The First Smoke On My New 18.5" WSM With Pics

[Michael M.]

The first smoke went well. Two racks of baby back ribs using the water pan (with water) and the Minion Method to keep things moving. I'm a longtime griller, roaster, deep fryer etc... so this wasn't a total mystery, but this was a new process nonetheless and I was careful throughout.

Only a minor issue with heat in the beginning. It started off great then unexpectedly dropped to about 190-200. But some vent management and adjusting the coals some fixed that quickly.

Three hours of smoke, a nice spray of apple juice/water (80/20 mix) and then 1 hour wrapped in foil yielded some very tasty ribs for my wife and I.



Ribs On The WSM

 

[Michael Spurling]

nice pictures - those ribs looked great. Was getting hungry looking at them.

How often did you spray the ribs ? What wood did you use? - just curious.

 

[jason.yee]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Michael Spurling:
What wood did you use? - just curious. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

according to the caption for one of the photos in the album it says hickory and cherry mix.

 

[Michael M.]

Hi Michael: Thanks. They were very good and nice to have leftover today too.

The wood: 2/3 cherry wood to 1/3 hickory. I don't have chunks on hand so these were chips, pre-soaked and placed in foil packets.

The spray: Just once just before they got wrapped in foil for the last hour. Sprayed well, wrapped up and finished. It worked well.

 

[Doug Wade]

I'm glad to hear it worked so well!

If you don't have wood chunks yet - you might want to drop by http://www.greenleafbbq.com/ - they just moved to Livermore and they have wood in bins so you can just get a couple of chunks of everything and try it out. The selection is a bit random (it mostly seems to be whatever they've most recently pruned in the central valley) but I know they had oak, peach, and almond the other day.

(There are other semi-local places you can get bags of chunks, I just like the bin idea).

 

[Gary H. NJ]

Good work Michael. I'm doing spareribs on Sunday...

 

[Michael M.]

Thanks much, Gary. Hope you can share some photos of those. I'm planning to do two full chickens this Sunday.

 

[Michael M.]

Thanks for the tip in Livermore! Peach would be a really nice wood to have around. I had loaded up on various chips a couple of months back then decided to get my WSM later so I want to burn through most of the chips (pardon the pun) and then will move over to chunks.