Weber Smokey Mountain 14.5

[SitDown]

First time using coconut briquettes. Hmmmm, not sure with these buggars. Bought them as they were cheaper, almost half price from the heat beads
I use the weber mini chimney, which fits around 25 briquettes, a bit of charcoal at the bottom to get things going, newspaper with a tbs of cooking oil to fire things off

Did a pulled pork 2.2kg
used below rub, marinaded over night

3 tbs Paprika
2 tsp ground black pepper
25g fresh garlic
100g chopped Onion
1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper
3/4 tbs Salt
3 tbs Brown Sugar

mortar & pestal till a paste or in a large plastic bag, give it the rolling pin treatment till its a paste. Keep mixture away from the bag edges or you will pop the bag & make a mess

Minion method 25 unlit coconut briquettes, with 25 lit coconut briquettes on top
Hot water pan full. Pretty much stabilized at 225f within 5mins
Pork on, 2 pieces of hickory on the coals
Double wrapped foil at 149f with half cup apple juice
Took it out at 201f, rest 1hr plus wrapped in towel into a cooler bag

Result - Not quite pull out large bone in the center of the meat
Around 3/4 C of juice at the bottom of the foil wrapped meat
Perhaps, probe too close to the large bone, interfering, making a higher reading

Finishing sauce - self served to taste on your plate
100ml red wine vinegar (ran out of apple cider vinegar)
3 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp cayeene pepper
1/2 tsp each salt & fresh ground black pepper

Dished out with crispy baked spuds done on the baby Q
Steamed veg
Cherry chutney on the side

7 out of 10, the meat was soft & almost silky on the palate. So not quite there

Dessert -
Chucked on a few ripe bananas on the Q's grill, skin on, turned over at 6mins, off the grill when bananas were soft.
In a bowl with grated dark chocolate with dairy free vanilla bean coconut ice cream, emmmmmmm...

Now, the moan part....
Not happy with the coconut briquettes, well, the brand they sell here (Samba)
With that amount of briquettes, at the stall (149f) I had to do another burn in a full chimney (20 briquettes)
To compare with - at xmas, I did a 4.6kg pork shoulder (9hrs40) using heat beads. Full mini chimney unlit briquettes minion method with full chimney half lit briquettes . It did the whole cook up with leftovers for a starter burn up in the chimney for the next cook up

[werewolf]

Interesting your comments on the coconut briquettes. My old man had one of the blue heat bead coconut briquettes and he didn't like them either.

Have you had the 14.5 WSM for long? What do you think of it?

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[SitDown]

I bought the WSM late last year. Used a number of times with some success. Theres a bit of trail & error to be learned, so as to be more consistent with the end results. Cook longer than what is suggested by increasing internal temps a few deg, would be my recommendation
I really wanted the Akorn kamado. But for the 2 of us at home, to us, the 14.5 would be more fuel efficient for any regular use... just can't do pizza's on em
The 14.5 size is plenty big enough for 6 people easily. Just have to be a bit more on to it, with a chimney of hot coals at the ready, if you were to do a big cook up using both grills... also, holds a constant temp for long periods of time. I always use the water pan & usually top the pan up at the "stall"
The pork just done, 2 of the 3 vents at the base were fully open with the third vent closed, the top vent completely open. When I topped up the coals, the temp sat at 255f for the remaining cooking hours with the same vent setting as above

[werewolf]

Cheers thanks SitDown. How long do you think you can get out of a single load of beads without restocking at low and slow temps?

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[SitDown]

I did Beef short ribs last weekend
I saw this new brand down at the local butchers, the marbling looked impressive, not cheap tho @ $22kg
Nothing fancy, salt & pepper for the rub, straight onto the grate from the fridge with hickory chunks on the coals



3.5hrs @ 250f, then foiled with a bit of butter till 205f internal, rested in towels in a cooler bag about 1hr



probably could have gone on longer for another 30mins before resting. I reckon my maverick 733 is reading higher than should be from the last few cooks I have done. The end result did the "wobble" with just a little resistance when pulling out 1 of the bones



Never had beef short ribs before, so can't compare it truthfully. To me, the ribs were amazing... especially the slight chewy ends, so juicy & sooo tender

[C.B & S.]

Hey SitDown,
That sure looks like a great piece of meat you started with there to me, and your end result looks pretty much spot on too!
Great effort and result I say for a first attempt, nothing to be worried about to much with that cook.
Just keep up the cooks and you will soon perfect your own lil ways.
How does the price of those ribs compare to normal shorties over yonder??
Cheers.

[SitDown]

How does the price of those ribs compare to normal shorties over yonder??

Hard to say, ranges from 12 - 14 bucks upwards. You have to look out for the specials that come on when they do. High end stuff sits at a premium price constantly. Where I live, there are 2 chain butchers that have pit-master enthusiast cooks in their ranks, who offer high end cuts that go out the door fast, so command pricing too. To me, 22 bucks is heaps compared to what you get, but oooooh so bloody good..... not complaining