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I'm A Smoker

Alright, so I've had my WSM for a few a while now without using it. I've been use to my Weber Kettle so I never broke out the smoker.

Up on the menu today were some baby back ribs.

I had some trouble with the heat, a lot of trouble actually. I was running it around 350-375 and I couldn't get it down. The ribs came out good with some nice pecan wood flavor I threw in it but it was a little tough tasting than I can make.

One thing that I didn't take into consideration was how much the ambient heat effects the cooker. It is 113 today but it was 104 when I started and it still wasn't pleasant sitting out cooking. Since the temperature was high should I have pulled the meat out sooner?

Does anyone have suggestions on keeping the heat down or controlling it a little better? I'm also thinking of moving my smoker to the front with the kettle grill because my backyard faces west and it is brutal in the summer back there. I currently grill in the front yard so I think the smoker is going to have to come out front too.
 
Congratulations Mark!

Tell me about the fire in that WSM, how did you set it up?

I used a chimney starter full and waited until the top coals were turning white as usual; I've never been a fan of lighting the charcoal in the kettle so I figured it can't be much different with the smoker. Maybe that was my mistake.

I placed the charcoal on the tray, opened the bottom vents. Waited for about 10 minutes and built the smoker with the two slabs of ribs.
 
I used a chimney starter full and waited until the top coals were turning white as usual; I've never been a fan of lighting the charcoal in the kettle so I figured it can't be much different with the smoker. Maybe that was my mistake.

I placed the charcoal on the tray, opened the bottom vents. Waited for about 10 minutes and built the smoker with the two slabs of ribs.

When you have a moment google "Minion method" for fire starting. How were your vents adjusted?
 
Temperature control on a WSM is usually done by adjusting the bottom vents. Top vent is wide open, bottom vents adjusted for temperature. Once the WSM is within the target temp range I want, I usually shutoff two vents and just use the third vent for intake. As Jim asked, how were your vents adjusted?
 
Temperature control on a WSM is usually done by adjusting the bottom vents. Top vent is wide open, bottom vents adjusted for temperature. Once the WSM is within the target temp range I want, I usually shutoff two vents and just use the third vent for intake. As Jim asked, how were your vents adjusted?

Exactly. I start out with an almost full basket of coals in the smoker. Then light up 10 to 20 coals in the starter and wait till they are burning well. Put the lit coal on top the unlit coals and assemble the smoker. Leave all vents open till your temps read about 200F. Once you reach that close down one vent, wait till you reach 220F close down a second vent. From there adjust the third vent till you maintain your target temp, mine is 240ish, and from there it should maintain temps for hours with no more adjustments.

Make sure to leave the top vent completely open.
 
When you have a moment google "Minion method" for fire starting. How were your vents adjusted?

Top vent was wide open........bottom vent open too. Reading the Minion Method now I see the bottom vents may have been fueling the heat more.
 
Top vent was wide open........bottom vent open too. Reading the Minion Method now I see the bottom vents may have been fueling the heat more.

This is more than likely the issue Mark.

Its a lot like making lather, its hard to get the fire cooler after it takes off, if it gets to large and then you dampen it down, it will smolder and give off acrid smoke. Much better to sneak up to the target temps. Cris has a good example above. I would offer the suggestion you do a couple of dry runs without any food to worry about.
 
Alright so I made some notes on what I did during prep and cooking. One thing I forgot to mention was that I cooked the ribs on the grill and not on the rib racks. I'm assuming this had nothing to do with the temperature but I was curious:

What are the Pros and Cons of a rib rack? And how about coiling the ribs, does anyone have experience and opinions on that?
 
Alright so I made some notes on what I did during prep and cooking. One thing I forgot to mention was that I cooked the ribs on the grill and not on the rib racks. I'm assuming this had nothing to do with the temperature but I was curious:

What are the Pros and Cons of a rib rack? And how about coiling the ribs, does anyone have experience and opinions on that?

rib rack potentially gets more ribs in the system at one time and probably allows better flow of warm air around the meat in such a small place. how much better, probably not much
 
FWIW I don't get as good results with the racks as I do flat on the grate. I use them when I have a crowd to feed, but not if I don't have to.

I think the rub and other deliciousness I apply to them runs off rather than sits on them.
 
Alright so I made some notes on what I did during prep and cooking. One thing I forgot to mention was that I cooked the ribs on the grill and not on the rib racks. I'm assuming this had nothing to do with the temperature but I was curious:

What are the Pros and Cons of a rib rack? And how about coiling the ribs, does anyone have experience and opinions on that?

Rib Racks aren't a necessity. I have two of them but haven't used them in a while when cooking ribs. For one thing, they're kind of a pain to clean. Theoretically, if you're doing a lot of ribs you could probably fit more in the smoker using the racks. But otherwise it's more of a preference. Your ribs won't be better or worse tasting because of the racks. I can fit four racks of baby backs on my upper grate if I just roll them up and do them that way.

As for the minion method, I always do it that way unless I need high heat for a turkey or something similar. With the minion method I'd recommend opening all bottom vents about half way. Give it a good 45 minutes to an hour after you put the meat on before you start trying to adjust the temperature. All that cold meat will lower the temperature of the smoker, which may cause you to think you need to up the temperature, when your vents may actually be where they need to be. Top vent is always open fully, control temperature with bottom vents.

And you did put water in the water pan, right?
 
FWIW I don't get as good results with the racks as I do flat on the grate. I use them when I have a crowd to feed, but not if I don't have to.

I think the rub and other deliciousness I apply to them runs off rather than sits on them.

Have you tried coiling the ribs to squeeze more in?

And you did put water in the water pan, right?

Yes sir.
 
So what I'm gather about smoking is don't think like a straight shaver and over-think everything.
 
So what I'm gather about smoking is don't think like a straight shaver and over-think everything.
I never rolled, but I have cut the ribs down to 1/2 racks

I can only tell you what EightysixCJ told me when I started- "Relax it's just BBQ"
 
As Jim pointed out with the minion method. It's impossible for me in my smoker to keep in the lows 200 if I start with a fully lit basket of coal.
Instead I make a big pile of unlit in the smoker and just lite 2 handfull in the chemney that I had on the top of the unlit pile. That way it's super easy to stay in the 200-250 range for more than 6h without adding any charcoal.
 
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