When to throw the meat


 
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Big Ir

TVWBB Member
Hey everyone,

Is there a rule of thumb to distinguish between putting the meat on the WSM right out of the fridge, or letting it warm to room temp. I have read several different posts, recipies and sometimes guys let the meat warm to room temp about an hour or so, and sometimes they put it on the WSM right out of the fridge. Why is this??
 
From what i understand if you let the meat sit at room temperature for an hour i will take on smoke better. It is beleived that cold meat in a hot smoker can cause creosote and if that happens your meat will be bitter tasting. Please correct me if i'm wrong (i'm still a newbie) /infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif
 
The idea of putting meat on from the frig is you can produce smokering until the meat temp reaches 140?.
Allowing the meat temp to reach room temp is a very good idea when grilling, allows you to get the internal temp up without drying out the exterior.
I have been putting on meat from the frig for years and creosote has never been a problem.
Jim
 
After reading various websites, my take is that creosote results from an inefficient wood fire. When you put cold meat into the smoker, it will compound any creosote problem, because the creosote tends to "stick" better to cold meat. Therefore, the experts recommend that beginners should let their meat warm up to reduce the chance of creosote buildup. Once a person gets experience building an efficient fire, he/she can experiment with putting cold food in the cooker--which will produce more smoke ring, as Jim says.

Anyway, I think this applies more to a log-burning pit. I don't think you need to worry about it as much in the WSM, but I can't really tell you why. My thought is that it's because charcoal is naturally more efficient.

Perhaps one of the experts can confirm if what I've said is true. Personally, I've only tried putting cold ribs on the cooker once (using the Minion method), and it worked great. The smoke ring went all the way through, with no hint of any bad taste. Maybe I was just lucky!

--Mickey
 
Mickey
Your correct, creosote is the result of bad combustion of wood.
On a WSM unless you close the top vents and shut the bottoms vents way down this should not be a problem.
Jim
 
I like to start it up with the smokem wood in there then wait for the smoke to become almost
transparent. Then, put meat on straight from the fridge. It takes a little longer to get "smokin"
but I got time. /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif
 
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