Finally got to break in my new 18.5" WSM & BBQ Guru DigiQ DX2 ATC at a Zephyr Cove Lake Tahoe Cabin outing with the family 6/10-6/14.
Special cudos to Craig (fpnmf) "How I Start & Use My WSM" and Eric (forluvofsmoke) "Wet To Dry Brisket & Pork Butt".
Smoked a 12.71 pound packer brisket (after separating the point & flat), a 6.27 pound brisket flat, a 8.02 pound & 7.62 pound pork butt. Stuck pretty close to Eric's Wet To Dry method for maximum bark creation.
Removed all exterior fat from briskets and butts. Used SPOG on briskets and Jeff's Rub on the butts. Smoker temp @ 225 for entire smokes. No foil on meats and lid kept closed for entire smoke session.
WSM water bowl half filled with play sand, terra cotta saucer on top of sand, foil wrapped, then filled remaining bowl space with hot water.
12.71 lb brisket packer untrimmed and just out of its packaging;
Same brisket packer after removing all fat and separating the point & flat;
Fat trimmed 6 lb flat;
SPOG'd fat trimmed 6 lb flat;
Placed single 6 lb flat on lower WSM grate and separated packer meats on upper grate.
SPOG'd brisket going into smoker;
Started brisket smoke at 9:00pm on 6/10 when smoker temp was ~155.
Took 2 hours for the ATC to get smoker temp to 225. Had two of the lower vents completely closed, upper vent completely open, and controlling solely with the ATC.
While briskets were on the smoke started prepping the pork butts.
Trimmed butts (~8 lbs each);
Rubbed both butts generously with Jeff's rub recipe then wrapped each in plastic wrap and refrigerated overnight;
Called it a night at this point.
Had my ATC display just outside my cabin bedroom window and kept looking at it periodically throughout the night.
Made a batch of Kat's biscuits for breakfast;
Pulled upper grate briskets at 2:00pm on 6/11 for a total smoke time of 17 hours. Upper grate flat IT 195 (probably should have pulled at 185) when pulled.
Lower grate brisket IT 175 so left it in the WSM a bit longer.
Rested briskets on raised roasting racks inside of large aluminum pans and covered with kitchen towels for ~1 hour for max bark retention.
Wet To Dry flat & point;
Briskets had good bark but were disappointedly dry with poor smoke penetration;
Sliced both flats and cubed the point to add to a batch of Dutch's Ranch Beans;
Plated sliced brisket with Dutch's Ranch Beans and cloned KFC cole slaw;
Quickly cleaned out the smoker and re-prepped it for the butts to keep smoker temps up as much as possible.
Put both ~8 lb butts on the WSM ~7:20pm 6/11. WSM temp 115, butt temp 34;
These butts took awhile.
Resisted the temptation to remove lid to peak several times.
Just trusted the ATC to get me where I wanted to be.
Had to add several handfuls of brickets (Kingsford blue) and more wood chunks (pecan, cherry, hickory) a couple of times.
Time to go to bed again.
Another batch of Kat's biscuits for breakfast and today added her sausage balls to the mix.
I added finely minced onion to her sausage ball recipe.
Had to cook the sausage balls first then the biscuits because they require different temps and my cooking vessels were limited.
Here's a pic of the finished sausage balls and yet to be baked biscuits;
Another shot of the sausage balls;
Butts finally removed from WSM at 10:30pm 6/12 after 27 hours (hope my math and notes are correct).
Final butt IT 195.
Same as the brisket these were moved to raised roasting racks inside large aluminum pans and covered with kitchen towels to rest.
Finished butts;
My intentions were to let these rest for a couple of hours, pull, then vacuum seal and into the freezer.
Unfortunately too many beers and a comfortable bed resulted in me not seeing these again until morning.
Here's what they looked like pulled and in the pan;
I was very pleased with these butts!
The bark was amazing and the meat was moist and tender.
So, brisket I gotta work on.
Very happy with the butts.
Feel pretty good about my 1st's;
1st time using a WSM
1st time using an ATC
1st time smoking brisket
1st time smoking butts
Thanks to all at SMF for making this possible!
