Me & My New WSM

dholcomb1946 · Posted: Feb 28 2006 Post subject: Me & My New WSM

First Cook on WSM

I fired it up Sunday and put a 6 # sirloin tip ( I think that is what is called a tri tip on the left coest ) and a Smithfield uncooked ham on to smoke.

I put charcoal about half full in the char ring and inserted 4 or 5 pieces of hickory chunks throghout. I stacked 4 or 5 pieces of charcoal up in a cone in the center, put a couple globs of eco friendy gell starter fluild & lit it up. Then I put the center section in & filled the brinkman water pan, Put the meat in on the top rack side by side, using an et-73 & another single meat probe thermo.

I took the roast to 160, too done for me but the wife likes it that way, but it was still juicy and tender. It's like what I try to get my briskets to do. Still working on that. The ham at 160 was tender & scliable from the bone. It tasted like smoked ham.

Second cook on WSM

This morning (Monday) at 7am I fired up the WSM as above, but filled the charcoal ring full. It came up to temp in about 30 minutes at 200. Adjusting the vents occassionally it was easy to maintain a 225 - 250 temp. for hours at a time. I had to put more chunks & charcoal in about 3 as the temp was dropping. Got down to 200, brought it back up to 240.

Now a strange phenomena happened. I had a 13 # butt in the cooker. It had been mustarded and plastic wrapped in the refrig all night and was looking good. It was cooking along fine, got to 161 and hung for a couple of hours, then started moving on. It got to 171 and I'm thing we might yet get to eat some of this tonight.

BUT THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED< AND IT NEVER HAS TO ME BEFORE. The pitt temp was the same, but the butt temp started falling. Over the next hour it fell from 171 to 161. The fire was at 225. So I thought my temp probe must have gone bad. I went an got another entire unit & yet it showed 161. So I get another probe & check the pitt temp, right on at 225.

Now when I pulled it tonight at 190 about 10 PM, it was moist, tender, juicy, falling apart, shredded prok butt. Some of the best I ever did.

But my question is has anyone else experienced a butt dropping 10 degrees over about an hour, then continuing to cook to 190. I saw it hang at 160 the first time & figured that was the last time for that.

Mikesooner · Posted: Feb 28 2006 Post subject:

dh...send me a couple lbs, and I'll analyze it for ya Wink

BigSlick · Joined: 26 Feb 2006 Posts: 16 Location: Texas of course

DawgPhan · BBQ Super Pro Joined: 12 May 2005 Posts: 3444

I think that you are going to lvoe your WSM. I can easily get 12+ hours of close to 250-275 out of it with little work...nothing like setting it up friday night after work and having sweet BBQ in the AM...Hell I am even getting away from doing the instant read digital thermometer thing...I find that I fuss to much when it is 227 instead of just between 225 and 250....I might pick up one for checking the meat at the end, but the last brisket I did I used the fork method and it turned out fine...well at least fine for everyone else..I was looking for a little something else...but it made great chopped sammies and I even made some brisket nachoes that were great...

mding38926 · Posted: Feb 28 2006 Post subject:

dholcomb....congrats on the new rig..............I am sure you will have many fine smokes on it!

wow......dawg.......brisket nachos sound awesome............gonna have to give that one a go one of these days........of course brisket is priced out of sight here right now......even at Sams........must be a winter thing.
_________________
Dinger

bigabyte · Posted: Feb 28 2006 Post subject:

From what I understand, it is the drought in the southwest that has affected the beef prices. Let's hope for rain.
_________________
--Chris Baker
--Mad BBQ Scientist
--When my lab fills with smoke, that means it's working!

mding38926 · Posted: Feb 28 2006 Post subject:

DawgPhan · BBQ Super Pro Joined: 12 May 2005 Posts: 3444

mding38926 · Posted: Mar 01 2006 Post subject:

Jeff T · Posted: Mar 01 2006 Post subject:

Sunday i got up about 6 am, aready had the wsm loaded and ready to fire up the night before. Lit and dumped a load on top, loaded two small butts totaled about 8 lbs. Funny thing for me was they hit 160 and hung for an hour then jumped to 175-178 then hung another hour or so till done. Almost like two hang times. This was weird never happened like that before. Temps was 235-250 all day. Outside temp started out at in the high 20`s then climbed to a nice day in the 60`s. Was warm when it hung though.
Anyway have fun with your WSM cooker.... dholcomb1946
You`ll enjoy it, i am still amased at how well these things work. Nice unit!!!

Alien BBQ · Posted: Mar 01 2006 Post subject:

Mikesooner · Posted: Mar 01 2006 Post subject:

Alien..saw 4.50 for brisket at my store in Seattle area this week..tomorrow they have picnic shoulder .99 lb.... Shocked

GrievousAngel056 · Posted: Mar 01 2006 Post subject:

Please excuse my ignorance but what is a WSM? I'm assuming a water smoker? Also, can you send a pic and maybe some pros and cons between the WSM and a horizontal smoker with a side fire box? Thanks for the help.

DawgPhan · BBQ Super Pro Joined: 12 May 2005 Posts: 3444

GrievousAngel056 · Posted: Mar 01 2006 Post subject:

Dawg fan,

Thanks. I have an off set now. I love it, but sometimes, I just want to smoke something and ignore it. I'm guessing but what you wrote, the WSM is a lot less maintnence. However, sometimes I do want the whole "stick burning" experience. Maybe I should invest in a WSM. Can you use it in cold weather? About how much food can you fit on it? For example, how many racks of rib? How many butts? THANKS! One smoker for each mood I may have. Now, I just have to gather up some dough.

GrievousAngel056 · Posted: Mar 01 2006 Post subject:

I was at the Weber web site. They don't have a price. Does anyone know a price range for these?

DawgPhan · BBQ Super Pro Joined: 12 May 2005 Posts: 3444

allsmokenofire · Posted: Mar 01 2006 Post subject:

mding38926 · Posted: Mar 02 2006 Post subject:

GrievousAngel056 · Posted: Mar 02 2006 Post subject:

thanks to everyone for all of the info.