New 18.5 Owner - a few quick questions


 
V

VictorBroccoli

New member
Hey all,

Glad to be the owner of a brand new 18.5 WSM, and I'm planning on my first cook this weekend. I just have a couple of questions, which I just couldn't find digging through old threads.

1. I'm planning two pork shoulders, which would seem to involve a 14 hour or so cook. It should be in the 20's here in NJ. Will a full load of charcoal with Minion work for this cook? If not, how long will a full load last?

2. Small threat of a small amount of snow - any precautions to take?

3. Any advice on the water pan given the cold weather?

Thanks in advance,
Victor
 
Welcome to the forum Victor. If you look around, you will see a wealth of information to go with the quick answers I am going to give you. There are many discussions about each of your questions somewhere on here

1. 14 hours depends on the size of the shoulders individually. Figure 2 hours per pound to be safe at 250 degrees give or take. At that outside temp, you may need to refill the ring with some more coals. Ideally if you could insulate the wsm it would burn less fuel

2. No worries about snow except as mentioned above with fuel consumption. Again, insulation would be best. A small amount of snow may get in the vent but I would think that would be negligible

3. Ditch the water in the pan and get a 14" clay saucer to fit in the water pan. It will take less fuel to keep it at temp and help to regulate temps

These are only brief answers. I'm sure people will chime in, but in the meantime, do some searches and you will find volumes on here

Good luck and let us know how it goes
 
Agree. Wind is NOT a friend of the WSM. I've smoked in the snow as well without any negative effects. Where in NJ are you? Oh and welcome aboard.
 
Thank you for all of the help. The forum has been a tremendous wealth of information, just was looking for a quick answer on those couple of issues.

I'm up in Ramsey (Bergen Co).
 
If you use no water and keep the WSM out of the wind, a FULL load of charcoal will get the job done. Personally, I think you can get 12-16 hours out of a full load and at that point, if my butts were not done, I'd throw them in the oven and call it a day. Personally, I have not had to do that yet on a two butt cook. Good luck.
 
As before stated if you ditch the water you will get a longer cook out of 1 load of charcoal. I've only had my WSM for a few months and used water a few times. When I experimented with out it I found I didn't really need it and haven't used it since.
 
I agree that you should be able to make all or most of the cook on a load of charcoal; with it that cold you may have to add some late in the cook.

But I caution that going without water in the pan can make it more tricky to keep the temp low and steady. For a new cook, the water is a nice help. I recommend water for now, then try going dry later on when you have developed a feel for dialing in temps and no company is coming over.
 
^^^ THAT, was a freak and very well could have happened without the saucer and just a foiled pan. There's literally hundreds of guys who use the saucer. I'm still trying to figure out how you got so much seepage under the saucer. A 14" saucer is a perfect fit into the water pan and a piece of 18" foil will wrap everything perfectly.

View of said 14" saucer into the water pan of my 18.5" WSM

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View through the door
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18" foil wrapped over the top of everything creates a huge 'bowl' to catch drippings. From here, I add a second layer and it's the second layer which I remove and toss into the trash each & every cook. If I do get any seepage, the base layer catches it.
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