First smoke on WSM

I got my new WSM in today. I thought I'd start by smoking a brisket. I'm using the MM and instead of putting water in the water pan, I foiled it inside and out and placed a large steel bowl full of water on the lower cooking grate. I got the temps up to 250 and put the meat on. Turns out the meat is larger that the grate so I had to squeeze it together and just slide the lid on best i could. I put it in at 9 o'clock sharp and at 9:25 pm the temps stabilized at 225. I closed the bottom vents to 50% and came inside to tell you about it. What do you think so far? I wasn't sure about the water bowl but I was looking to get longer cook times between refilling the bowl.

I was wrong about my temps stabilizing. It's now at 250 so I closed one vent and set the other two at 25%. Lets see what happens.

I am using the top vent. I have my thermometer from my turkey fryer stuck thru there

It is a a 6 quart bowl and I used it so that I wouldn't have to refill it. I just checked the cooker and it's at 215 dome temp. Almost all of the charcoal is burnt so I'm adding a half chimney of lit coals. The water in the bowl seemed to only lose maybe a couple of pints. I'm thinking that the water pan may of shielded the bowl too much maybe even rendering it ineffective. Before adding the extra coals, I stired what was left and opened two vent to 100% and the other is at 25%. Temps rose back to 240-245.

I know one thing for sure, I will buy me a nice heavy pair of leather gloves before my next cook.

Kevin, you're going to love the WSM. I might suggest that you buy a Brinkman CHARCOAL pan. It fits the WSM waterpan brackets perfectly, and will give you double the watersupply. It's about $3 or $4 at Academy Sports and Outdoors stores.

I've tried many different combinations for heat-sink purposes in my WSMs. Sand didn't really do it for me, since if I'm going to fire up a cooker I'm going to fill it up, and the heat radiating off the sand did unforgiveable things to the meat on the bottom. The clay flowerpot base that I tried cracked during the first cooking session, and I never took the trouble to get another one.

I've settled in on two methods at this point that suit me best - if I'm cooking hot (which tends to be most everything except butts anymore), I use the stock waterpan with two layers of foil on it. If I'm cooking at traditional temps, I go back to the Brinkman charcoal pan with water. Somehow I just like what it does for the meat better than any other option I've tried.

As far as that big brisket, one thing that really works well is just to cut a hunk off the point end of the brisket, rub it, and lay it on the rack next to the rest of the brisket. That chunk is my favorite part - it'll cook and render up to a very tasty hunk of "burnt ends". Also, when doing a packer on the WSM, save the big chunks of hard fat while you're trimming it. When you lay the brisket on the rack, tuck that fat underneath the ends of the brisket. That way, the ends of the brisket will be better protected from the harsher heat that comes up around the edges of the waterpan and up the side walls of the cooker. Works great.

Take a look at the "as-seen-on-TV" Ove-Gloves as part of your glove arsenal - I think they're at most Walmarts, Walgreens, etc. It they get wet they're useless against heat, but as long as they stay dry I can pick up a WSM base that's full of burning lump with them and never feel the heat - even pick up the charcoal grate still burning. (We've added handles to the charcoal grates). I've been using the sames ones for close to three years now, washing them almost every week, and I'm still amazed at their effectiveness.

Enjoy! Keri C

Thanks for the pointers Keri. It never crossed my mind to cut a little off the end to make it fit. I'll have to try and find those gloves too.

The meat was on for just over 12 hours and I just pulled it off, foiled, wrapped in a towel and place on an ice chest. I'll let it rest a while then I think I'll separate the flat and point and put the point back on for a while.

heres how things turned out










If you've never used it, Head Country seasoning is pretty good stuff