BBQ Newbie...here to make some like minded friends....

A few tips: A WSM gets easier to use once it's "seasoned". Brand new, they are quite leaky, but after a few cooks it gunks up and seals (this is good).

Pork butt are cheap, but take a while to cook. I always recommend starting with chicken thighs. While challenging to perfect, they are almost impossible to ruin. They will give you a chance to learn your WSM in 2-3 hour stops vs. 8-10.

I never use water in mine, just a foil wrapped terra cotta plate as a heat sink. Learn to catch the fire on the way up. Set your temp and get clean burning before you add food. I get my best results at 275 for pork and brisket, 300-325 for chicken.

Also - Learn to brine birds.

Oh, and welcome to the Brethren. Best site on the Internet.

David

Welcome to the site. The know all end all is tvwbb.com
But you should come back here after you learn some basics. This site will take it to the next level.



You have one of the best smokers ever made. Take the time to get to know it.

Beer/Meat/Victory said:

Also don’t ever tell your wife what time dinner will be ready.

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This is the single most helpful comment in this thread. :mrgreen:

Welcome, Kris. You will certainly get the info you seek right here. In fact, I will bet a year from now you will be advising the newbie that just got a WSM how to go about getting started with it. It is nice that you have a Maverick, but as most here will advise, only use that as a guide. All meats are different, and you will learn to check the doneness by probing it. For now, get that thing fired up, seasoned and the thin-blue rolling.

Welcome to the Forum. I own a 22 WSM and love it. I "graduated" to it from a COS that I had modified quite a bit and which eventually rusted out. Night/day difference in the two cookers, obviously. My WSM produces outstanding results.

I started with chicken, as others have suggested. More so to get some grease/smoke/gunk into it. The next cook I did multiple pork butts. I was off and running from there.

I use water in my pan(tons of opinions on what/how to use the water pan). It works well for me, and I have a wooded lot where I dump the water in the woods when the cook is finished.

Your 18.5 probably has the rubber grommet to run a probe wire through. Mine 22 is old enough that it doesn't have one. Regardless you might want to consider cutting a "notch" into the lid base for your temp probe(s). I used a dremel type sander and it took 15 seconds. I've had a my Maverick for over 3 years and have had zero issues with the probes using this method.

Happy Cooking!! You are in the right place to learn a LOT. The amount of knowledge on this website, and more importantly, the willingness of people to share it, is amazing!!

My first smoker was the 18" WSM and I cooked some good food on it. I think my first cook was ribs. I usually cooked most everything between 275 and 300 which is where mine seemed to like to run. The best brisket I ever cooked was on the WSM.

I always used a wind break with mine and it seemed to help keep temps pretty steady.

I also never used water in the water bowl, I just foiled it.

Use the minion method to setup your charcoal and you can cook for hours without refueling.

I would recommend you check out the Virtual Weber Bullet website which is dedicated to the WSM and has a lot of great tips and people on there on how to run this smoker.

I eventually sold mine and moved on to something bigger but I think the WSM is a great smoker for those just starting out. Welcome and good luck.

Welcome and you came to the right place Kris.

Welcome to the WSM club! I highly recommend the fatty as well. They're easy to cook, season up the cooker REALLY nice (mmmmm fat!) and you can start getting a hang on the temp swings of your WSM.

Note, the swings will decrease as you cook more and seal it up more.

I found this book to be very informative.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MLN1TRW/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Welcome aboard. I also say smoke a butt!

Welcome! I just picked up my first WSM last weekend (22") and fired it up for the first time. It was chilly (about 15 degrees) here. First cook I did up a couple of fatties and a rack of baby backs just to play with it. It settled in at about 260 and held steady there (within 10 degrees either way) for the entire cook. Everything turned out great.

I followed the guide Harry Soo has on his website for the first cook. Built a donut of unlit charcoal and dumped lit coals in the middle. Opened one bottom vent and left the top about 1/2 open and played with the top vent to get it stabilized. I think I probably started with too many lit coals and that's why it was running at 260ish rather than 230 or 240 I was shooting for. Not a big deal. The factory door on mine wasn't even close to making a seal. Probably a 1/8 gap at least. I bent it around and tried to seal it up with foil as best I could but it wasn't perfect and more than likely contributed to the higher temps as well. I just got a Cajun Bandit steel door delivered yesterday so that'll be going on this weekend.

As others have mentioned above I'd start with just about anything you feel like eating... maybe hold off on brisket until you get the hang of it. This weekend I'm going to try to dial the temp up and do a bunch of chicken. Have fun with your new toy!

sleebus.jones said:

This is the single most helpful comment in this thread. :mrgreen:

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I second this! My standard reply of "you can't rush greatness" has never seemed to make her happy. It's done when it's done.

I guess I'm in the minority here, thinking he should start out with maybe a nice rack of pork loin ribs. A long enough cook to be practice at holding temps, but not too long as to want to give up too early and pull the meat.
I'm sure many here could give a straight forward step-by-step...maybe even without foiling to keep it simple.

Welcome Kris! Lots of great advice already. Boston Pork Butt, bone-in is a fantastic first cook. Focus on finding a temp your cooker likes and try maintaining that temp across the entire cook time - BPB is extremely forgiving. My WSM 22 loves to roll at 265... so that’s where I cook. If you haven’t already grabbed one - find an instant read thermometer.

Best advice is just get out there and play and get to know your cooker. It’s supposed to be fun!

Those look great! What was your cook plan? How was the skin?

Nice. If you like crisp skin, you likely should go high temp on the cook or direct on the skin side. Along with high temp, try the boiling water trick. Works every time, if your cooker will get up in the mid to high 300s.