Getting my 1st smoker (WSM)- Now what?

[SweetHeatBBQnSC]

Congrats you are going to love the smoker! It took me a while and advice from here to learn don't chase a specific temp with it. Over time you will see where yours likes to run. Mine is around 275*. I don't put water in the water pan except for Brisket and Butts. Also look at cooking chicken and other stuff with no water pan. It's a versatile cooker.

Sent from my SM-A215U using Tapatalk

[Sevengoals]

Originally Posted by crabjoe

I've got a WSM 18 on order and it's suppose to arrive this weekend. I've been watching YT videos like crazy to get an idea on how to use it.

My plan, when it arrives is to get it seasoned. The only info I've found was from Harry Soo on how he seasons his WSM. Would you folks agree that it's a safe bet on going his way? I'm a bit worried about loading her up and just running her dry for God knows how many hours for the coal to burn out.

As for my 1st cook, I'm planning on Pit Beef, being that I'm from Baltimore.. I've got a couple racks of St Louis ribs in my freezer, so maybe I'll give that a shot too.

Any recommendations are greatly appreciated.



BTW, I ordered a 6 probe thermometer to measure temps while cooking.. Is there anything else that I might need to get good consistent cooks?

Thanks all!

Welcome!
You're going to love it!

There are so many threads on cooking with the WSM.
It's a question of informing yourself and then learning by doing.


And you will need good quality charcoal.


Good luck mate!

[crabjoe]

If you're not going to water in the bowl, why even insert the bowl?

[Shadowdog500]

Originally Posted by crabjoe

If you're not going to water in the bowl, why even insert the bowl?

It will act like a heat diffuser like people put in an ugly drum.

Since you are just starting out why not try the way that smoker was designed to be used. Put Kingsford charcoal In It And light using the minion method. Put a quart of beer in the water pan then top off the rest of the way with water. Either bury chunks of dry smoke wood strategically in the charcoal, or just toss a chunk on top at the beginning and throw a new chunk on every 45 minutes or so for the first half of the cook. (Meat Doesn’t take much smoke after it hits 140°f So don’t wast the smoke wood after that.) Apple is a good mild wood to start with and it goes with just about anything. Use a mix of apple and hickory for ribs.

Leave the top vent wide open and adjust the bottom vents to achieve temp.
Have all vents wide open when lighting. Once the temp climbs to about 200°f close the three bottom vents down to about 1/4 open And let it stabilize on temp. (You can use a pencil Diameter for this initial adjustment) if it climbs past your target temp close the bottom vents a little more. If it stabilizes below your target temp open the bottom vents a little more. Don’t chase the temps. Give the temp 10 or so minutes to settle between adjustments. Don’t worry about hitting an exact Pit temp. Getting it in the ballpark is good enough. As your experience increases so will your ability to get the pit temp closer to a desired temp, but in reality 20° either way will work just fine.

The biggest thing you need to learn when smoking meats is patience. Just sit back and have a beer and don’t monkey with anything unless you know it needs it. If you aren’t sure just leave it alone.

[BBQscott]

Originally Posted by Shadowdog500

It will act like a heat diffuser like people put in an ugly drum.

Since you are just starting out why not try the way that smoker was designed to be used. Put Kingsford charcoal In It And light using the minion method. Put a quart of beer in the water pan then top off the rest of the way with water. Either bury chunks of dry smoke wood strategically in the charcoal, or just toss a chunk on top at the beginning and throw a new chunk on every 45 minutes or so for the first half of the cook. (Meat Doesn’t take much smoke after it hits 140°f So don’t wast the smoke wood after that.) Apple is a good mild wood to start with and it goes with just about anything. Use a mix of apple and hickory for ribs.

Leave the top vent wide open and adjust the bottom vents to achieve temp.
Have all vents wide open when lighting. Once the temp climbs to about 200°f close the three bottom vents down to about 1/4 open And let it stabilize on temp. (You can use a pencil Diameter for this initial adjustment) if it climbs past your target temp close the bottom vents a little more. If it stabilizes below your target temp open the bottom vents a little more. Don’t chase the temps. Give the temp 10 or so minutes to settle between adjustments. Don’t worry about hitting an exact Pit temp. Getting it in the ballpark is good enough. As your experience increases so will your ability to get the pit temp closer to a desired temp, but in reality 20° either way will work just fine.

The biggest thing you need to learn when smoking meats is patience. Just sit back and have a beer and don’t monkey with anything unless you know it needs it. If you aren’t sure just leave it alone.

