I threw the skin away, some of my relatives would kill me if they found out as they like to cook the skin high until it goes hard - they call it "crackling" I find it most repugnant.



The all important rub, I am going with a recipe found on another site, 3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
--3/4 cup white sugar
--1/2 cup American paprika (for the brits - this is spanish or sweet parpika)
--1/4 cup garlic powder
--2 tablespoons ground black pepper
--2 tablespoons ground ginger powder
--2 tablespoons onion powder
--2 TEASPOONS rosemary

After mixing it didn't smell at all like a "bbq" rub. But when i took the meat out of the fridge this morning it had a very sweet BBQ smell, almost smelt good enough to eat raw.

 
Now for the control system! Qmaster Lite.

Weber adapter, attached to the weber using 2 toggle bolts - the ones you use to fix things to plasterboard. 5mm diamater 75mm long. Notice the damper, very lightweight metal that the 10cfm fan can easily move.



The 10cfm fan in makeshift waterproof housing.



Silicon sealed female adapter



and joined together..

 
Now for the money shot! the QMaster lite. I nearly went for the senior but this one seems so much simpler to me being a novice. Switch it on, adjust temp; that's it! Or at least I thought. I had set it to C rather than F - so programmed it for 250c!!! 450f. Luckily I quickly spotted my mistake. It was easy to switch over, hold both buttons until it flashes.. wait until it displays C/F---C and press + so F is on the right. DONE!

I am pleasantly surprised by the quality of the product, the case is well made. The adapters are all stainless steel and fit perfectly together. The temp control works perfectly.. as soon it hit 250 the fan stopped.. every now and again it drops below and the fan fires up until the temp breaches 250. The maverick temp reads between 239-241 solid! no movement beyond this range at all so the reaction of the Qmaster is certainly precise. the 11f difference could be attributed to a slightly different placement or the fact that the "crocodile clip" holding the Qmaster temp probe is conducting slightly more heat to the temp probe than the mavericks. Next time I might use the spare maverick probe and/or calibrate the Qmaster temp probe in boiling water.. but for this smoke its holding in the range so I am very happy.



all boxed up in ip68 rated box



 
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Time to fire it up! quite embarrassingly my first attempt to light failed! I used the "paper doughnut" method.. the paper burnt and I was hopeful but it quickly became apparent that it wasn't lit.







Luckily I had some firelighters so I used 2 small cubes under the chimney and had it going in no time.


 
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I decided to switch the Qmaster off until temp was nearer my holding range as i didnt want the fan firing up all the charcoal... it was climbing nicely but I figured this would be the best in the long run. You can see the probe temp is in C!!!!



As previously mentioned my mistake! 250c.



Quickly changed it to F.
 
ready to close her up... pan filled with hot water as outside temp is around 40f.






Now the wait!! lid went on around 09:45,, temp stabilised around 10:30am.
 
I just checked the fuel and there is plenty left.. about half of the 8kg of briquettes I put on. I think I may be through the stall, its 167 now... I dont know how long it was at 165 as I was out.. but it took until 17:02 to change.
 
17:54 and internal temp is 169.. I wanted it done at 19:45 so it could rest for 40 minutes before serving.. not sure it's going to make it. I may increase grill temp to 275 if it doesn't start making progress in next 20 minutes.
 
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