First cook on my craigslist 22" WSM

[CharliefromLI]

DISCLAIMER: This was a WSM cook not a kettle cook. As such, i posted this on TVWBB but since many of the tips i used were found here,
I am reposting here as well:


I had an 18" WSM which really liked but wanted the space of the 22" so i pulled the trigger when one popped up locally.
After a few basic mods it was showtime for my recent craigslist 22 WSM.
http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?62227-Craigslist-Score-facelift-and-mods

The plan was  9lb butt and 2 racks of STL spares at 275 using the 22 wsm with my pitmasterIQ 110, and maverick 733. My goal was to really become off a hands off cook and not sweat temp fluctuations. 

A full football Sunday was starting early with my Jets playing a 9:30am start in London followed by my bro in laws giants playing the bills at 1pm.  I decided to start early too. 5am wake up to get coals lit and meat prepped.  I know the 22 is hungrier then the 18 for coals plus Temp dropped down from the 80's to the 50's in the last 3 days and the wind has been howling so I was concerned about getting temps up so started with a decent amount of lit coals to start. The IQ had the WSM over 200 within about 15-20 minutes.

By 530 the butt was rubbed and ready to go on. I was on the fence about the fat cap: keep or remove. Last butt I did I left it and felt the finished product was too mushy. Happy medium: I trimmed so I could get rub direct on meat but put the cap back on to baste the meat during the cook but be discarded after.

Since I was already in trimming mode, I removed the membrane and rubbed the ribs too but they went back in the fridge for a few hours since they weren't going on for quite a while.

The butt went on and temp held perfect for the first 2 hours or so. Around the two hour mark the temps went up a bit high and stayed around 310 for almost an hour before I intervened. There were a few causes:

The temp went up and the wind died down once the sun came up. While these were both positives for most people, I was expected cooler weather and higher wind so I started with extra lit charcoal.

My 18 WSM was gasketed, this one isn't (yet). This one isn't as air tight as my old one was. Running the top vent wide open is too much for the IQ to handle unless the smoker is truly airtight. I partially closed down the top vent as directed by IO's users guide and temp came back into range within an hour.  I normally never close the top vent but with the IQ, fresh air is being forced in, dirty air is being forced out so you still have a clean fire with the lid vent partially closed.

Despite the one temp adjustment I did a pretty good job of being hands off and I didn't open the lid once until it was time to foil at the 5 hour mark. At that point I put in my meat probe and expected temps around 160 but they were already closer to 170 and rising Quick. Clearly the higher temps were roasting the butt faster then desired but as they say: that's BBQ. Butt got foiled and ribs went on. I meant to put some vinegar water mix on before I foiled but I forgot and didn't want to spray and re wrap once I remembered.

I checked the coal with the intention of adding more wood for the ribs. There was still plenty of unlit coal left and some of my original wood was still waiting to cook, the minion method was working as directed.

Having the lid off for the meat tending knocked the temp down to around 260 for an hour or so which was fine since I was going hot early.

I expected to have another 2.5-3 hours in foil ( my usual cook time is around 8 hours for butts) but in about 90 minutes (~6 hours total) I was at 195. I let it roll a while longer and removed from smoker when the probes were reaching about 203. Left the butt to rest still foiled for an hour while the ribs finished.

At that point the ribs were at the two hour mark so I foiled them with a touch of apple cider vinegar.On previous cooks I would leave ribs in foil for about 90 minutes before saucing and finishing with a quick crisp over direct heat but I felt like 90 minutes in foil was overkill and the meat fell off the bone too much. This time I cut it in half and did 40-45 minutes in foil. It was probe tender at 45 minutes so I unfoiled, sauced, and put back on top rack for another 15-20 minutes. I pulled ribs and placed in an aluminum pan covered in foil to rest while I pulled the pork:

RESULTS:
By 1pm the Jets had won and the Giants were winning so by time the food was prepped to serve we were now in full Celebration mode!

The moments of truths: The porked pulled well. The bone came out fairly clean, not perfect perfect but pretty clean. Some of the pork showed slight signs of the higher then desired heat but not terrible. most of if pulled and shredded by hand using silicon gloves.

Some of the more cooked pieces shredded just fine using claws.

Despite forgetting to add some vinegar in the foil, the meat was very moist when I pulled it.

I served pulled pork with Sauce on the Side: http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?13616-No-5-Sauce
Ive done similar sauces before but this was one of the best. I think the Worcestershire sauce really adds something.



While the pork was a success the ribs were an even larger hit. My wife commented multiple times how much she liked them. Considering how much people liked them and how quick and easy they cooked (about 3 hours wire to wire) this will become my new go to method for ribs when we entertain.  I definitely see some more chicken and rib Sundays. 

The true test of the results was the left overs, or lack there of. I was planning on serving lunch and having a good amount for vacuum sealing and freezing left overs but people who NEVER go for seconds went back to the point there was a solid second wave that served as an early dinner.

Overall the new WSM did very well. At the end of 8 hours I shut down with a ton coals left to burn and it was still plenty warm at the 10 hour mark. I'm sure I could have gone 12-14 hours without refueling using this set up.  I think I may still gasket to improve the air control but having the increased capacity of the 22 over the 18 was worth making the switch. I had the butt and two racks of ribs lying flat all on the top rack. Not needing the bottom rack made tending meat and clean up much easier and not having to factor in temperature variations of the two racks was nice too.

[SmokenJoe]

Charlie,  Great looking cook AND writeUP  ...  congrats.                   SJ

[WNC]

Great cook, love my wsm for butts and ribs. Great write up, glad everyone was happ!

[SixZeroFour]

Great looking cook Charlie! What sort of rub blend did you use on those?

[CharliefromLI]

Thanks @SixZeroFour my usual all purpose rub is pretty much aaron franklin's recipe from his videos on youtube:



Salt
Pepper

Pinch of each:
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Chili powder
Paprika
Brown Sugar small pinch

The red color comes from the paprika and chili powder. Those two ingredients bring some heat and is some times too much for guests, so i usually add a small pinch brown sugar to balance out but just a little, Since i do sauce lightly and the sauce has sugar too.

[Harleysmoker]

The Butt and ribs look really good!