Hey all, just another newbie checking in. Wanted to share some details about a recent cook so hopefully others can learn from me and I can learn from you.
I've had my 22.5 WSM for a couple months now and it's been getting good use. I've done spareribs, pork butt, brisket, tri-tip, chicken, and even a few fatties so far. I'm fairly new to barbecue (been at it for just over a year now), having worked on a modified offset before. Gotta say I love the WSM. You can't put a price on getting to SLEEP during an overnight cook....
I've tried a grip of different rubs and sauces, but as someone who is new to this fine hobby, I found it strange that I've never tried using just SALT and PEPPER to see how good I was really cooking -- no sugar and spices to hide behind, just smoke and meat. So, I decided to have a go with a couple of pork butts.
I bought two bone-in Boston butts, each weighing about 7 lbs. After letting them sit in the cryo package in the fridge for a week, I rinsed the meat and trimmed all but 1/8" fat off the bottom cap. I then spread a light layer of vegetable oil on both, rubbed down one of the butts with ~1/2 cup of my normal rub (North Carolina style), and the other with a 1:1 mixture of kosher salt and medium-to-coarse ground black pepper, about 4.5 teaspoons each. Each got wrapped up in cling film and tossed back in the fridge for a day.
The next morning, it was time to cook. I filled up the charcoal ring to the top with unlit Kingsford Blue and put 12 briquettes in my Weber chimney to get lit (I've flipped the grate on my chimney for this purpose). After the charcoal in the chimney was ashed over, I spread it evenly-spaced on top of the unlit in the charcoal ring and let it sit there to get some of the unlit briquettes engaged. After about 30 minutes, I assembled the cooker, dumped four gallons of hot water into the water pan (this is a new WSM with the deeper water pan), and put my meat on the top rack (fat cap down) with a temp probe on the grate. I then placed a 4 oz chunk of apple wood on the fire and let the cooker come up to temp, all vents open. Once the temperature reached 195º, I closed down one vent completely. When it reached 220ºF, I closed down another vent completely, when it reached 240ºF, I closed down the last vent completely and managed to hold the temp at 250ºF for the entire cook by making very small adjustments with the lid vent.
For smoke, after my first chunk of wood burned up (~30-40 minutes), I alternated equal-sized chunks of hickory and apple for the rest of the first two hours. After that, no more wood. Just let that thin blue ride until it was done, and boy did it smell sweet.
After five hours of not lifting the lid, I did bark check as Harry Soo describes; scratch it with your fingernail and make sure it's set. Mine wasn't set (keep in mind I was using water), so I let it go another hour. After 6 hours, it was well and barked, so I sprayed both quickly with distilled white vinegar and wrapped them tightly with foil. Another hour later, I unwrapped the butts and gave the blade bone a gentle tug to see where they were at -- it was still a little tight, so I checked every 30 minutes until, after a full cook time of 9 hours, they were ready to come out clean. For you thermometer junkies, the internal temp here was around 198ºF. The two butts then got transferred inside where I opened the tops of their foil wraps to let them bleed off some heat and cool down. I put a meat probe in one and monitored it until the internal temp came down to ~175ºF before I wrapped them back up, threw some beach towels around them, and tossed them in a cooler to rest for another hour. Now the good part...
Both came out of the cooler and pulled beautifully. Both were juicy, tender, and delicious. Some people preferred the Carolina rub, and some people preferred the salt and pepper. My takeaway was this: don't try to overcomplicate good cooking. Letting the meat stand alone doesn't give you much to hide behind, but if you do your job well then the payoff is even more rewarding.
Here's how they looked (one pulled, one whole):
And after all that, I decided to bake some no-knead artisan bread on the WSM. Love this thing!
I used water in the pan to help keep a steady temp and a humid smoker atmosphere, but my next cook will be with just a foil-lined pan for a few reasons:
1. Cleaning the water pan is not fun.
2. The cold meat already has a moist surface as it purges water/juices.
3. I've gotten good at maintaining temps without water on my shorter rib and tri-tip cooks.
4. I'm tired of cleaning flakes out of the inside of my cooker.
I learned a lot from this particular cook and hopefully my experience helps you too. Comments/suggestions are more than welcome. From a long-time lurker, I just want to thank everyone for all the information shared on this site. It's been a huge help and saved me from a lot of headaches.
