Steve Haack
TVWBB Member
I ended up getting a Weber Performer, and a slow and sear to go with it. While so far I've been extremely happy with how it puts out very even high heat for 2-zone cooking, I put the "Slow" portion to the test over a weekend with separate cooks of pork butt and racks of ribs. I'm certainly no pitmaster, but with the amount of rave reviews the SnS gets about performance and ease of use, I expected it to be even less fussing than the WSM.
For temperature maintenance I found that to be pretty true. Once it settled into a temp between 235-245 it mostly stayed there, except when it started running low on charcoal, which it did with alarming frequency compared to what I was expecting.
On the pork butt, which was a 10.5 hr cook, I ended up adding a dozen to dozen and a half briquettes twice, and then at the 8 hour mark more or less started from scratch, shaking the basket down to the tiny coals left, piling them in one corner, and reloading the entire basket like I was starting a fresh cook.
For the ribs, while I did not need to add charcoal, the temperature dipped multiple times and I needed to knock the ash off and clear the bottom vents of all the ash buildup (which I had not seen anybody talk about having to do in any video or review online for a >6hr cook).
I'm struggling to think of how this thing would season or improve with more cooks, because it's just a big half moon of steel, but does it? Are there any particular tips or tricks or issues using it that'd cause way higher than expected charcoal usage? I tried to use it exactly as instructed - KBB and all.
For temperature maintenance I found that to be pretty true. Once it settled into a temp between 235-245 it mostly stayed there, except when it started running low on charcoal, which it did with alarming frequency compared to what I was expecting.
On the pork butt, which was a 10.5 hr cook, I ended up adding a dozen to dozen and a half briquettes twice, and then at the 8 hour mark more or less started from scratch, shaking the basket down to the tiny coals left, piling them in one corner, and reloading the entire basket like I was starting a fresh cook.
For the ribs, while I did not need to add charcoal, the temperature dipped multiple times and I needed to knock the ash off and clear the bottom vents of all the ash buildup (which I had not seen anybody talk about having to do in any video or review online for a >6hr cook).
I'm struggling to think of how this thing would season or improve with more cooks, because it's just a big half moon of steel, but does it? Are there any particular tips or tricks or issues using it that'd cause way higher than expected charcoal usage? I tried to use it exactly as instructed - KBB and all.