ChadVKealey
TVWBB Pro
This past weekend, our scout pack (Cubs) was really roughing it. As in, no indoor kitchen and a 1/4 mile walk to flushing toilets (pit latrines were right at the edge of our site). This had me concerned a bit because we don't have enough Dutch ovens to cook all of the required desserts, and cooking space in general was going to be tight (two Camp Chef 2-burner stoves, one Coleman camp stove [just for making coffee], and a 18" x 5' charcoal table). But, I had my 18.5 WSM in tow, so all was well.
At 9:00 Friday night, I fired it up with a packed full charcoal ring and about 10 lit coals and smoke wood on top (straight minion method as I forgot my tin can). When it hit 200 (~9:30), I threw on three 7-8# butts (injected with OJ, adobo seasoning and cumin, slathered in chipotle peppers and a "whatever's left in the pantry" rub) and set the lowly PartyQ to 250. Within 15 minutes, it was chugging along. Other than popping the lid a few times to check bark and show off my butts, I didn't open it up until 1:00 Saturday afternoon; never even added charcoal.
Before I removed the butts, I had prepped two foil pans of chicken breast with taco seasoning and salsa (a lazy way to make chicken taco filling). After removing & wrapping the butts, I just shook down the charcoal bowl (there were still a good 30-40 solid briquettes left) and piled another chimney & a half of unlit on top. I closed it back up (PartyQ still set to 250) and it kept going all afternoon.
At 5:30, I pulled the pans of chicken, added another half-chimney of lit coals to get it up to 350 (for cooking monkey bread for dessert), and let it sit while we had dinner. After dinner, I popped in two pans of monkey bread and baked until done (about 8:30).
So, in the end, I ran my WSM for almost 24 hours on less than a single (18.6#) bag of KBB. Granted, the PartyQ helped, and I did have to change the batteries (NiMH rechargables) once, but I was still impressed.
At 9:00 Friday night, I fired it up with a packed full charcoal ring and about 10 lit coals and smoke wood on top (straight minion method as I forgot my tin can). When it hit 200 (~9:30), I threw on three 7-8# butts (injected with OJ, adobo seasoning and cumin, slathered in chipotle peppers and a "whatever's left in the pantry" rub) and set the lowly PartyQ to 250. Within 15 minutes, it was chugging along. Other than popping the lid a few times to check bark and show off my butts, I didn't open it up until 1:00 Saturday afternoon; never even added charcoal.
Before I removed the butts, I had prepped two foil pans of chicken breast with taco seasoning and salsa (a lazy way to make chicken taco filling). After removing & wrapping the butts, I just shook down the charcoal bowl (there were still a good 30-40 solid briquettes left) and piled another chimney & a half of unlit on top. I closed it back up (PartyQ still set to 250) and it kept going all afternoon.
At 5:30, I pulled the pans of chicken, added another half-chimney of lit coals to get it up to 350 (for cooking monkey bread for dessert), and let it sit while we had dinner. After dinner, I popped in two pans of monkey bread and baked until done (about 8:30).
So, in the end, I ran my WSM for almost 24 hours on less than a single (18.6#) bag of KBB. Granted, the PartyQ helped, and I did have to change the batteries (NiMH rechargables) once, but I was still impressed.
