T-Bone Bites the Bullet
Last Saturday was the maiden voyage of my new Weber Smoky Mountain Cooker (WSM). I have been searching far and wide for a smoker that met my precise and picky needs. My previous look at the WSM impressed me but I felt the 18 inch grates would be too small for doing a substantial amount of ribs without weaving them onto a rib rack.
In 2009, Weber came out with a larger 22.5 inch version or the same size as their standard kettle grills. After reading a lot of reviews and watching video this anal guy who runs the website the virtual weber bullet, I decided to go for it. The cooker did not disappoint.
The WSM held its heat really well for about 3 hours on the first load of charcoal. Since my total session was about 6.5 hours, I added a few handfulls of briquettes each hour during the remaining time. Being used to smoking on my kettle, I felt pretty useless as I normally would add wood or charcoal every 45 minutes. And don't get me started on the added Greal Estate !! (I should trademark that term).
In 2009, Weber came out with a larger 22.5 inch version or the same size as their standard kettle grills. After reading a lot of reviews and watching video this anal guy who runs the website the virtual weber bullet, I decided to go for it. The cooker did not disappoint.
The WSM held its heat really well for about 3 hours on the first load of charcoal. Since my total session was about 6.5 hours, I added a few handfulls of briquettes each hour during the remaining time. Being used to smoking on my kettle, I felt pretty useless as I normally would add wood or charcoal every 45 minutes. And don't get me started on the added Greal Estate !! (I should trademark that term).
Labels: Maiden Voyage
6 Comments:
At 6/09/2009 4:17 PM,
Andakin said…
Looks great! Are those country style ribs in the first pic? What sauce did you use?
At 6/09/2009 4:20 PM,
T-Bone said…
I did 4 shoulders and two racks of babybacks on the maiden voyage. As a Hartford / Slinger man now, you should know that Piggly Wiggly in Slinger is a good source for ribs. They were on sale last week for $3.99 a pound with each rack nearly 3 lbs! The sauce was my Tangy (2nd Place at that church contest) sauce.
At 6/09/2009 4:24 PM,
Andakin said…
Baby backs though, right?
I prefer the spare ribs which I have found Walmart is a good place for both shoulders and spare ribs.
I did a cookout a few weeks ago and did 2 racks of spares, 1 shoulder, and two whole (cut up) chickens. Turned out great. Surpisingly the chicken was the big hit.
At 6/10/2009 3:00 AM,
Flamb_Ed said…
That thing's fantastic, and it looks like it holds a heck of a lot of charcoal! 4 shoulders in one go is impressive, I wish I had that kind of grill estate.
Managed to finally find a source of proper ribs here in Blighty last weekend. It was getting expensive with the only place we'd found before serving ribs that weighed as much as shoulders (though there was a lot of meat on them).
At 6/10/2009 9:26 AM,
T-Bone said…
Andakin, say more about your chicken method or post your procedure. Smoking chicken is where I am weakest and I'd like to try a winning technique.
At 6/10/2009 9:35 AM,
Andakin said…
It was unbelievably simple which is why I was surprised that it was the big hit.
I bought two cut up whole chickens. Rubbed them with Magic Dust and let them sit in the fridge for TWO nights. (maybe that was the difference?)
Smoked them like normal for 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours.
That's it.
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