When to put the food in the WSM?


 
E

Eduardo

New member
Hello, I read here and there diferent ways of starting the fire, but I don´t understand which is the correct moment to insert the food in the cooker.

a) After you place the lit charcoal on the unlit, put some wood chunks, put water pan and fill it (if using water), assemble the central part of the WSM. Wait some minutes to stop billowing white smoke and THEN put the food and close the lid and wait untill you reach the target temperature and then adjust vents as needed.

b) After you place lit charcoal on unlit, put wood chunks, put water pan, assemble the central body of WSM, close the lid and wait until you reach the target temperature (or close to it) and THEN put the food inside the cooker.

In other words, do you have to wait until the cooker reaches the desired temperature (or pretty close to it) and then insert the food, or you dont need to preheat the wsm an just put the food inside as soon as the white smokes stops billowing after the charcoal is cathing? Preheat or not preheat?

Thanks.
 
there are differing opinions about this. personally if I'm doing low and slow I don't wait for it to come up to temperature or for the smoke to stop and put the meat in right away. some feel that the white smoke gives their food an off taste. I smoked some salmon last sat. put my lit coals over the unlit. put my wood on the lit coals. assembled the wsm and immediately put the salmon on before it came up to temp or the smoke stopped (actually had to take down the temp, but that's not relevant). I noticed no off flavors. actually it was damn good!
 
Right or wrong, as soon as it gets to temp ( ~200oF or so) food goes in. Wood has been in since the hot coals were introduced. I have had no bad results using this method. I find this gives me a better idea re: time for the cook as it takes 30-40 min for the temp to get to 225 once hot coals are introduced is why I wait till the wsm gets up to temp.
 
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I put the meat in right away. You will probably have to try both methods to see which one you prefer. There are a lot of opinions about this.
 
IMO, I start the MM. i let it run for 1 hour. Then I put some chunks in and let them go smoldering for 30'. THEN I put in the meat. Every thing is settled down staedily!
 
Enrico said:
IMO, I start the MM. i let it run for 1 hour. Then I put some chunks in and let them go smoldering for 30'. THEN I put in the meat. Every thing is settled down staedily!
Click to expand...

So you wait for 90 minutes before putting the food? Seems like quite a lot time of burning/wasting charcoal without food.... On the other hand, in normal inside cooking (electric oven) one normally preheat the oven until the temperatures is steady before putting the food...

More opinions?
 
If I'm doing a HH cook I use the standard method to light the fire and wait till the white smoke has stopped, then I add the meat and the wood. If I'm doing the MM or any variation, I wait for the cooker to come up to temp then add the meat and the wood. I'm certainly no expert and I'm sure some more experienced veterans will offer their insights.
 
No right or wrong way on how to do it, just base it on your personal experiences.
I load everything up from the get-go, unlit, smoke wood than the lit. Meat gets immediately placed on and it usually takes less than an hour for the white smoke to dissipate and turn to TBS and by then I'm close to target temp.
Waiting for the WSM to " come up to temp before adding meat " seems counterproductive to me. Once you remove the lid and add a heat sink like a big ole roast, whatever you have gained is quickly lost and you have to start the whole process over again.. Seems to me to be a waste of time & fuel.
If waiting for the heavy white smoke to dissipate for a clean burning fire than I would question what your choice of fuel and smoke wood is because it doesn't bother me.
Bottom line (like my Sig says) do what you like.:wsm:

Tim
 
timothy said:
No right or wrong way on how to do it, just base it on your personal experiences.
I load everything up from the get-go, unlit, smoke wood than the lit. Meat gets immediately placed on and it usually takes less than an hour for the white smoke to dissipate and turn to TBS and by then I'm close to target temp.
Waiting for the WSM to " come up to temp before adding meat " seems counterproductive to me. Once you remove the lid and add a heat sink like a big ole roast, whatever you have gained is quickly lost and you have to start the whole process over again.. Seems to me to be a waste of time & fuel.
If waiting for the heavy white smoke to dissipate for a clean burning fire than I would question what your choice of fuel and smoke wood is because it doesn't bother me.
Bottom line (like my Sig says) do what you like.:wsm:

Tim
Click to expand...

