Hello there! Thank you for having me on your excellent discussion board.
I'm a rare WSB owner in New York City. Temperatures can get a little low here. Reading through the board, it is interesting to me that one of the biggest issues everyone seems to have is keeping the temperature down in the smoker. I have the exact opposite problem, and it seems to be getting worse - I've owned the smoker for about ten years <span class="flash-video"> </span> <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> </pre> .
For the Super Bowl I tried to smoke ribs - I went through two chimneys full of charcoal that barely heated up the meat before giving up and finishing the ribs in the oven (they were still pretty tasty) - my guess is that. Using the same bag of Kingsford charcoal this weekend, I intended to smoke a lamb shoulder and about 6 pounds of kielbasa and I had the same problem. Using the same bag of charcoal, I was only able to get the meat up to 85 or 90 degrees.
Hoping to attribute my previous failures to a dud bag of charcoal, I purchased a new bag (also Kingsford) and tried once again to smoke the meat in question. My method is as follows, which I think closely follows the standard method (although I am eager to try the Minion method): I heat a chimney full of charcoal - when the top charcoals in the chimney have just lit I pour the charcoal into the chamber / ring on the bottom grate of the WSB and try to spread them out evenly. Often, I'll add a little bit of smoked hardwood for flavor. I also usually fill the water pan about half way, which I feel provides a moister smoking environment, although I realize this is up for debate. I typically start with the bottom vents all about half way open and the top vent closed. This is done in an effort to keep air going to the fire and keep smoke in the WSB. Once I get the coals in the smoker, I immediately add the meat to the smoker and close the WSB to start the smoking process. In reading through the board, it surprised me to learn that this was the wrong approach - almost everyone using the standard method of smoking recommends starting with the bottom vents closed and the top vents open, presumably to keep temperature down and prevent too fast of a burn.
After having read through the board a bit, I took my new bag of Kingsford and tried to alter my approach a bit. I started a chimney full of charcoal in the same fashion and added it to the smoker, trying to wait a moment longer before adding it to make sure all the coals were lit. Once again, I added a small amount of wood to the lit coals for flavor. I reduced the content of the water pan to a very small amount of water, figuring that the water was absorbing valuable heat. I kept the top vent open and and had the bottom vents open only about 25% of the way, and put the meat on the grill.
At first, I was pretty optimistic - the fire seamed to be going steadily - I put a thermometer through the top vent and measured 175 degrees. The temperature stayed at 175 degrees or maybe a little bit higher for 60-90 minutes and then started to fall. After about two and a half hours, the temperature inside the lamb was only about 100 degrees, and there seemed to be minimal heat coming from the smoker.
When I opened the smoker, I could see that the coals in the bottom ring were almost entirely intact - in the past, I've seen coals, especially Kingsford, burn down almost to cinder bits. These still had almost their full volume and some were still black on the outside. I took a picture but can't figure out a way to attach it. Since company was arriving shortly, I had to finish cooking the lamb in the oven, of all the indignities! Also - it was a great day for smoking - about 65 degrees and no wind.
I've always had problems maintaining heat - I've found that I often had to prepare a new batch of charcoal after or 3 hours, but I was able to maintain heat for a fair amount of time. However, the last few times were far worse.
So my questions are is if you guys out there think I'm doing something wrong, which I think I must be, because I think two consecutive bad bags of charcoal is unlikely.
Could I be removing coals from the chimney too soon or too late? I tend to not think that I'm allowing the fire to burn too fast, since the temperature never gets too high, and the coals don't seem to finish burning. I can't imagine that it's an issue with the smoker, which is in good condition by all appearances.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thank you in advance for your help.
-- Isaac Esterman
I'm a rare WSB owner in New York City. Temperatures can get a little low here. Reading through the board, it is interesting to me that one of the biggest issues everyone seems to have is keeping the temperature down in the smoker. I have the exact opposite problem, and it seems to be getting worse - I've owned the smoker for about ten years <span class="flash-video"> </span> <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> </pre> .
For the Super Bowl I tried to smoke ribs - I went through two chimneys full of charcoal that barely heated up the meat before giving up and finishing the ribs in the oven (they were still pretty tasty) - my guess is that. Using the same bag of Kingsford charcoal this weekend, I intended to smoke a lamb shoulder and about 6 pounds of kielbasa and I had the same problem. Using the same bag of charcoal, I was only able to get the meat up to 85 or 90 degrees.
Hoping to attribute my previous failures to a dud bag of charcoal, I purchased a new bag (also Kingsford) and tried once again to smoke the meat in question. My method is as follows, which I think closely follows the standard method (although I am eager to try the Minion method): I heat a chimney full of charcoal - when the top charcoals in the chimney have just lit I pour the charcoal into the chamber / ring on the bottom grate of the WSB and try to spread them out evenly. Often, I'll add a little bit of smoked hardwood for flavor. I also usually fill the water pan about half way, which I feel provides a moister smoking environment, although I realize this is up for debate. I typically start with the bottom vents all about half way open and the top vent closed. This is done in an effort to keep air going to the fire and keep smoke in the WSB. Once I get the coals in the smoker, I immediately add the meat to the smoker and close the WSB to start the smoking process. In reading through the board, it surprised me to learn that this was the wrong approach - almost everyone using the standard method of smoking recommends starting with the bottom vents closed and the top vents open, presumably to keep temperature down and prevent too fast of a burn.
After having read through the board a bit, I took my new bag of Kingsford and tried to alter my approach a bit. I started a chimney full of charcoal in the same fashion and added it to the smoker, trying to wait a moment longer before adding it to make sure all the coals were lit. Once again, I added a small amount of wood to the lit coals for flavor. I reduced the content of the water pan to a very small amount of water, figuring that the water was absorbing valuable heat. I kept the top vent open and and had the bottom vents open only about 25% of the way, and put the meat on the grill.
At first, I was pretty optimistic - the fire seamed to be going steadily - I put a thermometer through the top vent and measured 175 degrees. The temperature stayed at 175 degrees or maybe a little bit higher for 60-90 minutes and then started to fall. After about two and a half hours, the temperature inside the lamb was only about 100 degrees, and there seemed to be minimal heat coming from the smoker.
When I opened the smoker, I could see that the coals in the bottom ring were almost entirely intact - in the past, I've seen coals, especially Kingsford, burn down almost to cinder bits. These still had almost their full volume and some were still black on the outside. I took a picture but can't figure out a way to attach it. Since company was arriving shortly, I had to finish cooking the lamb in the oven, of all the indignities! Also - it was a great day for smoking - about 65 degrees and no wind.
I've always had problems maintaining heat - I've found that I often had to prepare a new batch of charcoal after or 3 hours, but I was able to maintain heat for a fair amount of time. However, the last few times were far worse.
So my questions are is if you guys out there think I'm doing something wrong, which I think I must be, because I think two consecutive bad bags of charcoal is unlikely.
Could I be removing coals from the chimney too soon or too late? I tend to not think that I'm allowing the fire to burn too fast, since the temperature never gets too high, and the coals don't seem to finish burning. I can't imagine that it's an issue with the smoker, which is in good condition by all appearances.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thank you in advance for your help.
-- Isaac Esterman
