Results of my first WSM cook, lots of questions and pics

sbm888 · Post by **sbm888** » Mon Mar 23, 2015 9:04 am

Hi all
here's what I did and the results

marinated meats the night before - 1.5kg of Pork Neck using mustard powder, cayenne pepper, sweet paprika, truffle olive oil, pink salt and pepper.
3kgs of Pork ribs using Yoshida's spicy bbq/wing marinade.

woke up at 6am, started the chimney with mallee root, filled up the wsm bottom rack mallee root, poured lit coals over unlit at around 6:15am. place some apple wood on top of lit charcoal

placed full water pan in at 7am, placed pork neck on bottom rack, closed WSM and looked at temps rise (top vent and bottom vents fully open). At around 8am, the temp hit 200/110C, so closed off bottoms vents to 25%.

the temps stayed at 110 degrees for the entire day!

at 12pm, chucked in the ribs and checked water pan, topped up a bit with boiling water.

at 6pm, took out the meat and served

anyway - here are my questions, thoughts and comments.

overall experience was a blast! was stunned that this machine was able to keep at a steady temp for pretty much 10 hours NON STOP....I think it could have kept going for another 6-8 easily, but closing the vents at 6pm, the thing died by around 8pm with quite a bit of lump left.

firstly - there wasn't that much smoke I noticed during the cook, did I do something wrong? it was a constant bluish smoke, but nothing compared to a few I've read or seen on the interwebs.
as you can see the ribs - not much of a smoke ring to it - but damn, they tasted awesome, so soft, fell off the bone and it was demolished by my family instantly.
on the other hand, the pork neck, it was meh....... it was a bit soft, meat was nice, but just overall experience wasn't great. I've done low'n'slow on my kettle OTG and it was a better taste and actually pulled, where as this one was just a normal carve.. meat didn't really pull apart? I'm guessing i needed more time?

I noticed the water pan was pretty much 80% full all through the day, only topped up slightly - does that mean my temp was too low and should have increased more? I guess to achieve this, I needed bottom vents opened more?

I loved the ribs and will be doing more and more - will try beef ribs next time, any tips?
I know most of you will say invest in a thermometer/probe.... yes, that's on my list :)

Thanks in advance!

aussieant32 · Post by **aussieant32** » Mon Mar 23, 2015 9:17 am

thin blue smoke is what you want. Am I right in reading that the wood was on there for 6 hours before any meat went on?

What was the internal temp of the meat when you took it off?

sbm888 · Post by **sbm888** » Mon Mar 23, 2015 9:22 am

aussieant32 wrote:thin blue smoke is what you want. Am I right in reading that the wood was on there for 6 hours before any meat went on?

What was the internal temp of the meat when you took it off?

nope, put the pork neck in there at 7am.
no thermapen to check internal temps :(

urbangriller · Post by **urbangriller** » Mon Mar 23, 2015 9:33 am

If the neck didn't pull, it just needed more time. The neck looks a bit dry, I'd Brine it first next time.

Cheers
Chris

aussieant32 · Post by **aussieant32** » Mon Mar 23, 2015 9:34 am

hard to be of too much help with the meat then. It looks likes its just a well done roast which would indicate nothing had broken down in the meat.

Basically your meat with stall around 150-170f, essentially this is when the collagen starts to break down and transform, thus making pulled pork. Without this happening you get roast pork. For me if I want pork to be 'sliced' I take it to 180-190f and pulled to 200-205f

When you are starting out it is really hard to make something like pulled pork without knowing the temperature inside. I still probe mine but I am a bit of a worrier

Ribs are alot easier, especially beef. Much easier to feel if they are done then say pork ribs. I use the 3-2-1 method for majority of my ribs, if they are a bit larger than normal (meat wise) I usually go 3-3-1

2browndogs · Post by **2browndogs** » Mon Mar 23, 2015 2:07 pm

You say it ran at 200 all day ? 200 F is 93C. I would normally run this cook at 225-240, ~110C. Usually foil a P-Pork during the stall, with some liquid to help not drying out, and spritz it with some liquid occasionally.

And brine or inject like chris says.

Good first effort.

aussieant32 · Post by **aussieant32** » Mon Mar 23, 2015 3:19 pm

I never wrap my pulled pork, I want bark though it

Good point on the temp, reading and the pic sounds like it stayed at 200f all day not 110c?

WarmBeer · Post by **WarmBeer** » Mon Mar 23, 2015 3:21 pm

200°F is 93°C, not 110.

You will need your pit temperature up around the 250° mark, unless you're willing to wait around 24 hours for your pork to get to pullable internal temperature.

Edit: Errrr, yeah, what 2browndogs just said.

Hammer · Post by **Hammer** » Fri Mar 27, 2015 12:22 am

A 200F lid temp is probably a 215-220F at the top grill

aussieant32 · Post by **aussieant32** » Fri Mar 27, 2015 8:31 pm

probably is a dangerous word

2browndogs · Post by **2browndogs** » Sat Mar 28, 2015 9:14 am

actually hammer i find the opposite - lid temp of 250 is normally 240 at the meat level....

dionysus32 · Post by **dionysus32** » Mon Mar 30, 2015 2:56 pm

I think you may have overcooked the Pork..
I did a 2kg scotch for 7hrs on my WSM at 250, I wrapped it at 6hrs but to be honest it probably didn't need it. Next time I'm going to take it off early and let it rest in an esky as the temps will still rise.

Ribs look good, maybe throw some more wood chunks in when you put the ribs on.

I think you did good, only thing to learn here is to buy a thermometer.

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