I've had my 22.5 WSM for a couple months now and it's been getting good use. I've done spareribs, pork butt, brisket, tri-tip, chicken, and even a few fatties so far. I'm fairly new to barbecue (been at it for just over a year now), having worked on a modified offset before. Gotta say I love the WSM. You can't put a price on getting to SLEEP during an overnight cook....
I've tried a grip of different rubs and sauces, but as someone who is new to this fine hobby, I found it strange that I've never tried using just SALT and PEPPER to see how good I was really cooking -- no sugar and spices to hide behind, just smoke and meat. So, I decided to have a go with a couple of pork butts.
I bought two bone-in Boston butts, each weighing about 7 lbs. After letting them sit in the cryo package in the fridge for a week, I rinsed the meat and trimmed all but 1/8" fat off the bottom cap. I then spread a light layer of vegetable oil on both, rubbed down one of the butts with ~1/2 cup of my normal rub (North Carolina style), and the other with a 1:1 mixture of kosher salt and medium-to-coarse ground black pepper, about 4.5 teaspoons each. Each got wrapped up in cling film and tossed back in the fridge for a day.
The next morning, it was time to cook. I filled up the charcoal ring to the top with unlit Kingsford Blue and put 12 briquettes in my Weber chimney to get lit (I've flipped the grate on my chimney for this purpose). After the charcoal in the chimney was ashed over, I spread it evenly-spaced on top of the unlit in the charcoal ring and let it sit there to get some of the unlit briquettes engaged. After about 30 minutes, I assembled the cooker, dumped four gallons of hot water into the water pan (this is a new WSM with the deeper water pan), and put my meat on the top rack (fat cap down) with a temp probe on the grate. I then placed a 4 oz chunk of apple wood on the fire and let the cooker come up to temp, all vents open. Once the temperature reached 195º, I closed down one vent completely. When it reached 220ºF, I closed down another vent completely, when it reached 240ºF, I closed down the last vent completely and managed to hold the temp at 250ºF for the entire cook by making very small adjustments with the lid vent.
For smoke, after my first chunk of wood burned up (~30-40 minutes), I alternated equal-sized chunks of hickory and apple for the rest of the first two hours. After that, no more wood. Just let that thin blue ride until it was done, and boy did it smell sweet.
After five hours of not lifting the lid, I did bark check as Harry Soo describes; scratch it with your fingernail and make sure it's set. Mine wasn't set (keep in mind I was using water), so I let it go another hour. After 6 hours, it was well and barked, so I sprayed both quickly with distilled white vinegar and wrapped them tightly with foil. Another hour later, I unwrapped the butts and gave the blade bone a gentle tug to see where they were at -- it was still a little tight, so I checked every 30 minutes until, after a full cook time of 9 hours, they were ready to come out clean. For you thermometer junkies, the internal temp here was around 198ºF. The two butts then got transferred inside where I opened the tops of their foil wraps to let them bleed off some heat and cool down. I put a meat probe in one and monitored it until the internal temp came down to ~175ºF before I wrapped them back up, threw some beach towels around them, and tossed them in a cooler to rest for another hour. Now the good part...
Both came out of the cooler and pulled beautifully. Both were juicy, tender, and delicious. Some people preferred the Carolina rub, and some people preferred the salt and pepper. My takeaway was this: don't try to overcomplicate good cooking. Letting the meat stand alone doesn't give you much to hide behind, but if you do your job well then the payoff is even more rewarding.
Here's how they looked (one pulled, one whole):
And after all that, I decided to bake some no-knead artisan bread on the WSM. Love this thing!
I used water in the pan to help keep a steady temp and a humid smoker atmosphere, but my next cook will be with just a foil-lined pan for a few reasons:
1. Cleaning the water pan is not fun.
2. The cold meat already has a moist surface as it purges water/juices.
3. I've gotten good at maintaining temps without water on my shorter rib and tri-tip cooks.
4. I'm tired of cleaning flakes out of the inside of my cooker.
I learned a lot from this particular cook and hopefully my experience helps you too. Comments/suggestions are more than welcome. From a long-time lurker, I just want to thank everyone for all the information shared on this site. It's been a huge help and saved me from a lot of headaches.
