brett_j
Is lookin for wood to cook with.
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2017
- Location
- Spring, Tx
Just threw a brisket and pork shoulder on and it's turning out to be one hell of a cook.
Little back story. Just acquired a new (to me) WSM 22.5. Got it used and it came with an Auber ATC. Did a test run last weekend and everything seemed to work great. I was chomping at the bit to use the smoker and decided I would do a brisket and pork shoulder overnight tonight to really test out the ATC. I figured worst case scenario I'd have some so-so brisket to make chopped beef or smoked brisket potato soup. And I've found that pork shoulders are pretty forgiving and they were also on sale so that piece is only a $8.50 investment.
Back to tonight. We got home from a family function at around 9:00 pm and I fired up 20 coals in the charcoal chimney. WSM was loaded up with a full ring of unlit charcoal with some hickory chunks mixed in. Dumped the 20 lit coals into the middle of the charcoal ring to start a cook using the Minion method. The fun started when I put the full water pan in. About five minutes later I hear a "thud". Looked at the WSM and figured I'd just put the middle section on a little crooked and it has just seated itself on the base. Wrong. The water pan had just dropped through its holders directly onto the coals. Awesome. Repositioned the water pan and thought maybe that was the end of that. Wrong again. Now my ATC is acting all funny. Temp readings are all over the place for a few seconds and then it settles back down. But every time it goes to turn the fan on, it very quickly resets itself. For 10-15 minutes, I can't for the life of me figure out why. Finally, after unplugging the fan, I realize it got water all over it when the water pan fell. Seems that the fan was shorting every time it tried to turn on and, in turn, was quickly resetting the ATC. After disassembling the fan twice and drying it out with the wife's hairdryer, seems like we're back in business finally. Meanwhile, it's not getting any earlier...I had hoped to get things on the grill by 10:00ish. So now I'm sitting here on the patio at 11:00 trying to figure out if we're doomed before we barely started. Put the brisket on at 10:30 and the pork shoulder on at 10:45. We'll see what the hell happens...
Oh, and now while I'm typing this, the brand new Thermapro is giving funky readings and sounding all kind of alarms. The grill probe is right next to the ATC probe and they were both within a pretty close range temp wise. Now all of a sudden they're 60 degrees apart.
I shouldn't have stopped drinking.
Tomorrow I'm playing with the new (to me) Klose 20x36 horizontal offset that I also just got used. Hopefully that one goes a little smoother. But if not, fun will be had either way.
Sorry for the dissertation. Had to rant.
Little back story. Just acquired a new (to me) WSM 22.5. Got it used and it came with an Auber ATC. Did a test run last weekend and everything seemed to work great. I was chomping at the bit to use the smoker and decided I would do a brisket and pork shoulder overnight tonight to really test out the ATC. I figured worst case scenario I'd have some so-so brisket to make chopped beef or smoked brisket potato soup. And I've found that pork shoulders are pretty forgiving and they were also on sale so that piece is only a $8.50 investment.
Back to tonight. We got home from a family function at around 9:00 pm and I fired up 20 coals in the charcoal chimney. WSM was loaded up with a full ring of unlit charcoal with some hickory chunks mixed in. Dumped the 20 lit coals into the middle of the charcoal ring to start a cook using the Minion method. The fun started when I put the full water pan in. About five minutes later I hear a "thud". Looked at the WSM and figured I'd just put the middle section on a little crooked and it has just seated itself on the base. Wrong. The water pan had just dropped through its holders directly onto the coals. Awesome. Repositioned the water pan and thought maybe that was the end of that. Wrong again. Now my ATC is acting all funny. Temp readings are all over the place for a few seconds and then it settles back down. But every time it goes to turn the fan on, it very quickly resets itself. For 10-15 minutes, I can't for the life of me figure out why. Finally, after unplugging the fan, I realize it got water all over it when the water pan fell. Seems that the fan was shorting every time it tried to turn on and, in turn, was quickly resetting the ATC. After disassembling the fan twice and drying it out with the wife's hairdryer, seems like we're back in business finally. Meanwhile, it's not getting any earlier...I had hoped to get things on the grill by 10:00ish. So now I'm sitting here on the patio at 11:00 trying to figure out if we're doomed before we barely started. Put the brisket on at 10:30 and the pork shoulder on at 10:45. We'll see what the hell happens...
Oh, and now while I'm typing this, the brand new Thermapro is giving funky readings and sounding all kind of alarms. The grill probe is right next to the ATC probe and they were both within a pretty close range temp wise. Now all of a sudden they're 60 degrees apart.
I shouldn't have stopped drinking.
Tomorrow I'm playing with the new (to me) Klose 20x36 horizontal offset that I also just got used. Hopefully that one goes a little smoother. But if not, fun will be had either way.
Sorry for the dissertation. Had to rant.