Like this also.
 
timothy said:
No right or wrong way on how to do it, just base it on your personal experiences.
I load everything up from the get-go, unlit, smoke wood than the lit. Meat gets immediately placed on and it usually takes less than an hour for the white smoke to dissipate and turn to TBS and by then I'm close to target temp.
Waiting for the WSM to " come up to temp before adding meat " seems counterproductive to me. Once you remove the lid and add a heat sink like a big ole roast, whatever you have gained is quickly lost and you have to start the whole process over again.. Seems to me to be a waste of time & fuel.
If waiting for the heavy white smoke to dissipate for a clean burning fire than I would question what your choice of fuel and smoke wood is because it doesn't bother me.
Bottom line (like my Sig says) do what you like.:wsm:

Tim
Click to expand...

This ^^^ I have the unlit charcoal and smoke wood in the charcoal basket, and the meat on the grill, in the center section (which has handles) sitting to one side. As soon as I dump the lit coals into the smoker I set the center section on the base, put the lid on, and we're off.
 
Eduardo said:
So you wait for 90 minutes before putting the food? Seems like quite a lot time of burning/wasting charcoal without food.... On the other hand, in normal inside cooking (electric oven) one normally preheat the oven until the temperatures is steady before putting the food...

More opinions?
Click to expand...

Eduardo, IMHO, waiting for inside ovens to reach the specified temperature is because most recipes are time and temp specific - basically a "science". If there is a variation in either, the results are bad. Smoking on the other hand is a longer process and an "art" and based more on the feel and temp of the item being cooked.

As you can see from all of the posts, do what you are comfortable with - I usually play if safe and wait for the WSM to get close to the temp or at least above 200. I use the time while the temp is rising to finish getting everything ready.
 
Waiting for the wood to stop billowing white smoke seems like a mystery to me. After all, any chunks of wood NOT in the lit coals (minion method) are going to light up later on and issue their own 'initial smoke' that you cannot avoid, no? Even so, if I'm adding wood chunks to lit coals, I give them a minute or two to get started before I add the center section and food. It's a small point, given the point made above, but at least I have a little control over it. As for waiting for the temp to come up, I say 'who cares?'. The temperature and size of the meat going in is another factor, as others have pointed out, and opening the lid lets out all the heat. But if your coals are going well, it heats right back up again too. My philosophy is to do it the same way every time and take notes on temperature and time resulting from your method. With those notes, you will be able to plan ahead and have dinner ready on time regardless, and the meat certainly won't care when you put it in. It's the wife that ya gotta please ....you don't want to hear "You are ALWAYS late with that darn BBQ!". Have dinner ready on time and you'll get spousal support instead of spousal resentment... ask me, the old guy ...been there and done that. On time is a crowd pleaser.... any other way and 'the crowd' learns to associate the grumpies and hungries with your BBQ efforts instead!

Brian
 
I Minioned my WSM18 last Saturday, using nothing but briquettes (no smoke wood), and by the time I got done fussing with everything else (assembling everything, getting water in the pan, bringing out the meat, etc.) the coals had about 15-20 minutes to start up. No ill effects. And actually, I've done the same using a Weber kettle for the past two years and never really noticed any off flavoring from the start-up of the briquettes.

I'm like everyone else here--I just learn by doing, making my own method as I go, and seeing what works for me and what doesn't. I can check here for advice all day long (and I've learned a lot), but the real learning comes by doing it. :)
 
I usually load my hot charcoal and let it work on the unlit charcoal for a few minutes and scrub my grates over them. Then I add water to the pan and assemble the smoker and load the meat. Add the smoke wood through the door as to keep the smoke out of my face when loading meat.
 
I'm with Enrico, I wait til virtually no smoke except thin blue before I put any meats on. Time is usually around an hour before I get to the thin blue smoke. When I first started using a WSM, I would put the meats in soon after I dumped the chimney, but seemed to get a acrid smoke taste on the finished product which no one cared for. I find that Kingsford takes longer than lump to get to the thin smoke phase.
 
I add the meat when my wsm is -25f of my target temp. I do this to get more smoke on the product (as you introduce a new "cold" item that absorbs the heat energy - imaging a brisket), then it takes about 45 mins longer to get to temp, but te smoke absorption has started, as has the warming of the meat.

Just how I roll.
 
I'm all over the place, some days I throw it on as soon as I have the grates in place; other days I'll let it come to temp.
I've not had any issues.
 
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