Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

i wnt to try it all...

 

Super cheap....depending on the favors

 

Veggies look amazing!

 

Look at smokerbuilder.com and contact Frank Cox. Those boys will take you to the next level. His fab shop can build anything in the BBQ universe.

 

Know the feels. I had the WSM up for the second time this weekend. Had some ribs and chicken on it. Ribs turned out great, chicken ended up being a bit dry.

But I also had some strange behavior on the WSM temp, that I need some input from you other WSM'ers. When I started it, it came up to temp as normal, took close to a hour to get to 225 and I started to close the bottom vents around 230 to slow the temp rise. Closed them to about 1/3, like I'd done before, and I started losing temp, dropped to about 215, so opened them up to 1/2 and it went up to 225 and hung there for a couple hours. Then it dropped again to about 215, so I opened the vents some, waited 20 minutes, still no temp increase, opened the vents fully and it would only go to 220-225 for the rest of the smoke. I had also tried stirring the coal some, but little affect.

Only thing different was it was quite windy and where I smoke is in a U-shaped deck area where if its windy, the wind tends to swirl around as opposed to just blowing one direction. Not quite sure what was happening. Any input from the gallery?

 

I was wondering if I could do that, since I usually have an hour or three before the coals burn out. What grill fits over the bottom section? I always forget to test fit while the WSM is out.

 

Sometimes those WSM just fight you. Strong Wind has a huge effect on them. If it's windy, take the pan out or run it empty. Start it up with a solid 3/4 chimney. Pour it on and let it get your charcoal base going good and strong. About 10-15min. Pop the barrel on for another 5-10min before putting the lid on. Take it up to 275-300 with the lid on then back it down from there moving the lower vents facing into the wind just a 1/4 turn at a time. If it's super windy, don't fight it. Just let it hang around 260ish mark.

 

It's not the best seal around it, but it definitely works for your finish work

 

Now you need to take that lighter fluid back to like Home Depot and get a credit on it lol. Tell them you were having a HUGE BBQ party but then no one showed up

 

Got my brisket done not this past weekend but the weekend before (Sunday) didn't get a chance to be on here last week I was out of town on business all week. This one was nothing more than sea salt and cracked pepper on it. Nice and tender super good taste. Friend of mine went back for either 3rds or 4ths lol.



The areas where you don't see the smoke ring and it's at meat is where the fat cap was. I left this one thicker and went cap down this side because I had a bunch of errands to run and wasn't sure when I would be back home so I wanted a little more protection so to speak for the meat itself.

When it was done and I tossed it up on the board I removed the remainder of the fat cap at my wifes asking (she isn't real fond of eating a lot of fat). Meat was really good, served it with some of my sea salt and parm roasted potatoes, friends brought over some crab cakes that we cooked up and some nice shrimp cocktail. Was a darn good meal.

 

You don't like chimney starters?

 

His shed is a chimney starter. We arrange the bags in a circle in the shed, then light the middle one on fire, it will burn all summer, and the shed adds a nice flavor to the meat.

 

You Carolina boys take your pits to the next level!

 

I have a WSM 18 and been very happy.
I got tired of controlling the vents so I bought a bbq temperature controller and called it a day.
Yes, it's cheating bla bla bla but it works and when Im doing an overnight cook I can sleep and wake up with the same temp.

I ended up with the pitmaster iq110 https://pitmasteriq.com/products/iq110
There's a lot of options out there. They have the bbq guru stuff

DigiQ BBQ Temperature Controller, Digital Meat Thermometer, For Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker Adaptor, Pit Viper Fan

https://www.amazon.com/BBQ-Temperat...id=1493654397&sr=1-2-fkmr0&keywords=digiq+wsm
. They have some basic and they have the ones with the bells and whistles.

 

Pellet pooper FTMFW!!!

 

I've seen that posted, but not quite ready to spend the $$$ quite yet. Just trying to understand some of the behavior that I see. Maybe someday.

 

Now if they could find a way to auto light more coals and feed them into the WSM.

I love cooking/smoking, I like chillin out and watching the food cook, drink some beer and BS with friends. Pellet Pooper made those all easier for me lol.

 

As mentioned wind can be a real PITA with controlling temps. And rain\snow.

Lots of ideas for windshields out there but I picked up a silicone jacket for mine and only use it when it is teens above zero or colder, should use it all year. 14 hour smoke yesterday in the rain and high of 41* I used a lot more charcoal than I normally would have. Jacket goes on and off easy enough but can't use it if you do the hinged lid or handles on the drum mods.

Another thing that can prevent getting hot enough is covering all your grate surfaces top and bottom. I used to think if there was metal exposed I needed to fill it. That will interfere with proper air flow also.

This X2. Those that say it is cheating unless they are using a pit aren't cooking traditionally anyhow. Babysat enough fires over the years eventually it becomes a PITA. Last year Amazon had the BBQ Guru on a flash sale so I picked one up. If anything happened to it would replace it in a heart beat. I'm almost 60 and my don't give a shit gear is engaged pretty much full time now. I don't give a shit what anyone else says or uses. As long as your happy with the outcome and the results it doesn't matter how you do it. Although I draw the line at those pellet pooper thingamajigs.. just kidding!

 

AMEN. do what works for you.

You want to watch the fire and control your temp manually? if that makes you happy then DO IT

Pellet pooper, vertical, offset, electric, oven, crockpot, whatever. At the end of the day, if it makes great food and your happy then that's all that matters.
Smoke on!!!

Learn your equipment and see what works