Jim McGeever
New member
Hello from Sandy, Utah. I was fortunate enough to get a 22.5” WSM for xmas. As it turned out, it arrived the day after my wife had to leave to spend three weeks on the east coast. So, it was me, the dog and the new smoker left on our own to try and stay out of trouble. I decided to spend my “bachelor weekends” trying to figure out the WSM. To sum it up: I had an absolute blast! This is largely due to the advice and info available on this website. For anyone who is interested, my January shaped up like this:
January 8th –Basic BBQ Chicken, ATBs, Fatty stuffed w/ cheese, wrapped in a bacon weave and smoked mushroom dip. This was a great exercise in learning how to achieve different temps in the WSM by playing with the vents and adding coals (both lit and unlit). It was also nice to be able to finish stuff right over the coals (crispy chicken skin and bacon). I learned a ton on how the WSM works from a functional standpoint and ended up w/ a bunch of great food to share with my friends.
January 15th – Basic baby back ribs – I’ve done ribs before on my Performer but these definitely turned out better and were easier to make. I got to play around w/ the water pan and start to form some of my own opinions on it. And I got to see temps stabilize over a longer period of time. The results were fantastic once again my friends went nuts for the food. The result was a request to feed a bunch of people for the Steelers-Jets game last night. So I set my sights on doing some butts…
January 22nd/23rd – Mr. Brown pork butts. I did two 7-pounders this weekend. They finished in about 14 hours and were amazing!. I learned that I really can trust this thing running all night using the minion method with outside air temps in the low 20s. I also learned what pork butt looks like and (probably more importantly) feels like when it really is “done”. If the bones can be moved around in the shoulder, and you can open it up with two forks with no effort at all – it’s done. Even if your cheap meat thermometer reads an internal temp of 180 degrees. ; )
I really do hope to be able to contribute here in the future. As of right now I’m having a lot of fun just learning the basics. However, I would recommend what I did above to any beginners out there trying to learn how to use the WSM. You’ll learn a bunch and end up w/ great chow that will impress your friends and family. I would also bet that any question you may have is already answered here if you take the time to look around for it. That’s how it was for me anyway.
Thanks again for a great website and to everyone who contributes here.
Jim
January 8th –Basic BBQ Chicken, ATBs, Fatty stuffed w/ cheese, wrapped in a bacon weave and smoked mushroom dip. This was a great exercise in learning how to achieve different temps in the WSM by playing with the vents and adding coals (both lit and unlit). It was also nice to be able to finish stuff right over the coals (crispy chicken skin and bacon). I learned a ton on how the WSM works from a functional standpoint and ended up w/ a bunch of great food to share with my friends.
January 15th – Basic baby back ribs – I’ve done ribs before on my Performer but these definitely turned out better and were easier to make. I got to play around w/ the water pan and start to form some of my own opinions on it. And I got to see temps stabilize over a longer period of time. The results were fantastic once again my friends went nuts for the food. The result was a request to feed a bunch of people for the Steelers-Jets game last night. So I set my sights on doing some butts…
January 22nd/23rd – Mr. Brown pork butts. I did two 7-pounders this weekend. They finished in about 14 hours and were amazing!. I learned that I really can trust this thing running all night using the minion method with outside air temps in the low 20s. I also learned what pork butt looks like and (probably more importantly) feels like when it really is “done”. If the bones can be moved around in the shoulder, and you can open it up with two forks with no effort at all – it’s done. Even if your cheap meat thermometer reads an internal temp of 180 degrees. ; )
I really do hope to be able to contribute here in the future. As of right now I’m having a lot of fun just learning the basics. However, I would recommend what I did above to any beginners out there trying to learn how to use the WSM. You’ll learn a bunch and end up w/ great chow that will impress your friends and family. I would also bet that any question you may have is already answered here if you take the time to look around for it. That’s how it was for me anyway.
Thanks again for a great website and to everyone who contributes here.
Jim