You pretty much nailed the whole cook with perfect instructions. Following this will yield great results. You shouldn’t have any issues for your first cook if you follow shadows advice here. Share some pictures and how things are going during your first cook. We love to watch :D

[HouseDoc]

One last thing, don't keep taking the lid off to peek. Sit on your hands and try to look until after the 1st two hours have passed then maybe hourly. You mentioned temp probes so just read them. It's HARD not to peek!

[Mikhail]

Ceciltucky? I had to look that up. You are pretty close to Wilmington so should have some pretty good butchers. I worked up that way for a couple months and liked the area, except for DuPont everything.

Got any Capriati's sub shops up your way? Yum.

[Shadowdog500]

Originally Posted by Mikhail

Ceciltucky? I had to look that up. You are pretty close to Wilmington so should have some pretty good butchers. I worked up that way for a couple months and liked the area, except for DuPont everything.

Got any Capriati's sub shops up your way? Yum.

Thanks for mentioning the location. I didn’t realize that ceciltucky was Cecil county MD. I used to race at Cecil county drag strip decades ago, and have eaten multiple times at Woodys Crab House.

I see you have another thread that you can’t find wood chunks.

North east Lowe’s on rt 40 and rt 272 has 7 bags of cowboy apple chunk in stock on isle 24 bay 15

[jdolor]

Originally Posted by Shadowdog500

Thanks for mentioning the location. I didn’t realize that ceciltucky was Cecil county MD. I used to race at Cecil county drag strip decades ago, and have eaten multiple times at Woodys Crab House.

I see you have another thread that you can’t find wood chunks.

North east Lowe’s on rt 40 and rt 272 has 7 bags of cowboy apple chunk in stock on isle 24 bay 15

I’ve done some time at the strip myself. Used to live about a mile away.

[crabjoe]

Originally Posted by Shadowdog500

It will act like a heat diffuser like people put in an ugly drum.

Since you are just starting out why not try the way that smoker was designed to be used. Put Kingsford charcoal In It And light using the minion method. Put a quart of beer in the water pan then top off the rest of the way with water. Either bury chunks of dry smoke wood strategically in the charcoal, or just toss a chunk on top at the beginning and throw a new chunk on every 45 minutes or so for the first half of the cook. (Meat Doesn’t take much smoke after it hits 140°f So don’t wast the smoke wood after that.) Apple is a good mild wood to start with and it goes with just about anything. Use a mix of apple and hickory for ribs.

Leave the top vent wide open and adjust the bottom vents to achieve temp.
Have all vents wide open when lighting. Once the temp climbs to about 200°f close the three bottom vents down to about 1/4 open And let it stabilize on temp. (You can use a pencil Diameter for this initial adjustment) if it climbs past your target temp close the bottom vents a little more. If it stabilizes below your target temp open the bottom vents a little more. Don’t chase the temps. Give the temp 10 or so minutes to settle between adjustments. Don’t worry about hitting an exact Pit temp. Getting it in the ballpark is good enough. As your experience increases so will your ability to get the pit temp closer to a desired temp, but in reality 20° either way will work just fine.

The biggest thing you need to learn when smoking meats is patience. Just sit back and have a beer and don’t monkey with anything unless you know it needs it. If you aren’t sure just leave it alone.

Thanks! I have no idea how to use it. I haven't seen any actual instructions on it's use. About the only thing I've seen is how people use it in YT videos.

BTW, I still don't have the thing.. HD sent me a shipping notice the other day saying the estimated delivery was today.. They didn't actually ship it out the door till today.. I guess I won't see it till Monday now. I'm kind of pissed over that..

My 9yo son was excited to get this... and the odd thing is, I only told him I ordered it yesterday.. And now all he's asking is "what can we cook in it 1st? Can we cook beef and pork at the same time? I want some ribs." He's got me cracking up.

[Kracken]

If you want to peek at the meat without removing the lid, just shine a flashlight through a top vent hole and peek in the other. Just move the light and your eye around to get a good view of things.

[charrederhead]

Welcome to the wonderful world of weber.

-Wrap the water pan in HD foil. Wrap it so that the "end" of the foil is on the outside bottom of the pan. IOW, put the pan on a surface and put foil over it and wrap it around to the bottom of the pan. Then, leave the pan empty. There's no need for anything in it.

