New 22.5 WSM Owner needs help


 
J

John Sealey

New member
Hellow all I am new to the world of BBQ. (Bought the WSM last week). I broke it in with some ribbs and I'm ready for a big cook. I am having a birthday party this saturday and having about 60 guests. I ordered six 8lb butts and will have burgers and hot dogs as well. I have tried to read as much as I can from this site, some realy good info. This is my plan so far. Going to keep it simple and use recipe from manual that came with the smoker. I will use the water pan as suggested for newbies. Will start cooking about midnight friday night
and hopefully we can eat by 6pm saturday.Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 
That is a whole lot of pork!! There are good recipes on this site and I have used Amazing ribs.com has good recipes as well. Temp control is going to be your biggest battle with that much meat. I have been using the Stubbs briquets from Lowes and they have great staying power compared to Kingsford blue. As you will read on this site and I agree each cut of meat is different which will affect your cooking time. I would recommend using temp probes for the upper and lower grill to make sure your temps are where you want them for the cook. I have found the dome thermometer off anywhere 10-15 degrees to grill temp.

Pork butts are very forgiving you will do fine and I wish you good luck.
 
Thanks for the encouragement. I'm a little nervous this is the first time doing this much meat. I won't see the meat until thursday as I had to order it. I checked the dome thermometer with boiling water and it was accurate 212ish.
Do you think my timing will be close. That is what I worry about the most. It would have been nice to gain more experiance first but I like to live on the edge and I'll have burgers for a back up.
 
You should be fine. Pork butt is very forgiving.

I agree with Marc check out amazingribs.com Meathead's Memphis dust is great (as is his recipe for Kansas City BBQ sauce.)

Use a Minion Method burn. Fill your charcoal ring with unlit, pull 1/2 a chimney and light it. When lit, dump it back on top of the unlit. Assemble your WSM and stabilize the temp with your vents.

Your best bet is to get a good digital thermometer...the termo in the WSM is not reliable. If you do stick with the WSM thermo, just do your best to keep it in the middle of the "good" zone.

Be sure and monitor the temp of the meat, especially if you just use the WSM thermometer. When the butts hit 190 pull them and wrap in foil and stick in your oven at 175 for an hour or two. Then pull and serve with your favorite sauce.

JJ
 
really? you have had your smoker for a week and have committed to cooking for 60???? are you crazy????
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Good Luck!!!! Pulled pork is pretty easy and very forgiving...let us all know how it turns out!
 
I like your ambition! You definitely need a couple temp probes in the meat. Probes in the chamber are great, but nothing is IMHO as important as knowing the temp of your meat. Follow JJ's advice about foiling and resting in the oven.

I would suggest a couple things. Rub them Thursday night. I am also a big fan of injecting them with apple juice.

Lastly do not forget that they do not pull themselves. You may want to draft some help. Prepping all that meat will take some time and you should be able to enjoy your party too!

Good luck!
 
Yes my wife thinks i'm crazy too. I've got a digital cordless meat thermometer thats supposed to be good for 100' but is more like 25'. But what do you want for $20 at wall mart? I checked with boiling water and it read 212. Plus I've got a regular meat thermometer. I will be keeping an eye on the meat temp. Can you guys state side keep the remnants from the tropical storm on your side of the border untill after saturday, I'd appreciate it.
 
John the only thing I would suggest is putting them on earlier maybe 10pm. It will give you a little leeway and some relax time on Saturday. You can always hold them in a cooler or in the oven.

Welcome to the forum.
 
John, I've kept butts in a cooler for 4 hours with no problem.
I don't know if this will help your confidence but here's a thread when I did my first big smoke on my 18.5. I did 4 pork butts. The cook took a long time because I didn't push the temp up and the low number of coals I used for the Minion Method caused the cooker to take 2 hours to come up to cook temp..
I would recommend that you use at least a half chimney of hot coals for the Minion Method and cook at 250-275 degrees grate temp. Butts are very forgiving and I've had great butt cooks with temp excursions above 300 degrees. You'll do fine.
 
Just did 30 Lbs. myself (4 butts). (MY fourth cook on my WSM).
I agree with Bob, I would start them sooner. You can leave the butts in a cooler for a long while, if they get done sooner then you want, BUT you will need to pull a lot of meat! Took me an hour to pull the butts out of the cooler and pull them one at a time.
I started my four at 12:30 in the morning. I pulled two off the smoker at 190 13 hours(1:00)pm and the bottom rack two butts came off 45 min. later. 2 hours in the cooler, then an hour to pull. I was running around tryin' to get it done in time.
Only other thing I have to say is about bark, your smoker is going to be packed, meat will be touching. And that might slow things down just a bit, but I wouldn't worry about it.
I would start 2 hours earlier.
 
Yes I think that I will start at 10pm instead of 12. Or do you think I should start earler. Is the time in the cooler part of the cooking process or just a way to hold the meat?
 
It's a way to hold the meat above the 140-145* range and delay the pulling process to avoid bacteria contamination. Some folks will use hot water in the cooler (watch it though, some coolers may not be able to hold up to hot water) and can keep the butts longer than 4 hours if needed. If you plan on a long holding process, I would use your remote thermometer to monitor the temp of the butts in the cooler.
 
Well 70 pounds of butt on at 10pm. Was a tight fit. Water pan is full watched Jay Leno and now half way through Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Temp on the dome guage is stable on the low side of BBQ.Think I'll turn in and get up at 6am and turn the butts over and add more fuel.
 
Well I planned on getting up at 6 but had a bit too much 40 Creek before bed. I got up at 7. Charcoal is almost gone and dome temp. is down to 190. I flipped the bottom butts over and inserted the meat thermometer. I added more charcoal and the temp came back up right away. Meat temp is 167.
 
Morning John, Crossing the Dakotas now. lol. Good going John. It's quite amazing how the temps are so easy to maintain huh. Your almost there!
I was up a few hours ago wondering about your cook. God! I'm addicted, I'm getting excited about other peoples cook! Take photos if you can.
 
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