# WSM Newbie...some questions regarding temp. and smoke taste...



## snead13 (Jun 25, 2017)

Guys,

I've owned a WSM for exactly 7 days now.  I got a decent deal (I think) for it...an 18.5" with everything (except a cover) for $150.00.  I plan to keep this in my garage or shed when not in use, so a cover wasn't a deal-breaker for me.  Since my first smoker was a vertical gasser, I didn't want to go all in financially for the WSM and not like it, so this was the correct amount of risk for me.  :)

After cleaning it (it really wasn't dirty but since it was used, I wanted to ensure that it was clean), I used the Minion Method and I fired up the smoker and got it up to temp.  Our local grocery store didn't have a lot of choices for wood chunk so I bought a bag of Mesquite and Hickory and since I've heard horror stories of using too much Mesquite, I decided to use a few chunks of Hickory for this smoke.  My first smoke was hamburgers wrapped in bacon and Nathan's hot dogs.  I figured this was easy, quick and a good test run for my first time using this smoker.  After a good 30-45 minutes, the smoker seemed to be running OK and was sitting at 240* on my iGrill Air Probe (a bit higher on the thermometer in the lid which is to be expected).  The bottom air vents were mostly closed off and the top vent was wide open.  I was running water in the pan this time to help regulate the temps.  I put my food in--hamburgers on the top rack and hot dogs on the bottom and things went well.  The issue I had was that the food (the bacon, especially) seemed to have way too much smoke flavor.  I don't know what "acrid" tastes like, but I couldn't eat the bacon because it was too smoky for me...  The dogs were fine, as expected, but the burgers with the bacon removed were even a little too smokey for my taste.

So...trying to learn from my mistakes, last night I decided to brine and smoke some boneless/skinless chicken breasts.  I read somewhere that someone has modified the Minion Method slightly by putting an empty/hollow metal can in the center of the charcoal ring that you surround by coals.  Then, once you pour the hot coals from your chimney into the can, you use tongs to remove the can leaving a perfect "core" of burning coals.  To me, this seemed much neater/easier than trying to make a hole in the center of the ring without anything to keep the coals from "avalanching" back into the center.  Again, this worked great...and I had 2 small chunks of pecan and 2 small chunks of cherry for smoke...and after 30-45 minutes, the smoker was up to 250*, the smoke wasn't too thick (but not quite TBS) and I assumed it was ready for me to put the meat on.  (For the chicken, as instructed, I did not use water in the pan--it was simply foiled for easy cleanup.)  Again, the bottom vents were mostly closed and the top vent was wide open.

I loaded 8 large boneless/skinless chicken breasts--4 on each rack--and put the lid back on and the first thing I noticed was that my pit temp probe sitting right below the top rack was reading 40* lower than the thermometer in the lid.  I've read that this should be closer to 15* difference under normal circumstances, so I was kind of lost here...  My suspicion is that the meat temp. sitting on the rack was bringing down the temp. on the ambient probe.  What I don't know is how...was it because of the proximity of the probe to the meat or was it because the little metal clip holding the probe was allowing the lower temp of the grate due to the meat sitting on it to transfer to the probe?

Either way...here is my question:  I've read on forums that when you put the meat on, you don't adjust the WSM for when the temp. drops when you put your meat in.  Most people tend to "ride it out" and wait for the temps to go back up.  Since this was supposed to be a quick smoke 1-1.5 hours at 250-275*, if I don't adjust my temp due to the meat going into the smoker, it would never get completed in 1-1.5 hours.  In my case, I think that was my mistake...I chased the temp. up and down.  It really didn't stabilize until the last 30 minutes of the smoke and I spent the first 30-45 minutes of the smoke at a really low temperature (250-275* at the lid, 210-235* right below the top grate).

Once the temp of the chicken was up to temp, again, I tasted a little too much smoke for my liking.  Since I used pecan and cherry instead of something "stronger", I wasn't expecting to have that much smoke flavor.  This brings up other questions:  1.  Am I using to much wood chunk?  (3-4 small chunks sitting on the coals using the MM.)  2.  Am I tasting the flavor of the Kingsford Blue instead?

Sorry to ramble on...just looking for some advice to get rid of what I feel is "too much smoke" on my last 2 smokes.

Thanks!

Michael


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## noboundaries (Jun 25, 2017)

First cold air sinks, even in a smoker.   The same thing happens in my WSM.  My probe just above the grate loaded with meat will read higher than the one stuck in the grommet, sometimes as much as 30-40 degrees.  Don't chase the temps.  

As far as the smoke flavor, you may be tasting the charcoal.  How long after you add the hot charcoal do you put the meat on?  It can take 60 minutes or more until the dirty smoke goes away.  Briquettes can fool you because they produce blue smoke until they start burning cleanly, especially KBB that you are using.


