WSM 14.5 Cooking Configuration


 
Vaughan

Vaughan

TVWBB Member
Looking for some info. I have been reading up on the "barrel" products. Many folks say the "barrels" are cookers more than smokers. They have no water pan/heat diffuser like the WSMs. The meat is hung directly over the coal.

Does anyone have experience with the "barrel" products? Will you please share your experiences?

I ordered a Hunsaker meat hanger for my 14.5. I want to try hanging meat directly over the coals. Since I have never used my 14.5 without the water pan (wet or foil covered) I am not sure what to expect. Again, any info is greatly appreciated.

Vaughan K
 
I have the Hunsaker hanger set up for the 14.5, though I only used it a few times before moving onto using other cookers for the cuts of meat I used to hang.

I found that I had to trim my rib racks pretty short to not hit the bottom, but I did got nice, moist ribs without wrapping… just a bit of spritzing with apple cider vinegar or apple juice, though I suspect this was mostly a placebo as opposed to contributing to the cook in any meaningful way.
 
Many years ago a coworker made a barrel cooker out of a clean 55 gallon drum with a removable top. It was pretty crude by today’s barrel cookers but it worked. No vents and just rods across the top with hooks to hang half chickens from. Put the lid back on sitting on the rods so there was about 1/2 air gap. 60 minutes later we had really tasty bbq chicken for lunch. Even though the drum was new and clean someone burned out the barrel just in case.
 
I very often use my wsm 14 as a barrel cooker
(No waterpan, no diffuser)
Works for me.
I put meat on the top grid so any flame from dripping fat won't reach the meat.
Thats the only thing that would worry me with hangin meat
I would love to get an extra middle section or a 14" rotisserie ring ;)
 
Anne M. said:
I very often use my wsm 14 as a barrel cooker
(No waterpan, no diffuser)
Works for me.
I put meat on the top grid so any flame from dripping fat won't reach the meat.
Thats the only thing that would worry me with hangin meat
I would love to get an extra middle section or a 14" rotisserie ring ;)
Click to expand...
The extra barrel makes so much sense to me! As well as the rotisserie ring, considering one for the 18 but, can’t justify it in my mind…yet!😉🤔
 
I just did a competition with a friend where we had to do a 1/2 fully jointed chicken. I convinced my buddy that the best way to do that would be to hang the chicken in the 14" with the Hunsaker, even though I've never done it before. It just seemed to make sense to me that if you hang the thigh closer to the heat then the breast will not overcook and everything would be done perfectly. Well it worked, but it was a pain moving around chicken with probes in them on the little 14" without either burning yourself on the hanger or dropping the chicken into the fire. We did about 6 cooks (all went ok but just weren't very easy) when my buddy insisted that we just put the chicken on the top rack and take out the hanger. Well he was right, that was a whole lot easier and the results were just as good (rib side down, no flip, takes about an hour). Now, if I didn't care about the look of the chicken and I needed to cook as many half chickens on a 14" as possible, then hanging is the way to go. But honestly, I will probably never use the Hunsaker hanger again. Just my $.02.
 
I do ribs on my 18 wsm all the time using the hunsaker hanger. Works great. Very simple.

I cut the ribs in half to keep the ends away from the fire. Even when cooking half slabs, I can still fit in a lot of ribs.

Highly recommended.
 
I forgot to mention I pretty much only used the Hunsaker hanger with the spacer from Etsy that Garvin showed. That extra bit of space made a big difference for the 14.5 WSM. I tried hanging duck, ribs, and brisket.

We eventually ended up getting a WSK so I just cook all those meats mentioned laid flat now.
 
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