Why does my WSM settle down at 210 degrees?


 
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Doug Parizo

TVWBB Member
First of all, thanks to Tom and Wesley for rescuing my first pulled pork cook tonight: Problem with my first butt cook.

The results were good, but not great (a little dry and stringy in some places.) My guess is that this is due to too low temperatures and a resulting too long cook where the meat temp only got to 184 when I gave up and served it, which brings me to my question:

Why do you think my WSM settles in at 210-212 degrees? I fired it up by the book with the Minion Method around 9PM, at 10PM adjusted the vents to 25/25/25 and at 1AM it was at 210. I nudged the vents to 25/33/33 and went to bed. When I woke up at 9AM, it was only at 212 /infopop/emoticons/icon_confused.gif . I'm thinking to create the great stuff, I need my WSM to settle in in the 230-250 range, right?

Thanks in advance for your advice!

-Doug
 
Hi Doug,

I think your first cook went fine. Congratulations, it only gets better.

As far as the temperature, I would suspect that either you had a slight breeze, or either just first cook inexperience. My first few cooks, I had a tough time getting the temps "dialed in." Sometimes it takes a couple of cooks to get a real feel for the vents, etc. You'll get it though, and it only gets better.

Good luck!!!!
 
Pat is right..try leaving your vents all the way open until you see the temp climbing..then when its at 235 or so, make the same vent adjustment you did, and try to hit 250

just let it get a tad hotter next time before you move your vents/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif
 
sounds like a water pan.
water boils at 212 so untill the water has boiled off it will continue to absorb heat which supresses the temp. it is one of the methods that makes the wsm stable, another is thermal mass (sand pan)
here is a more detailed explination http://thebbqguru.com/great_water_pan_debate.htm
 
Doug
Cooking temps for BBQ are from 200 to aporx 265
and you can make them all work if you know how.
I have to believe that the pit temps were higher during the night. It is not uncommom to have the pit temps come down after a number of hour because of ash build up on the coals, a very light stir will bring the temp back up.
If you cook long enough 180 finish temp can be to high. Once the fat is rendered and the connective tissue is broken down the cook is finished for our purposes.
Finish temps are a guide as is cooking times, the real test is feel, is it tender. When it is tender the cook is over no matter the time or the internal temp.
You can control the pit using water or sand in the pan, you will simply need more cooks. The BBQ Guru can also do the job but learn how meat reacts and what is happening during the cook and it will all easier.
Jim
 
Next time try starting with only one vent open, and make sure it's the downwind vent. Starting with all vents open, even a little, pretty much guarantees that wind will be blowing into at least one of them...which hurts more than helps.

I never pull the pork from the smoker until it hits at least 195, regardless of how long it takes. If it looks like it's going to take more time than you'd like, spray the pork with AJ and foil'em up till done, I had to do this with 3 out of 4 shoulders I did last Friday nite and they turned out perfect.

Another rule of thumb I now use for pork, cook it in advance! You don't want to have people waiting on your pork to finish, that's no fun for anybody and you don't want to serve sub-standard Q just because you ran out of time. Cook it on a nice lazy day when you have plenty of time and freeze the results. Frozen pulled pork reheats very well.
 
Doug

Ideally you want to have your temp stable at the temp you want it to stay before you go to bed. You were at 210 and made an adjustment hoping it would compensate. Problem - most people don't want to stay up all night waiting for that point. Next time, let it get much closer to your desired temp, make a small adjustment, and then wait it out some to see if it's stable. Rule: if you see a rapid ascent, make larger adjustments. With a slow ascent like you were having, let it get close and then make a small adjustment.

Really, however, your temp range was not bad. If you could have left it longer - perfect.

Paul
 
Doug,

Try closing your top vent down a little. I close mine down to as little as 25% open (or even less), which raises the temperature up. I think control of the oxygen that feeds the fire is almost entirely dependent on the bottom vents due to the tri-vent design. By closing the top vent down some you prevent your heat from draining away out the top vent. Remember, heat rises, and everything above the coals is just like a big upside-down cup, capturing the heat from the fire. Try it sometime, close the top down to, say, 33%, THEN adjust your bottom vents. I find this allows the WSM to get hotter as well as use significantly less fuel.
 
Just remember that when you close the top vent, you risk trapping cooling smoke in the smoker. Cooling or stale smoke in a smoker can deposit creosote on your meat. Creosote will give your meat a bitter greasy coating. Been there, done that. Ruined a beautiful brisket. Ain't-a-gonna do it again.

That's just my own preference, of course, but I ALWAYS leave the top vent fully open and do all my adjusting at the bottom vents. I'd rather do that than risk bitter meat. /infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif

Keri C, still smokin' on Tulsa Time
 
The only time I close my top vent in any way is to extinguish the fire when the cooking's done.
 
I've never had bitter or greasy meat, so I guess I've never experienced the problems of creosote. I think the problem would have a lot more to do with the amount of wood you put in, than the position of the top vent.

I never leave mine fully open, the manual states you SHOULD partially close it in fact, and I've never had a problem doing so, so... I suspect the source of your creosote problems lies elsewhere, or at least in other majorly contributing factors.
 
Thanks for all the good advice, guys. I can't imagine how many combined years of Q experience I just tapped into there; probably in the hundreds!

And I'm proud to say that my wife is catching on, too. When I said, "Look, Jim Minion replied!" she said "Really? The guy who invented the thing?" Close enough. /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

Thanks again everybody!
 
HA! When I saw Jim on BBQ America on PBS a few weekends ago, I said to my wife, "hey, there's Jim Minion?" And she replied, "the guy with the method?"

Sounds kinda dirty when you hear it said like that.... /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif
 
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