What do you wish you knew for your first smoke?


 
T

Tim O

TVWBB Fan
Read a post about someone's first smoke on the WSM and the person asked the above question. So, what do you wish you knew?

For me, I wish I knew that using 7 chunks of hickory wood was way too much for one chicken. I refused to believe it "only needed 3 chunks" because it's a smoker, right?! Well, the chicken was awful. Don't oversmoke!
 
For me, I wish I knew that I should NEVER work with; a chimney starter, hot coals and a charcoal ring BAREFOOTED! :eek:
Those little crumbs of hot coals left on the patio after dumping a chimney don't cool quickly! Even after I watched my wife do the hot-coal dance across the patio, I followed in her footsteps and burnt the hell out of my feet!
Limped my way through work for a week!
Now,,, I know! :cool:
The above is a public service announcement from your oooooooold uncle Tommy!
 
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I wished I'd known to wait till the smoke turned to a thin light blue before putting my meat on the cooker. For me and my family the thick white smoke gives the meat an ash tray taste. Great thread Tim O, will be very informative, thanks for posting.

Bill
 
Tim, I'm right there with you when it comes to wishing I had known about the pitfalls of oversmoking. Early in my BBQ journey, I fell into the trap of having the "if some is good, then more must be better" mentality.

Also, as Bill said, I wish I had known the importance of a clean burning fire when I first started using a smoker.
 
I wish I had known that low and slow means low and slow and given myself the time to do it right and not set a time it had to be done. As the saying goes "it's done when it's done".
 
To relax. It's just cooking. Temp and times are recommended but not rules that if not followed ruins the meal. It'll be all right. Really.
 
For me it was don't use the same amount of salt on enhanced meat or it will be too salty. Now I try to avoid enhanced meat and pay more attention to what I'm buying. As for smoking with the WSM and Kettle I was lucky to read post on here first. The advice I read was spot on.
 
Tom Jordan, have you ever lived in Kalamazoo? You write like a guy I have not see in almost 25 years! He came back around in my life just in time for my wedding pig roast! 25 years ago next week in fact!
Your barefoot PSA is worth keeping alive, I see people at their grills in flip flops and bare footed and just wait for the "dance"!
 
Something we should all remember.

"BBQ is ready when it's ready (so don't hurry)
Less is more (less smoke, less rub, less add-ons)
Opening your smoker is BAD!
Too tender is GOOD!
Foiling is GOOD!
Grilling is NOT Barbecuing; BBQ is low-and-slow
Always have FUN when you BBQ even if results are otherwise!"
This from the wisdom of Harry Soo.

Wish I had known some of this 3 years ago.
Also one of the best things we all can do is regularly refer to the tutorials that Chris has on "The Weber Virtual Bullet" on the link at the top of the page. Those tutorial have saved my cooks many times.

The one about charcoal dust is a real smart thing to remember. Haven't done the "dance", but have had other major fails thanks to not paying proper attention to handling hot coals during a cook. Lets keep this thread running. Great thoughts from all.
 
Wish I knew more about hitting the stall and budgeting time for this so that the family doesn't go hungry until 11pm to eat dinner.
 
I now plan ahead, if I think it will take 5 hours I plan on 8 and start accordingly, now knowing how to keep most things warm from this forum. Better done early than eating late.
 
Like several people have already mentioned -- I wish that I had known that 1) it's just another form of cooking, and 2) it's done when it's done.

I also wish that I had known that a target temperature is just a target. You don't have to have it exactly at 225 (or 250 or 275) for the whole time. During my first six or seven cooks, I was constantly adjusting the vents by fractions of an inch to try to keep the temp dead on. Now I just let it go for hours. As long as the WSM doesn't get more than 25 or 30 degrees off, I don't mess with it.
 
That meat meat doesn't wear a watch. It's ready when it's ready and every cut and every cook is different.
 
Mark Barton said:
Like several people have already mentioned -- I wish that I had known that 1) it's just another form of cooking, and 2) it's done when it's done.

I also wish that I had known that a target temperature is just a target. You don't have to have it exactly at 225 (or 250 or 275) for the whole time. During my first six or seven cooks, I was constantly adjusting the vents by fractions of an inch to try to keep the temp dead on. Now I just let it go for hours. As long as the WSM doesn't get more than 25 or 30 degrees off, I don't mess with it.


My thoughts exactly!
Click to expand...
 
Timothy F. Lewis said:
Tom Jordan, have you ever lived in Kalamazoo? You write like a guy I have not see in almost 25 years! He came back around in my life just in time for my wedding pig roast! 25 years ago next week in fact!
Your barefoot PSA is worth keeping alive, I see people at their grills in flip flops and bare footed and just wait for the "dance"!
Click to expand...

Tim, Nope! Never been to Michigan (except for a week-long business class at Michigan State 12 years ago), I'm KCMO born, LINY raised and now living in God's Little Waiting room, SoFla. Glad you were able to connect with a lost friend though.
 
Some great replies here. I too am guilty of trying to get the temperature dead on my target. For the first smoke I did, I wish I would have known not to completely load up the chimney and getting them all lit before dumping in the smoker. Now I just use about 20 coals and dump into a hollowed out center of the charcoal ring.

And I always wear flip flops. I've been burnt too!
 
Trying to do cooks on-the-fly was one of my early amateur errors.

If I'm doing a relatively long smoke, (6+ hrs), I have everything prepped the night before. I'll have the meat, smoker, chimney, gadgets etc all ready to go. All I have to do is walk outside, light the cubes under the chimney, put the meat on the smoker, probes in, & within 20 minutes I'm doing the Minion Two-Step Shuffle!

Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail.
 
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