Thoughts on what went wrong


 
M

Matt B in KC

New member
Last weekend I smoked an 8-9lb pork butt. Injected, mustard, rub, fridge. Pulled out an hour before cooking.

Normally, I will start the WSM at 11ish pm, put the meat on by 1130/12 and make sure everything is settled out- 240* and holding. Go to bed, get up at 6 and see where we're at. Usually at 6, the water pan is low, meat is around 150 and starting or in the stall. Spend the day finishing- wrap at 165, cooler to rest, pull for dinner.

Last week, however, it was a little colder here (27-29*) than I thought it would be so I figured I could start it earlier and still be fine by 6 am. Because it was colder I added extra charcoal, used a bit more in the chimney, and wrapped the WSM in my welding blanket making sure to not cover any vents. I put it on at 10ish- smoker was 225 (I aim for 240 , but I figured the outside temp would be in play here) water pan full, slightly breezy out side so I situated the smoker accordingly. At 6am, smoker was at 275, water pan was dry and meat was at 213, and charcoal of flaming and almost gone. Wrapped the meat,, cooler, pulled for dinner....it was ok, but the most dry Ive ever had off the WSM.

My question is, I've never had the problem of the smoker running high after overnight cook and rarely used the blanket. Could the welding blanket have made that much difference? It could have been more breezy too, but I don't think it was. Maybe the piece of meat was smaller than I thought? What do you all think?
 
Living in central Iowa I also deal with the cold temps. I have several thoughts on what could have contributed to your experience.
1. The cold temp and wind could have lead to more air circulating up through your WSM than normal.
2. The larger amount of fuel, and more fuel in the chimney starter, combined with the increased air circulation (item #1) may have resulted in the temp going much higher than you anticipated.
3. The empty water pan leads me to believe the temp during the 8 hour cook was over the 240 you aimed for.
4. Since you did not mention checking the smoker periodically during the cook I am guessing that you did not. This adds to my guess that the cook was much hotter than you had planned. As indicated by your fuel being almost gone and the water pan dry.
Ideas/suggestions.
1. Controlling air flow is critical to temp control. I sometimes have my vents closed more in the cold and wind to keep my burn under control.
2. I try to avoid adding more fuel to start a smoke so I can retain control of the minion method of fire spread.
3. Although I have confidence in my WSM holding a temp I still check it every few hours, especially in cold or windy conditions. Kind of helps to be an "older guy" that gets up a couple of times overnight.
4. One of my daughters got me a remote thermometer a couple of years ago. I put one probe in the meat and another on the grate. I can then set the alarms to tell me if the temp of the smoker gets out of control and when the meat is close to the desired temperature.
In my experience no cook is a disaster if you can learn from it. I have to admit that I have had several that taught me lessons, especially to never get over confident in my limited skills.
Good luck in your next smoke.
 
Mike Freel said:
Living in central Iowa I also deal with the cold temps. I have several thoughts on what could have contributed to your experience.
1. The cold temp and wind could have lead to more air circulating up through your WSM than normal.
2. The larger amount of fuel, and more fuel in the chimney starter, combined with the increased air circulation (item #1) may have resulted in the temp going much higher than you anticipated.
3. The empty water pan leads me to believe the temp during the 8 hour cook was over the 240 you aimed for.
4. Since you did not mention checking the smoker periodically during the cook I am guessing that you did not. This adds to my guess that the cook was much hotter than you had planned. As indicated by your fuel being almost gone and the water pan dry.
Ideas/suggestions.
1. Controlling air flow is critical to temp control. I sometimes have my vents closed more in the cold and wind to keep my burn under control.
2. I try to avoid adding more fuel to start a smoke so I can retain control of the minion method of fire spread.
3. Although I have confidence in my WSM holding a temp I still check it every few hours, especially in cold or windy conditions. Kind of helps to be an "older guy" that gets up a couple of times overnight.
4. One of my daughters got me a remote thermometer a couple of years ago. I put one probe in the meat and another on the grate. I can then set the alarms to tell me if the temp of the smoker gets out of control and when the meat is close to the desired temperature.
In my experience no cook is a disaster if you can learn from it. I have to admit that I have had several that taught me lessons, especially to never get over confident in my limited skills.
Good luck in your next sm
Click to expand...
Exactly, ditto!
 
It clearly ran hot. Sounds like there were several reasons that you already pointed out.

Get yourself a wireless Inkbird thermometer with 2 probes, one for WSM temp and one for meat temp, and save yourself a lot of fussing. Set the hi-lo alarms for +-20 degrees of your target and it'll and wake you up beeping if it goes out of your range.

There are lots of manufacturers of these probes, just be sure to get a weatherproof one if you are anyplace where it rains.
 
Get yourself a wireless Inkbird thermometer with 2 probes, one for WSM temp and one for meat temp, and save yourself a lot of fussing.

Save yourself even more fussing with a SmokeX thermometer and a Billows fan.

The WSM does a very good job holding temps on its own. But auto-pilot is the really the only way to fly overnight.
 
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