My first smoke with WSM


 

Marko V.

New member
Hi, I am a new member in this forum, and I thought to report the first cook in my brand new 18" WSM. I had no previous experience with bullet smokers, therefore I did a dry run a day before to try the operation and to see how our local brand of briquettes performs (I am glad that I did it, it was worth it).

On Sunday we were hosting a birthday party for my son and my niece. I wanted a try at several different things. The plan for food preparations and cooking got quite complicated, so I prepared the following Order of Battle in MS Excel to establish the right time to begin and to avoid forgetting anything. I annotated the plan with actual cooking times for future reference.

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First, the Beef Ribs with homemade Texan Rub (salt and freshly ground pepper):

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Then, Chicken Quarters. I love Chicken Quarters; I don't care much for the white meat. Left in brine for 2 hours, then rubbed with salt, pepper and garlic powder in equal proportions:

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And then the Pig a.k.a. The King of the Animals (as it is affectionally called in Slovenia). Spare ribs, cut in half by the friendly butcher, so I could take just the meaty half. This chunk was further split in two to cook one part "dry" and one part "wet". Rubbed with a Memphis-style mixture of brown sugar, salt, pepper, chili powder, paprika, some basil and some other stuff:

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Finally, as my Dad would only eat sausages or lean minced meat, I added a bratwurst, a home-made game sausage (contributed by my farmer friend who also donated apple wood from his orchard for smoking), and pleskavica (think Balkans-syle burger). On impulse, I sprinkled one side of the burger with the ribs rub - if Dad survives, we will all try this next time:

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Here is the operating theater. Rain was forecasted for the afternoon, so I used this tried-and-tested nook under the stairs for shelter. Temperature was about 5 C above freezing. To the right is my freshly acquired trove of apple wood.

Total time of operation was 7 hours. For making smoke, I used mesquito chips for the first 3 hours (beef + start of pork ribs), then chunks of apple wood until the end.

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And here are the final results. Sorry for the photo quality, I was in a great hurry as the whole table of people was waiting to be served. I am happy to say that everybody liked the meat very much. I am extremely satisfied with WSM and looking forward to future cooking adventures. Thanks also for all the valuable info found in this forum on and the accompanying website.

Pork Ribs: excellent, both in wet and dry version:

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Beef ribs: excellent. My wife says they were the best part of the dinner. Next time I will take a larger chunk - I forgot that it will shrink during cooking, therefore it was disintegrating a bit too much. Maybe too much cartilage with respect to meat too, but as nobody complained, who am I to judge?

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Bratwurst: simply the best bratwurst I ever ate. My wife agrees we will never again eat bratwurst other than smoked in WSM. Pleskavica (burger) was a bit overdone, but this is exactly how my Dad likes it, so no complaints (I forgot to taste a chunk).

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Chicken Quarters: a bit of a disappointment, meat was a bit... mushy. Maybe slightly ovedone too. I will investigate this further, because I love chicken and don't want to be left without!

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Finally, a couple of impressions from the dinner table.

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And here are my son and my niece in whose honor we organized the event! (I guess they preferred the delicious cake made by my wife to the meat, though my son politely said that meat very good too.)

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That's one hell of an inaugural cook Marko. You have set the bar high for future cooks. Nicely done and love all the pictures.
 
That's your first time using your WSM? You are a WSM-Jedi Master! Happy belated birthday to your Son & Niece
 
Wow Marko - I think I have discovered your motto: "What do you cook when you don't know what to pick? Everything! That is quite a variety of food and you really hit a home run on your first at bat (and for a party too. You are a brave man my friend...

Regards,

John
 
Wow, what a fantastic job you did Marko! Congratulations for sure. Magnificent looking meal and photos. It all looks delicious. Absolutely love the Bratwurst. Nice Excel work on your spread sheet. I could do that but it would take me a week!
 
Congrats on your new wsm, you really nailed it!!! All of that food looks very tasty!!!!! Nice job!!!!!!!!!
 
Excellent cook, Marko !!!

What area of Slovenia ?
One of my late grandmothers was from Bled, pre WWI. Married the 1st husband at the church on the island.
 
Wow!! What a first cook! Great assortment of food. You really jumped into that cook with your assortment of meats. Thanks for posting.
 
Wonderful looking (and successful!) party ;)

Re: brining the chicken: never have but maybe it was mushy because your brine wasn't ice cold?? Brined a turkey once b4 smoking. Looked great but tasted hammy (to be expected).

BTW, those beef ribs look fannnnnntastic ;)
 
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You hit it out of the park Marko. Great smoke ring on the ribs. You sir are a brave man. Don't know many that would try all those meats on a first cook. As previously stated, you have set the bar very high for future cooks. Keep up the great work.
 
Wow, thank you everyone for your very kind and encouraging comments!
Sorry for responding so late, but I am located in a completely different time zone than most of you...

Marko
 
Wow, what a fantastic job you did Marko! Congratulations for sure. Magnificent looking meal and photos. It all looks delicious. Absolutely love the Bratwurst. Nice Excel work on your spread sheet. I could do that but it would take me a week!

Well, Bratwurst (Slovenian: pečenica) is pretty standard here in wintertime, but it is very rarely (if at all) smoked. I am already thinking about some kind of Bratwurst-rack to be able to cook more of them in a single run.

Regarding Excel, it's just a few colors and some merged cells. What I find particularly practical though is that you can add and subtract time values. So, for example, if you enter your starting time, like 9:30, and then add, say 4:00 (for the cooking time), Excel will calculate the finishing time ( 13:30 or 1:30 PM in this case).
 
Excellent cook, Marko !!!

What area of Slovenia ?
One of my late grandmothers was from Bled, pre WWI. Married the 1st husband at the church on the island.

Haha, a fellow Slovenian (almost) in the forum!! Excellent!!
Do you know of any living relatives here? You should come and visit someday. Lake Bled is one of the most iconic places in Slovenia.
My mom had some relatives in the Cleveland area, but we more or less lost contact after Grandma died.

We live in northern Slovenia, close to the Austrian border, about 20 km north of the capital Ljubljana, just at the foot of the Kamnik Alps.
 
Re: brining the chicken: never have but maybe it was mushy because your brine wasn't ice cold?? Brined a turkey once b4 smoking. Looked great but tasted hammy (to be expected).

Thanks, that could be the reason. Prior to soaking the chicken, I left the brine in the fridge overnight, so it was cold, but not really freezing...
I tried one of the leftovers yesterday, and it is not so terrible, but still much prefer texture of slowly grilled chicken meat.
 
awesome Marko,

first time, whoeee!! looks as if you have been behind the apron enough to get things the way you like! very nice. happy birthday and i'm not sure which i would have dove into if i were invited...speaking of, the U.S. mail is pretty slow, get my invite out a few days earlier next time! well done and welcome to the family. by the way, those beef ribs look massive, never done them, you put a deep growl in my stomach...i'm on that task, maybe this weekend! thanks boss, go easy!
 
That looked like one fantastic meal. Congrats!

You never mentioned it, but just in case, it is best to cook food to temperature...HINT: digital thermometer. For instance, your (dad's) burgers, I pull mine off the smoke at 157-160F and they remain very juicy.
 

 

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