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## snead13 (Jun 25, 2017)

Thanks for the reply...but I'm still confused.  Using the Minion Method, the center coals are lit and slowly spread to the coals around them.  They light, and slowly spread to the coals around them...and so on and so on.  Having the coals around the center slowly light and spread to the other coals is what allows the MM to have 12+ hour burns with a single load of coal.  Right?

If that's the case, then during the entire burn, there will always be coals that are just lighting off and giving off "bad smoke".  I've read that some people don't care about this but if it is truly the KBB giving off this strong smokey taste, then it seems the only way to avoid this is to use Weber's directions for lighting the WSM where you light the entire coal ring, let it fire off and then add the rest of the WSM on top.

In both of my cases, the burgers/bacon and chicken seemed to absorb "more" smoke than other meats...  So should I not use the MM for meats that absorb smoke/flavor quickly and use the MM for ribs, pork butt or other meats that can take a lot of smoke?

And, last question:  Should I use another brand/kind of coal other than KBB?

Thanks, again...

Michael


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## noboundaries (Jun 25, 2017)

No, don't light the entire coal basket.  The hot coals warm the cold ones, but when the fire is just getting started at the beginning, the cold ones burn dirty. So does any wood you've added. 

If you allow the fire to reach equilibrium, usually 30 to 60 minutes, the available heat preheats the cold charcoal and wood.   You get a cleaner burning ignition of the available fuel as it slowly spreads through the charcoal and wood.

I've stopped using KBB and switched to Royal Oak Ridge briquettes.  They burn cleaner, longer, and more consistent than any of the Kingsford products. When bought on sale at Lowes during the summer holidays, per pound they are just as inexpensive per pound as KBB, but are sold in 15.4 lb bags, not 18.4 lb bags like KBB.


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## cornman (Jun 25, 2017)

I've found using the Minion Method and waiting a bit as mentioned above gives the heavy smoke a chance to burn off.  I also do fill my pan with water...maybe that might help until you get comfortable with th ins and outs of your smoker.  I've also learned thru this site, to bury your wood chunks in your unlit charcoal and it helps you attain TBS easier.  Be patient and don't be afraid to experiment...good things will come your way.


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## snead13 (Jun 26, 2017)

Thanks for the replies and advice!  That makes sense...  I've been giving myself 30 minutes to get the chimney going and to get the WSM up to speed.  It sounds like an hour and 15 minutes to an hour and a half is more realistic to get things lit, up to temp. and to allow the dirty smoke to burn off.

Thanks for the recommendation on the brand/type of charcoal to use, too.  I'm new to charcoal in general and I'd be willing to pay a little extra for a better end result, if that makes sense.

This brings me to another question regarding the wood.  If I'm using a mild wood like cherry or pecan (or both), how many chunks of each do I use and how large should the chunks be?  I buy the small bags of wood chunks from Home Depot or the local grocery store...they are usually small enough to fit easily into the palm of my hand.  And, when you bury the wood chunks, do you put some closer to the center and some toward the outside of the ring to allow for some wood to be smoldering at all times, or does that just take care of itself with the amount of heat in the bottom of the WSM?

Thanks, again, for the advice!

Michael


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## noboundaries (Jun 26, 2017)

snead13 said:


> Thanks for the replies and advice!  That makes sense...  I've been giving myself 30 minutes to get the chimney going and to get the WSM up to speed.  It sounds like an hour and 15 minutes to an hour and a half is more realistic to get things lit, up to temp. and to allow the dirty smoke to burn off.
> 
> Thanks for the recommendation on the brand/type of charcoal to use, too.  I'm new to charcoal in general and I'd be willing to pay a little extra for a better end result, if that makes sense.
> 
> ...


Your timing on the dirty smoke is about right when you include firing up charcoal in the chimney.   

When I buy wood chunks, I pick up bags on sale at HD, Lowes, or Walmart.  Walmart is usually cheapest.  Watch for end of season clearance sales. 

Wood chunks come in all sizes.  Unless I've had a 20+ hour smoke, my WSM will always have a layer of charcoal left over from the previous smoke.  I'll put down 3-4 fist size piles of wood on the used charcoal.  Sometimes each pile only has one piece of wood, sometimes 3-4 small smaller pieces to make one pile.  I'll cover that with new charcoal, then put down 3-4 more fist sized piles.  If I have room, I'll add another layer of charcoal, then put the hot charcoal in the center of it all, no minion, just dump and spread out a little so it doesn't touch the bottom of the empty water pan. 

Some of the pieces in those wood bags can be pretty small.  I save them and use them in my grill when I'm grilling steaks, chicken, burgers, sausage, etc. 

A full load of the current KBB, about 3/4 of an 18.6 lb bag, or 14 lbs, running at a chamber temp of 225-250F, will only get me about 16-18 hours of heat.  