-Use lump charcoal. It burns cleaner, allowing you to get the coveted TBS-thin blue smoke- sooner, so you can start cooking sooner, AND it will leave about 70% less ash. You will be able to get multiple cooks done w/o having to dump ash.

-When loading the charcoal ring w/ lump, put a "layer" in at a time and then press it down and around to minimize air gaps. I just do a light pressing with my foot. Pour some in, tamp it down. This will, imo, help keep temps more stable and lengthen the cook.

-I don't use a chimney/lit coals to start my WSM. After I get it filled with the lump, I make a little hole in the middle (deep enough to fit the cube) and put a Weber starter cube there and light it. After a minute or 2 I reassemble the WSM. Top vent open all the way (it's like that 99.9% of the time). The bottom vent position will be different for each WSM. I've owned 2 18s, a 14, and now use only a 22. One thing about all of them- starting out with 3 wide open vents proved to be too much air for a target of around 250+/-. For the past few years, I usually close 2 and open 1 (whichever is facing the wind, if there is one) less than a pencil width. This method generally gets me to 250-270. But, if I'm doing poultry, I let it rip- all 3 bottom vents open all the way all the time.

-Patience! When I think back to when I first started on an 18...I had a notebook to log temp readings every 20 mins, noting the vent positions, how the smoke looked, etc. etc. I worried when the temp was +/- 10 degrees from what my "target" was...ahh, the good old days. There IS a learning curve, but as everyone has said, it's not a long one. So, if I could tell my back-then self anything, it would be to relax, drink more beer, and relax.

-For first cooks, naked fatties and/or picnic shoulders are great.

Enjoy!

[crabjoe]

Originally Posted by charrederhead

if I could tell my back-then self anything, it would be to relax, drink more beer, and relax.

Enjoy!

Bwahahahahaha.. The bold is easy to do.. I started brewing beer last summer, so I've got a couple on tap.

[Monkey Uncle]

Originally Posted by crabjoe

Thanks! I have no idea how to use it. I haven't seen any actual instructions on it's use. About the only thing I've seen is how people use it in YT videos.

BTW, I still don't have the thing.. HD sent me a shipping notice the other day saying the estimated delivery was today.. They didn't actually ship it out the door till today.. I guess I won't see it till Monday now. I'm kind of pissed over that..

My 9yo son was excited to get this... and the odd thing is, I only told him I ordered it yesterday.. And now all he's asking is "what can we cook in it 1st? Can we cook beef and pork at the same time? I want some ribs." He's got me cracking up.

Check out the virtual weber bullet: https://www.virtualweberbullet.com/

Lots of good information there. One word of caution, though. Don't follow their recommendation on how to start the fire. They say you should pour in a chimney full of lit coals, then dump unlit coals on top. If you do that, you'll be waiting forever for the smoke to clear up.

[crabjoe]

Originally Posted by Monkey Uncle

Check out the virtual weber bullet: https://www.virtualweberbullet.com/

Lots of good information there. One word of caution, though. Don't follow their recommendation on how to start the fire. They say you should pour in a chimney full of lit coals, then dump unlit coals on top. If you do that, you'll be waiting forever for the smoke to clear up.

To be honest, I'm not sure I trust the info on that site. And it's because of what I found before and earlier today.

I had heard about seasoning a grill/smoker and when I looked it up, almost everyone says to do it. I'm just going to call this person the Guy, and I think he's the one that runs the site... He says to not bother. Ok.. I still want to season it, but if I get impatient, I might not.

Today when my WSM arrived, I went to put my WSM together and there's really no instructions on the actual assembly, not that it's hard. But what got me was these washers.. It came with normal metal washers and other "Fiber" washer... not sure what they're made of. I didn't know what washer went inside of the outside because the instructions were basically a picture... This got me googling and I found a Video by the guy who runs that site.

He basically says use the metal washers on the legs and "Fiber" washers on the outside for the brackets on the upper cylinder. But when I counted the washers, there were enough "Fiber" washers for every bolt.. And after looking at some other videos, I found the "Fiber" washers go on the outside and they're also used with every bolt, even on the legs... Oh, and he had the comments turned off on his assembly video, so no one can make any suggestions or just comment.

As for the seasoning... I'm pretty sure it's going to need to be done. The grates that came with it feel slippery, like there's something coating it. Maybe it's in my head, but it makes sense to me that Weber would coat them to make sure they don't rust. This did it for me and that site.

The site is specific to the WSM. You would think they would have had really good instructions for assembly, if nothing else.