WSM maiden voyage in "real time"!

desert fish

Fire Starter

Original poster

Jan 15, 2014

33

10

Albuquerque NM

• Jan 19, 2014

• #1

Just fired up the new WSM 22.5!  Totally excited!  Going to smoke 3 racks and two whole chickens today for the games. !!Go NINERS!!

Here they are!

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• desert fish
• Jan 19, 2014

Fat side down.  Gonna let them sit there for about 3 hours (holding pretty true at 235) then I'll hit them with some parkey squeeze and cola.  Then another 1 hour and hit them again with cola. Let me know if I have that correct.  This is my first time doing this.  Not going to foil them.  Using water only.  No sand.  

After about 2.5 hours I am going to drop the chickens on the lower rack.  I brined the chickens for 24 hours and rub them down to sit over night.  Chickens should take about 2.5 hours, correct?

In all her glory...

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• desert fish
• Jan 19, 2014

 

dirtsailor2003

Epic Pitmaster

OTBS Member

Oct 4, 2012

21,947

4,224

Bend Oregon

• Jan 19, 2014

• #2

At 235 you chickens could take 2 1/2-3 hours to hit an IT of 165.

For your ribs are you doing 3-2-1 method? 3 hours direct grill, 2 hours foiled, 1 hour direct grill? If so you sound to be on track.

 

joopster

Smoking Fanatic

Dec 30, 2013

807

59

Auburn, IN

• Jan 19, 2014

• #3

Good luck! Get yourself a notebook and write down what you do each time.  It makes repeating your successes much easier and avoiding the failures much easier ;)

 

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desert fish

Fire Starter

Original poster

Thread starter

Jan 15, 2014

33

10

Albuquerque NM

• Jan 19, 2014

• #4

So what if I don't want to mess with the foil?

 

dirtsailor2003

Epic Pitmaster

OTBS Member

Oct 4, 2012

21,947

4,224

Bend Oregon

• Jan 19, 2014

• #5

Don't do the foil. Let them run the entire smoke direct on the grill.

 

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joopster

Smoking Fanatic

Dec 30, 2013

807

59

Auburn, IN

• Jan 19, 2014

• #6

I found foiling the ribs makes them better, that's just me.

 

desert fish

Fire Starter

Original poster

Thread starter

Jan 15, 2014

33

10

Albuquerque NM

• Jan 19, 2014

• #7

Yeah.  I think I'm going to leave the foil off.  I'll hit them with butter instead.  I saw spacecowboytx on youtube do it this way and they looked amazing. 

 

desert fish

Fire Starter

Original poster

Thread starter

Jan 15, 2014

33

10

Albuquerque NM

• Jan 19, 2014

• #8

dirtsailor, thanks for the tip on the chickens!

 

desert fish

Fire Starter

Original poster

Thread starter

Jan 15, 2014

33

10

Albuquerque NM

• Jan 19, 2014

• #9

I'm going to guess these thermometers suck...  Kinda bummed to see condensation in there and the temp is way off.  I'll be looking into a River Country thermometer for sure.

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• desert fish
• Jan 19, 2014

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• desert fish
• Jan 19, 2014

 

desert fish

Fire Starter

Original poster

Thread starter

Jan 15, 2014

33

10

Albuquerque NM

• Jan 19, 2014

• #10

Butter and cola at 2.5 hours.  Put chickens on as well

IMG_2860.jpg

• desert fish
• Jan 19, 2014

 

desert fish

Fire Starter

Original poster

Thread starter

Jan 15, 2014

33

10

Albuquerque NM

• Jan 19, 2014

• #11

SUCCESS!!! Man I love this thing! Chickens took about 5 hours, which I didn't see coming but turned out amazing!!

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• desert fish
• Jan 19, 2014

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• desert fish
• Jan 19, 2014

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• desert fish
• Jan 19, 2014

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• desert fish
• Jan 19, 2014

 

bigr314

Meat Mopper

Jun 4, 2011

270

15

Uniontown,Pa.

• Jan 20, 2014

• #12

Nice looking cook. great color on that bird.

 

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mr clean

Newbie

Jan 20, 2014

19

11

Southern Indiana

• Jan 20, 2014

• #13

On my 18 the dome is about 20 degrees cooler than the racks because its farther away from the heat. The temp gauge may be right. Food looks great!

 

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jirodriguez

Master of the Pit

OTBS Member

SMF Premier Member

Jun 5, 2009

4,656

143

Portland, OR

• Jan 20, 2014

• #14

Yeah, I just use the dome therm as a rough guage of where the temp is - once you know the difference between the dome and the racks you can glance at the dome and do the mental +/- in your head to know about where you are at the racks.

Ribs and birds look good! I usually allow 3.5-4.5 hrs. for birds if I am doing low and slow. You can always start the birds early and then if they finish up quick just wrap them in 3 layers of foil and tuck them away in a towel lined dry ice chest till the rest of the grub is ready. They will hold for a several hours without any issues.

 

mr clean

Newbie

Jan 20, 2014

19

11

Southern Indiana

• Jan 22, 2014

• #15

I just got a maverick digital for temp and saw you had yours hanging on the smoker. I set mine on a grill not being used beside the smoker. Im into radios and would think the high heat would be hard on the components. Am I thinking wrong? put mine under a clear glass bowl in case of rain.

 

desert fish

Fire Starter

Original poster

Thread starter

Jan 15, 2014

33

10

Albuquerque NM

• Jan 22, 2014

• #16

I had no problem.  The transmitter rests on the plastic handle of the aluminum access plate.  Didn't feel hot.  Also, I believe the transmitters are "rain proof".  At least that's what I read in the manual.