New 22" WSM, totally impressed


 
J

Joel Gradinger

New member
It was nearly impossible to wait a whole day to fire it up, but we're well underway now. This thing works awesome. I've been smoking everything on a 22" OTG and a 27" OTG for years. They work fine for a small meal, but the backyard parties have been getting out of hand lately. More capacity was my only goal, but I can't believe the temerature stability of this monster!

Lit coals at 8pm Central, lit the grill at 8:15 using the "Minion Method" with a 18lb of Kingsford in the chamber and 15 lit coals in the center. Smallish chunks of apple and hickory mixed in the pile, 2 gallons of water in the pan. Was at 170 degrees by 8:30 so I threw on an 8lb Boston butt down low and a 5lb chicken above it. Was at 220 fifteen minutes later, shut down the bottom vents just in time for 40mph winds and heavy rain (covered patio, grill stayed dry). Hovered at 250 during the storm, then settled to 230 by 10:30pm.

Even though I lifted the lid to pull the chicken at 12:15, it was stable at 230 within five minutes. Since then, the temperature swing has been a whopping six degrees!

I used a bit of foil to seal the gaps around the door, and have had the leaward vent opened 25%, the other two closed. Top vent is at 90%.

I can't wait until this thing has nasty black goop on every surface. Will update after lunch tomorrow, or when something catches fire.

Cheers!
 
Welcome to the forum Joel, and congratulations on acquiring your new WSM. You'll love it.

I noticed that you said that you placed the chicken on the top rack and the Boston Butt beneath it. I would suggest that you avoid doing that. There are food safety issues involved. There are people on this forum who have much more knowledge on this topic than me. Hopefully on of them will chime in and provide the scientific explanation.
 
Joel, happy days are here when you fire up your new WSM. Man you must like late night cooks, starting at 8pm. As far as the chicken goes, normally you don't want to cross contaminate raw foul with any other raw meat, utensils, cutting boards, hands etc.
How did the cook turn out? Send pics, we love pics.

Mark
 
Hi Joel, Welcome to the forum. Looks like Christmas came early to Memphis.
Sound like your first cook is going great, but the proof is in the photos.
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aslong as you dont pull the butt before the chicken is done its no problem with a chicken over a butt.

And welcome Joel nice to se you here.
 
Just removed the pork, looks fantastic. Went into a cooler full of hot towels until lunchtime, sauce is on the burner. Starving!

Chicken went on top only because it was last night's dinner -- any juices that dripped onto the pork had hours to cook. Pics to follow.
 
Congrats Joel. I was the same way, I cooked on a kettle for a while. You just can't believe how stable the wsm is until you see it in action. Oh, by the way... If there aren't any pics, then it didn't happen!
 
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