Hi'all from London. WSM 14.5" and zip experience.

Thanks Wade ;)

Apologies in advance if I haven't got correct terminology or techniques - just starting out after an initial failed attempt with dodgy gear.

I originally bought an Ebay smoker for £40 - I checked out WSM's bought thought if it doesn't work or I don't get into it, it's no major loss. Well, it was a waste of time so much air was getting in even with the top (and only) vent closed the coals were operating more like a regular bbq so the turkey breast, whole chicken and 2.5kg bone-in brisket never stood a chance of getting to temp on the top rack. Total and unsafe fail.

That was around 4 months ago. Zip forward to Cyber Monday and I found a deal for a 14.5" WSM starter kit for £230 and the dreams of juicy ribs began and I picked it up.

Bought about 5kg of beef which consisted of a bone-n brisket (about 1.6 kg) an odd cut of short ribs (I think) and a 2.5kg slice of a beef shoulder around 2.5 - 3 inches thick. No sign of any boneless brisket and local butchers won't part with ribs - I was lucky to find a good guy who snuck a cut of ribs for me after I explained what ai was trying to do, but still maybe a one off.

http://s389.photobucket.com/user/ShoulderShrug/media/image.jpg9.jpg.html

Ii already know I did plenty wrong.

First of all I started the WSM and put the meat on the racks waaaay before reaching smoking temp - straight from a very chilly fridge. I also put way to few pecan chips so another wrong move. Because of this ( please let me know if I'm right) the temp with all vents open stuck at about 90c - I thought oh crap! Here we go again - should have stuck with the budget number. It was at this temp for around an hour - panicking, I put another 8 briquettes and a few large charcoal chunks on the chimney and topped up.

After about 20 minutes the temp settled to around 113c. I tinkered a little with the vets and came back to check every 15 mins and it was just rock solid. This was a huge sigh of relief for me - this is what I'd read about with WSM's to see it hold temp for just over 5 hours with no fluctuation bar dropping a few degrees had me grinning. I checked temps through the grommet and at the top of the dome with a digital thermometer and it was around 16c hotter than the dome one. After the first hour thought the dome thermometer seemed to catch up and started reading much closer to the digital one. By now it was 2.00am and I removed all bit main brisket slice to check internal temps and foil up.



http://s389.photobucket.com/user/ShoulderShrug/media/image.jpg7.jpg.html





I was totally starving at this point and went zombie mode on the single rib that was part of the brisket - it was juicy but not tender-but the taste was great! I'd say texture was much like a fast grilled lamb rib.



http://s389.photobucket.com/user/ShoulderShrug/media/image.jpg5.jpg.html



Temps were 62c on the ribs and I could tell they were still very firm - more like a medium roast, so grabbed the brisket slice and that just felt totally hard and over cooked. I was kinda gutted because it reminded me of my pervious fail.

I think I pulled the way to early in the fear of over cooking and the brisket was just too small and thin to retain moisture.

By this time it was around 2.30am. Meat had been off the WSM for quite some time and I was tired and thought just call it a day and I'd just use the meat up in other dishes so not to to waste it.

Then I thought ok, let's foil up and ad some liquid - no apple or any other juice in the house but I had Honegar which I drink for health benefits so I diluted that and put about half a cup in each foil parcel and back on the WSM. Temps got back to and over to around 116c after about 10 mins I just left it at that. Kinda given up thinking I can wait and watch as my eyes were rolling so the only option was to let it run - I'd messed it up anyway so at the least I'd have some beef jerky from the brisket.

So I open the WSM up at 8.00am on a windy Saturday morning. Coals are out but the foil packages hot to the touch on the underside.

I opened the brisket and yup, firm, not juicy, not jerky but definitely over cooked. As expected (I'd kept it bone down - wrong way?).

So, I'm expecting nothing from the ribs - sure enough major shrinkage - but slicing up the ribs the knife goes in easy and I tracked a damn big smile to see what looked like juicy succulent meat on the inner ribs! One bite and wow! The beefiness was immense!



http://s389.photobucket.com/user/ShoulderShrug/media/image.jpg4_1.jpg.html



Ii put the ribs and juices on a plate, covered and placed in the fridge for later and sliced the brisket up and put that in a container for chilling and later freezing as it tasted a fair bit like jerky - I thought I'd be able to use it in a Chinese or chilli dish.

I warmed up the ribs slowly in microwave later that night - I could see the juices were solid and coagulated and not watery, another smile thinking yes - collagen to gelatine (wrong/wright) and damn,they were good with a bit of homemade Carolina mustard bbq sauce.



http://s389.photobucket.com/user/ShoulderShrug/media/image.jpg2_3.jpg.html


Middle two were very juicy, others over cooked for sure, but that beefiness was great even in those.


http://s389.photobucket.com/user/ShoulderShrug/media/image.jpg3_1.jpg.html

So, ribs overcooked but damn tasty and brisket a fail. Ribs failure to my timing and not fully anticipating how long it would take, as well as I'm sure a raft of other mistakes, but the bone-in brisket I can't sussed out any ideas? Too small?

I will definitely be using the same rub recipe AND the Honegar - I think they both worked brilliantly for flavour,.

I've still got the shoulder slice - any ideas on that? I can see it turning into another brisket jerky, but I'm limited on types of cut from the local butcher.

Sorry, built of an essay and thanks for reading about my first real 'venture' into smoking and the WSM.

Hi Wade,

Thanks so much for the detailed advice - really appreciate it and I'll most definitely pit it into practice.

I used weber briquettes that came with the starter kit and some large chunks of Big K charcoal . I also tried the minion method. I can honestly say my impatience and ignorance with timing as well as being a newbie with no knowledge really got the better of me - I'm pretty please with the results when all this factors in but I need to gain knowledge and technique to get consistent so thanks again for the advice and route way.

With the ribs in order to get that breakdown of tissues and to get the optimism bite iit must be more than reaching a desired temp - is it like, ok I hit the temp so it should be the exact correct texture at said temp - or do you hold it at that temp for a set time dependant on the weight of the meat to get the optimum quality rib?

I'll definitely be taking your advice on the quality of the briquettes, I probably would have gone regular from a supermarket without that info.

About cleaning the WSM, should that be on every cook? The grates for sure, but do I need to get the soapy water out for the whole of it? I saw some vids of people getting it up to temp and using a wire brush on the grates - is that safe, or a no no. Also, doesn't that damage the plating on the grates?

Is the waterfowl essential? Will I get a much longer burn without it?

Cheers again.

Well done for sticking with it, most people would have thrown it in the bin and gone to bed before midnight.

Hi Paz, I am with Wade on this, practice on cheaper cuts of meat until, you know how your set up works. Play with it. I built a small smoker, lit it every day and adjusted temperature settings daily. Never cooked a thing in it for two weeks. That was easy for me to say, as I hade another set up to cook on!

Lol, damn auto spell. Thanks again for the encouragement and great advice - I'm gonna try chicken tomorrow. I picked up Bill Gillespie's book and he has some mouth watering recipes. All I need now is to locate a top quality butcher - quest is on for a boneless brisket ;)