Lord_Byron wrote:Hammb,
I'm glad to hear you give this a glowing reference as I've been looking at smokers and trying to decide if it's worth it to pay the extra bucks for the Weber. I think you've convinced me. I also had a concern about capacity and you've pretty much settled that, also.
A couple of questions:
How often do you have to add coals to keep the fire going?
How long do you smoke your baby backs and pork butts?
Thanks, I'll probably make the plunge soon.
For the capacity I really don't think most people would ever need more than what they'll get with the smaller 18.5" model. You still have 2 cooking grates, and it holds quite a bit. When I said 4 racks of baby backs that was without rib racks too. I usually use a rib rack (also have the weber ones) that allows you to stand the racks vertically. I smoked 5 racks of baby backs (I cut them in half first) using the weber rib rack with all of them on the top grate for Memorial day. I am guessing that if you wanted to you could probably put another 5 racks on the lower rack as well. How often are you really ever going to need more than 10 full racks of ribs? With butts I usually do 2, but have done 4 at a time without issue. I've seen others post pictures of doing 6 at a time. I think brisket is the one place where you might run into a capacity issue as you could probably only put one on each rack...but how often do you need more than 2 briskets?
To answer your other questions:
1. Almost never add additional charcoal. I use the Minion method for all of my cooks. As much as I love Lump Charcoal for grilling I find that it burns too hot and too quickly for quality smoking, so I pretty much stick with briquettes. My favorite are the Royal Oak briquettes but up until recently I hadn't seen them around in awhile (they have them at Menards I just found out!). Lately I've been using the Kingsford briquettes. They burn consistently, but I think quicker and with more ash than the Royal Oak.
The Minion Method basically has you fill the charcoal basket with unlit charcoal, and smoke wood. Then just light 10-15 briquettes in your chimney and when they've ashed over you place them on top of the basket of unlit coals. The fire will slowly light the other coals and you'll have a good, consistent, LONG LASTING, fire. Using this method it is very easy to control the temp where you want it for BBQ, and I generally get at least 12-14 hours out of one basket (obviously don't fill it all the way for ribs, since they won't take nearly that long). On long brisket/butt cooks I'll usually just add more lit coals once or twice if the fire is dwindling. Again I usually will just light 15-20 coals and put them in with the burning down coals. This is one place that I'd love one of the newer models. The door on the old WSM is just too small. I have to use an old pair of BBQ tongs to place the coals in one by one, because the door is too small to scoop them in or dump directly from the chimney.
2. The ONLY correct answer to this question is until they're done. BBQ isn't baking. You just simply can NOT base your cooking on time. Even if you can control your temps perfectly (which even in the WSM takes some skill), every piece of meat is different. The weight and fat content of that particular piece of meat will make cook times vary greatly. The best tool in any BBQers arsenal is a reliable meat thermometer.
That said there are guidelines for both meats that you can use to "guess" how long it will take.
For Baby Backs I go with the 2-2-1 method. First 2 hours open in the smoke, then 2 hours foiled with a bit of apple cider/juice, then 1 final hour back naked to firm up...the last half of which is basting with sauce. Those times are just guesses though, really. The first section is where you'll get all of your smoke ring and smoke flavor. You don't want to end this until the meat is essentially fully cooked. The meat should have started pulling away from the ends of the bones. I then leave them foiled until the racks are droopy and have reached the desired tenderness. The final hour cook time will firm them up a touch again, this is when I add sauce, but have to watch it at that point, because sauce can burn.
Pork Butts I generally figure on about 2 hours per pound of the biggest butt I'm cooking. It rarely takes that long, but I like to leave myself that sort of leeway. Basically with pork butt you're just looking to take it to an internal temperature based on the tenderness you want. If you're looking for chopped pork you're probably good to go at about 180*. I always like to pull it so I take it to 195*. Either way when you pull it off the heat let it sit for a half hour or so before you pull/chop it, and it will continue rising for about 5-10* of residual cooking. If you need to speed up the process you can wrap the butts in foil. They'll really stop taking on smoke flavor after the first 6-7 hours anyways. Wrapping them in foil will get them up to their final temperature quicker. The great thing about pork butt is how flexible it is. Give yourself 2 hours/pound and if you finish early (which you probably will) just wrap it in foil, then a blanket, and throw it in a cooler. It will stay hot enough to pull and serve for hours.
Sorry to be so long winded. I could talk about (and EAT) BBQ for hours and hours on end.
