My second WSM cook is done.


 
W

Wayne Dimirsky

TVWBB Super Fan
I just completed my second WSM cook since I got my 18.5" in the beginning of Feb. I cooked a couple of racks of BB ribs again. I love ribs so it was a no brainer on cooking these again.

I just used a dry rub I made from a post somewhere on here. I cooked the ribs at 245-259 degrees for a little over 4 hours and they seemed to have turned out pretty good. I think I like them a little better than the last ones I cooked at 235-245. These are not as mushy as the last time and I cooked the last ones longer.

I had a new charcoal bowl this time around since the last one was out of round and temps kept pretty steady the whole cook. I used the minion method again with a full ring of unlit and about 30 lit on top. I did the minion method a little different than last time. This time I hollowed out the middle of the unlit a little bit and poured the lit inside. The last time I spread the lit around the top of the unlit. I don't know if there is much difference but my temps were more steady this time but that was probably from the new charcoal bowl.

I also got to use my new Maverick ET-732 this time and it made things a lot easier. I stayed in the house most of the cook vs running out to check on temps all of the time.

All in all it was a good cook and I love how steady this thing is on temps. Here is a picture of the finished product.
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Wayne
 
Wayne, beautiful color on those ribs. Congrats on a fine second cook. Thanks for the pics and the report.

Mark
 
Thanks guys, I'm pretty happy with the results. We just got done eating most of one rack and they were very good. They turned out just about perfect on how I like ribs.

Wayne
 
I did forget to mention that I used a windbreak this time that I recently built. It was kind of windy today and it came in handy and probably made a differece in how the cook came out. During most of the cook I also had the bottom vents completely closed and the top vent at 3/4 open. With this setup, the temps pretty much stayed between 248 and 255.

This new charcoal bowl is slightly out of round but nothing like the original one. I just checked the coals and I still have quite a bit left and its three hours after I took the ribs off and shut the top vent completely closed. Its still burning so I know that it still has some air coming in. I guess I need to start figuring out how much charcoal I need to use for the shorter cooks so I'm not wasting it.

Wayne
 
Wayne,
Nice Looking Ribs. No Foil? Looks very good. How did you put them in the 18.5"? I have been using a cheap Rib rack and I have yet to get an even color like you show in the picture.
Did you use the Maverick for both meat temp and the smoker temp?
I think that is going to be my next BBQ purchase.

Brad
 
Nice job, Wayne. Those ribs look great.

Regarding how much charcoal to use: I just fill up the chamber all the way. When I'm done, close all vents and the fire shuts down fairly quickly. I just use the leftover coals on the next cook. For me, it's easier than trying to guess how much I'll go through and worrying about the possibility of adding fuel mid-cook.

Jim
 
Brad,
I did not foil the ribs. I did foil the water pan with no water. I did not open the lid the entire cook. I placed the ribs on the top grate bone down and curved like you see on the plate.

I did not use the meat probe on the 732, just the grate probe.

I didn't get to check the coals this morning to see if there were any left. I doubt it since the coals were still burning three hours after shutting all the vents down.

Wayne
 
Wayne once the inside of your cooker gunks up a bit you will get less air leakage and the coals will go out after you shut the vents. You probably wont be able to close the bottom vents all the way anymore either.

Oh and those ribs look great.
 
I checked the coals when I got home from work and they were all gone but I did discover that one of the lower vents was slightly open so that was probably why. With the wind break in place, I couldn't see that side of the smoker that well and thought it was closed all the way.

Thanks to everyone for the positive comments. These are the only two times I have ever smoked anything and this website and all of the great information on here helped make it a sucess.

Now I want to branch out into smoking some other things and see how it goes. Now I'm off to eat the leftovers.

Wayne
 
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