Hi!
So, I picked up my WSM a couple weeks ago...the same week I plan on having my house party - 60 to 80+ guest. You'd think I would wait for a less hectic time...but NOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Friday night, around 7pm, I'm outside smoking a cigar and setting up the smoker...7:30pm....I'm still smoking the cigar and the WSM is all together....oh, earlier that day I'm at work and we put in a themostat (it tested between 212 and 230 in a boiling water test).
This whole time my dear girlfriend is cutting and seasoning and wrapping the pork butts - 3@ 7# ea. We let the butts sit for an hour and at 9pm I put them on the grill.
I used about 12-15#'s of Rancher lump briquette in the bottom - with some hickory ....and about 20 hot coals to get it going.
The water pan was wrapped with foil and inside it has a 12in. clay pot base to difuse and hold the heat better....very helpful!
9pm the coals were placed (hot) in the smoker....and I picked the food off around 8:45am the next morning.
In between those times it was a heck of a night...the tents were up for the party...but none covered the smoker...as a HEAVY storm approached, I was outside(at 10:30pm) moving a 12x14ft tent on my own...with the wind kicking up....just as I felt the first drop...I had the tent in place over the WSM - whew!
I told my girlriend that if she's up at night, to check the kettle...and if it's below 200deg to wake me. Well, she wakes me at 3:30 - now from 9pm until 12 midnite, I was monitoring the smoker(and smoking cigars!)...temp went steadily up to around 230 by midnite...I was happy and went to bed with plans on getting up at 5 or 6 am. Well, she wakes me at 3:30 and says: "It's below 150." - up I get and as I'm looking at the thermometer I say, "Take a look." - she says, "Oh no, I checked it TWICE."....I said, " You're right. It's at 150 celsius!"....I closed the vents a little and off to bed I went...(she was beside herself)...I told her it was good that she woke me...too High is bad too!!!! All was well.
As it turned out, when I got up the temp was around 270ish...so, I took them off at 8:30am (after getting a temp of 190 with a meat thermometer)....
Though I thought it was a little 'dry' (prolly cooked 2 fast) out of the 4 butts we cooked(one was cooked overnight in the house in a crockpot with BBQ sauce - just in case! )....out of the 4, we only had 1 left by the end of the night....which is what I was hoping for anyhow! <grin>
I'll try to update this with some data...but I was too busy to take pics....next time (this weekend) she wants to smokea turkey....can you smoke a turkey?
