British BBQ Society Forums

Hi everybody, my 57cm WSM has now arrived and its sat here looking all shiney and new in my dining room and the question I'd like to ask is:- do I need to burn anything off the insides with an initial firing before I cook anything or can I just go for it?
My other 2 Webers were bought second hand off Ebay so I didnt have this dilema.What do you think?



Cheers Ian

You don't need to but personally I would and throw some wood in with it as this will help build up a seal around the door and the sections and it'll give you a chance to get used to fire control and get familiar with it before you have a hoard of hungry people around.

Also it's always fun to play with a new smoker.

Hi Ed thanks for that, I'll set it going tonight and have a bit of a play. Do you think one chimney full of heatbeads will do it or is lump best, I've got both. And its massive, somehow I just didnt realise it was gonna be so big

I'd agree with Ed (why wouldn't I) but with 1 strong suggestion. Take it out of the dining room first Personally I'm not sure it would make much of a difference, heatbeads will probably burn hotter so you may not need as many as "normal" charcoal. But a good burn off is good practice as I found out

For a first burn anything will do don't waste your good lumpwood or heatbeads on a burn in, you are
Only trying to burn off any residue grease from manufacture and as ed said a bit of wood will help create a seal. I would try to stay away from the impregnated stuff but as its heat that is the key it really doesn't matter to much.

Sorry I'm a bit late replying, I'd suggest using a single fuel as in all lump or all briquette, this will let you know how each fuel source will work.

Lump will burn hotter but can sometimes be unstable with temp' swings if the fire gets out of control, or the lump isn't packed together well.

Briquettes will provide a lower and more stable temp so can be good for starting off with.

Starting off for test cook I'd suggest 2 chimney's of in-lit fuel and 1 chimney of lit fuel, this will give you a long burn time to test and if you feel like it you can throw some chicken on at the end to complete your test.

One thing I've noticed with WSMs is that they tend to run a bit hotter on the first few cooks until they've gunked up a bit.

Another thing, if you're using water in the water pan make sure you use hot water in the pan as this will help get the cooker upto you target temp' quicker.

Right Lads thanks for all this advice its going to be really useful, if your in Hull over the next few weekends, you can always come round and show me what to do over a few beers

So how did it go then?