I haven't done a single long smoke on the Royal Oak Ridge since I switched charcoal at the Memorial Day sale, but I've done two 6-hour smokes, three 7-hour smokes, and one 3 hour smoke (36 hours total) on a single 15.4 lb bag of the Royal Oak Ridge.  Four of those smokes were low temp jerky smokes, 165F in the chamber.  The 3-hour was 225F for tri tip.  One was a 275F chamber temp for ribs.  I have an 11 lb picnic in the freezer that will be the first long smoke, but don't know when I'll smoke it.     

For total transparency, I have also used an 8.3 lb bag of store brand briquettes, which are actually RO Ridge briquettes, but there's at least 8.3 lbs of used briquettes remaining in my WSM after my last smoke.


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## snead13 (Jul 3, 2017)

An update of sorts...

I bought 2 bags of RO and smoked some ribs for a party Saturday evening.  I'm still not sure how I did because by the time I was finished cooking them, I wasn't hungry (although I hadn't eaten much that day) so I only tried a little piece of one of them--it was good, I think but I'm not an expert.  I'll list how I cooked them, what I think I did wrong and ask for suggestions below:

First of all, this was all done on an 18.5" WSM with a full load of RO Charcoal lit using the minion method with chunks of Cherry and Pecan mixed in.  (I was gun shy by the overly smokey taste before so I went mild and sweet this time.)  Although there wasn't a lot of thick white smoke in the beginning like with the KBB, I let it stabilize and burn for a good hour and a half before I put the ribs on.  I was aiming for 1 hour, but I wasn't ready to put the meat on for an hour and a half. :) . I bought a clay pot base from the local hardware store, wrapped it in foil and used it in my water pan like a lot of people recommend on this site.  I didn't use any water at all this time...everything was smoked "dry".

The ribs were store bought, previously frozen "enhanced" St. Louis style spare ribs.  I bought 2 packs ($15/each) at our local Food Lion (I didn't plan on this but time wasn't on my side), trimmed them up to match the pictures I saw on the Internet, removed the silver skin and rinsed them before I applied the rub.  For the rub, I used spicy yellow mustard and Jeff's Rib Rub (recipe can be purchased on this site).  I had my iGrill2 Ambient Probe set approx. 1" below the top grate on the WSM and I put the ribs in a rib rack (2 slabs, cut in half) on the bottom rack.

I kept the temps on the iGrill2 probe in the 230*-250* range consistently, although I was aiming for 230* but circumstances dictated otherwise.  I've heard that RO burns hotter...I'll agree with this as I struggled more to keep the smoker cooler than warmer.  The only exception to this was when the sun went behind my house and the smoker that was in the sun all day was suddenly in the shade and the temp. dropped 20-30*.  I went from running the bottom vents all the way closed with the top vent wide open to the bottom vents needing to be cracked a little to get back up to temp.

The plan was to use the 3-2-1 method, however, it was more like 3-2...  After 3 hours, everything looked great.  I foiled them (dry since I wanted a nice bark) and put them back on for the next phase of the cook.  The mistake I made (and have since learned from), was I left the top off of the grill the entire time I foiled the ribs and the temp. shot to about 320* when I put everything back together.  It took a good 45 minutes to get it back down which is why I think they were done in 5 hours versus 6.  My plan to mitigate this issue in the future is to remove the top and center sections and place the top directly on the bottom section to prevent additional air from getting to the coals.  This will still cause a heat spike, but a much more manageable one, I'm sure.

I cooked some ABTs and some Brats, too...on the top rack while the ribs were cooking in foil.  The brats were fine, but the ABT's had issues...I think my wife overstuffed them because a bunch of the filling kept coming out.  I did taste one and it was good, though...so as long as you only care about taste and not about presentation, they were fine.

I did get a pic of the ribs when I took them off.  Again, using Jeff's BBQ Sauce recipe, I sauced 2 of the 1/2 slabs and left 2 un-sauced.  My first attempt at Q-View is attached...I was more taking a picture of the food and wasn't concerned about presentation so excuse the clutter in the picture.  (I make a mess when I cook which is why the wife cooks most of the time.) . :)













20170701_ribs.jpeg



__ snead13
__ Jul 3, 2017






I did the bend test (by accident), the toothpick test and used a probe that read 195* so I believe they were done...the question is, were they over done?  The one piece I tried was a small edge piece that might have been over cooked, but the rest didn't seem as dry.  Also, the smoke was perfect, I though...definitely not "acrid" like the last time.  Even the bacon wrapping the ABTs was good...whereas with KBBs and putting the food on too early previously, the bacon absorbed the acrid smoke quickly.

Well...that was my Saturday adventure...any additional advice you can give is appreciated.

Thanks!

Michael


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