I can tell it's almost summer

[1987alum]

... made my first stuffed, grill-roasted pablanos last night, along with fresh guacamole. And I've started carving into the large reserve of boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the deep freeze, always one of my favorite grilling subjects.

I'd mention the first batch of ribs, but hammb will give me grief for not smoking them.

I simply cannot wait for the kids to be out of school! YAY SUMMER!

[hammb]

... made my first stuffed, grill-roasted pablanos last night, along with fresh guacamole. And I've started carving into the large reserve of boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the deep freeze, always one of my favorite grilling subjects.

I'd mention the first batch of ribs, but hammb will give me grief for not smoking them.

I simply cannot wait for the kids to be out of school! YAY SUMMER!

LMAO

Summer grilling season rules!

No grief from me...although I did smoke 4 racks of baby backs on Memorial Day...just finished up the last of them today. Soooo good. Nothing wrong with grilling ribs (I've had good oven ribs too)...just remember they're not BBQ unless it's smoked over low heat

[1987alum]

fair enough!

I have to tell you that the kids have heard me talk about a smoker so much that they said I should just get one ... could be in the cards for Father's Day.

[hammb]

fair enough!

I have to tell you that the kids have heard me talk about a smoker so much that they said I should just get one ... could be in the cards for Father's Day.

If you've got the budget for it go with the Weber Smokey Mountain. The thing is just amazing at how efficiently it uses charcoal and how well it can maintain it's temperature. Even in rain/snow/wind it still continues to sit right where I want it to.

This is the new & improved version of the one I have:

http://www.amazon.com/Weber-721001-Smok ... 226&sr=8-1

The big differences are that this one has a thermometer built in (I use an old deep fryer thermometer that I stick in one of the top vents), and it also has a wider charcoal door with a better latch (would be a great improvement). I haven't used this newer design, but I think everything else is pretty much the same (the new one does have an ash pan on the bottom, but honestly don't think I've had too many ashes fall through anyways, never was a concern for me).

They also have a 22.5" grate version that would be amazing as well. I can easily smoke 4-5 racks of baby backs, or 4-6 boston butts on mine, so I cannot imagine how much more capacity the larger grates would give you. That could be pretty awesome. Of course if you're not going to use the added capacity very often you're going to use a lot more charcoal heating up the larger area, so that'd be something to think about as well.

Either way, you absolutely cannot go wrong with the Smokey Mountain. Of course you can make good 'cue on an old 55 gallon drum too, if you play with it. The WSM just does a great job of maintaining temperatures without requiring tons of work on your part. You'll find that to be especially valuable when doing an overnight brisket for 15 hours.

[Lord_Byron]

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.

[hammb]

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.

[Lord_Byron]

Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for.

My biggest concern on smoking was having to constantly tend the fire, and you answered that well.

I was just looking for general times on the other stuff. If you had said everything was a 10-15 hour smoke, I'm not sure I'd have gone with it, but this confirms what I thought.

Thanks again. I think I'm going to go with it.

[hammb]

Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for.

My biggest concern on smoking was having to constantly tend the fire, and you answered that well.

I was just looking for general times on the other stuff. If you had said everything was a 10-15 hour smoke, I'm not sure I'd have gone with it, but this confirms what I thought.

Thanks again. I think I'm going to go with it.

No problem man. As to the tending of the fire, there are gas & electric models that take almost no tending to the fire, but I like to use charcoal...something old school about it. If tending the fire is one of your concerns then I definitely think the WSM is the best choice (from all accounts) for charcoal smokers. The thing just holds it's temperature amazingly well, and is airtight enough that you get a LONG time out of one fill of charcoal.

The big cuts of meat (brisket & butt) are going to be 10+ hour smokes, usually, but the other stuff won't be. Ribs are low temp but don't take as long. Chicken, Turkey, or Pork Loin can also be done on the WSM but you'll run the temp higher and not as slow.

When I do brisket or butt I generally will put it on the night before so that the temp stabilizes before bed time. I'll then just set my alarm to get up every 90 mins or so to check on things. Generally the WSM will just hum along and all I'll do is look at the thermometer, maybe adjust a vent or two, then back to sleep for awhile. The thing is super easy, in my experience.

Oh...wanted to add some web resources for great BBQ info:

http://www.barbecuebible.com Great forums for general BBQ info.

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com Great info/recipes/times specific to the WSM.

[The Niz]

Since we're on the subject of bbq, I thought I'd share my favorite way to make chicken. I was tired last winter of beer but chicken tasing like brown sugar, salt and pepper so I decided to try something a little different. I mixed together some corn and cracker meal, kosher salt, pepper, garlic powder, dried minced onion, a dash of peprika, and enough cayenne pepper to give it a little tingle then dusted the whole chicken inside and out before sitting it up on a can filled with some Sierra Nevada Torpedo. The cracker and corn meal forms a crust almost like deep fried chicken, but it was cooked indirectly for about an hour and a half, maybe a little less, can't really remember since we spent the time injesting the rest of the torpedos. It was fantastic and we haven't done it differently since. enjoy!