Could not have got here without ya.
Now looking forward to tweeking things for better results.
Thanks for lookin'
Jay
Special cudos to Craig (fpnmf) "How I Start & Use My WSM" and Eric (forluvofsmoke) "Wet To Dry Brisket & Pork Butt".
Smoked a 12.71 pound packer brisket (after separating the point & flat), a 6.27 pound brisket flat, a 8.02 pound & 7.62 pound pork butt. Stuck pretty close to Eric's Wet To Dry method for maximum bark creation.
Removed all exterior fat from briskets and butts. Used SPOG on briskets and Jeff's Rub on the butts. Smoker temp @ 225 for entire smokes. No foil on meats and lid kept closed for entire smoke session.
WSM water bowl half filled with play sand, terra cotta saucer on top of sand, foil wrapped, then filled remaining bowl space with hot water.
12.71 lb brisket packer untrimmed and just out of its packaging;
Same brisket packer after removing all fat and separating the point & flat;
Fat trimmed 6 lb flat;
SPOG'd fat trimmed 6 lb flat;
Placed single 6 lb flat on lower WSM grate and separated packer meats on upper grate.
SPOG'd brisket going into smoker;
Started brisket smoke at 9:00pm on 6/10 when smoker temp was ~155.
Took 2 hours for the ATC to get smoker temp to 225. Had two of the lower vents completely closed, upper vent completely open, and controlling solely with the ATC.
While briskets were on the smoke started prepping the pork butts.
Trimmed butts (~8 lbs each);
Rubbed both butts generously with Jeff's rub recipe then wrapped each in plastic wrap and refrigerated overnight;
Called it a night at this point.
Had my ATC display just outside my cabin bedroom window and kept looking at it periodically throughout the night.
Made a batch of Kat's biscuits for breakfast;
Pulled upper grate briskets at 2:00pm on 6/11 for a total smoke time of 17 hours. Upper grate flat IT 195 (probably should have pulled at 185) when pulled.
Lower grate brisket IT 175 so left it in the WSM a bit longer.
Rested briskets on raised roasting racks inside of large aluminum pans and covered with kitchen towels for ~1 hour for max bark retention.
Wet To Dry flat & point;
Briskets had good bark but were disappointedly dry with poor smoke penetration;
Sliced both flats and cubed the point to add to a batch of Dutch's Ranch Beans;
Plated sliced brisket with Dutch's Ranch Beans and cloned KFC cole slaw;
Quickly cleaned out the smoker and re-prepped it for the butts to keep smoker temps up as much as possible.
Put both ~8 lb butts on the WSM ~7:20pm 6/11. WSM temp 115, butt temp 34;
These butts took awhile.
Resisted the temptation to remove lid to peak several times.
Just trusted the ATC to get me where I wanted to be.
Had to add several handfuls of brickets (Kingsford blue) and more wood chunks (pecan, cherry, hickory) a couple of times.
Time to go to bed again.
Another batch of Kat's biscuits for breakfast and today added her sausage balls to the mix.
I added finely minced onion to her sausage ball recipe.
Had to cook the sausage balls first then the biscuits because they require different temps and my cooking vessels were limited.
Here's a pic of the finished sausage balls and yet to be baked biscuits;
Another shot of the sausage balls;
Butts finally removed from WSM at 10:30pm 6/12 after 27 hours (hope my math and notes are correct).
Final butt IT 195.
Same as the brisket these were moved to raised roasting racks inside large aluminum pans and covered with kitchen towels to rest.
Finished butts;
My intentions were to let these rest for a couple of hours, pull, then vacuum seal and into the freezer.
Unfortunately too many beers and a comfortable bed resulted in me not seeing these again until morning.
Here's what they looked like pulled and in the pan;
I was very pleased with these butts!
The bark was amazing and the meat was moist and tender.
So, brisket I gotta work on.
Very happy with the butts.
Feel pretty good about my 1st's;
1st time using a WSM
1st time using an ATC
1st time smoking brisket
1st time smoking butts
Thanks to all at SMF for making this possible!
Could not have got here without ya.
Now looking forward to tweeking things for better results.
Thanks for lookin'
Jay
