New Smoker

[SKUNK]

Been doing alot of reading and lurking in different smoking forums and have decided to get a Weber Smokey Mountain 22" This thing won't get to my door fast enough now, should arrive next week. Anybody have one?

[Spanky]

great lil smoker. Many a ribbon and trophy have been won with the WSM.
The virtual webber site has great info for them things. I hope you grace us with some tasty pics when you get it dialed in.!;)

[remy870]

I was thinking of getting a weber how do you like it? can you do long smokes with wood? any info would be great thanks

[Paul Thompson]

I was thinking of getting a weber how do you like it? can you do long smokes with wood? any info would be great thanks

Only one or two hours of smoke is all that is needed for flavor, after that, your wasteing wood, unless it is a totally wood fired smoker. The long cook at low temps after the wood has done it's thing is what makes the meat like heaven.

[SKUNK]

I love it, doing 3 racks of Ribs tomorrow with a couple fatties and rib tips. I haven't done any thing real long yet like a Butt, I've been trying different ribs and some stuffed loins. Plan on doing a Butt in a couple weeks.

[Spanky]

The WSM's are charcoal smokers. You can add wood chunks for flavor. You can make the meats as smoky as you want. Your food will take on smoke flavor for as long as you want to add wood. There is a misconception that the smoke won't enter the meat after 140 degrees internal temp. That is not correct. The smoke"ring" stops forming after 140 degrees, not the flavor. Its is easy to oversmoke food with " bad" smoke. The white billowing smoke is bad, thin blue barely visable smoke is best. If you can smell the smoke, its smoking.

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff55/Captspanky/labordaysmoke.jpg


had a day of yard work yesterday, so I tossed a few butts in the lang at sun-up. Trying out new rub combos for the upcomming competition season.


http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff55/Captspanky/buttsat4hrmark4-18.jpg

Had them done in time for the hockey game.;) Lotsa pork goodness.

gonna be serving alot of these at the parties and events this year also. every weekend in June is booked along with a couple in July.

[remy870]

I just got mine this past weekend. Thinking about trying it out this weekend but dont no what to do for my first smoke ever. Any thoughts? I got a bag of lump coal. Do I fill the basket full and burn till they are white before I start smoking? I didnt get the big one I got the 18" one. I was also wondering if i got a full basket how long could I expect it to last before refueling and do i have to burn those coals first before I put them in any info will help out alot thanks guys.

[buckhead]

I have a 18" WSM and a few things that I have learned with mine are 1. For a long smoke the minion method works good. fill the basked with charcoal and add a few pieces of wood to it, then light 25 briquettes in a chimney and put them on top. the vents were kind of hard to figure out but what I found works best is to leave 2 of the bottom vents 1/4 open and the other fully open, then just regulate with the lid vent. I did 3 racks of ribs Sunday and the thing was still hot after 7 hrs without adding anymore fuel. 2ND get yourself a remote temp probe and just watch that. opening the lid too much seems to really throw things off and makes things take a lot longer. When I first got mine I wanted to always look inside to see how things were going (big mistake) The temps were always going too high then to low. resist the urge and just leave it closed. I did a shoulder Friday night and never opened the lid from the time I put it on until it hit 190. One other thing that I have found is that ribs take longer to cook on it for me. 3 slabs took 7 hrs to get to the point of falling apart the way I like them. I have only been at it for a year now but this site has helped me out ALOT.
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/index.html

[Spanky]

Thats a great site for WSM users. They are great lil cookers, many Q chefs have one or started on one. We used one on sat. to do our competition chicken. A charcoal basket for them is another huge improvement.

[remy870]

Well I destroyed my first my first batch of ribs this weekend. Ended up way to smokey had to throw them out. not real sure were i went wrong I tried the 2-2-1 method maybe I should have went 1-4-1? I used cowboy lump any suggestions?

[Spanky]

Did the smoke look like my chimney above or was it white and thick?

What kind of wood did you add to the charcoal?
What temp did you cook them at?

I stay away from the cowboy, I like the Royal Oak, or GFS brand lump. here is what your smoke should look like when you are smoking. Look at the top stack on the drum smoker!

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff55/Captspanky/drumsmoke01.jpg


a lil wisp of smoke is all you need.
This is what was in the smoker.

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff55/Captspanky/firstdrumsmokefattiesandtenderloins.jpg


fatties and pork tenderloins. Loins cooked to 150 and then rested for 15 minutes.

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff55/Captspanky/firstdrumsmokeplated.jpg