British BBQ Society Forums

WSM arrived on Monday and I have a pork shoulder and chicken planned for the weekend. Damn I'm impressed with the build quality.

Been doing more research and looked at the saucer method(off to B&Q). I also got Low and Slow(quite preachy I thought) and he says light new coals to go on it rather than putting in unlit coals through the door.

What are your thoughts?

Bradders.

Hi Bradders,

We discussed how a few of us light coals on this page

http://bbbqs.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=3465

I only tip coals into the WSM when its empty or everything is wrapped as this kicks up a load of ash which you dont want on your food. A few times ive actually tipped a lit starter of coals into it using the door as a slide, this works pretty well. Ive also thrown a starter of coal in sideways, which worked but I wouldnt recommend it

I would say its worth doing a dummy run with your smoker, if only to gunk it up a bit. New BBQs seem to run very hot.

There is a link somewhere to how Slap yo Daddy Harry seasons his smoker but I cant find it now. Someone else might have it?

I think it was on his website somewhere slapyodaddy.com

I saw it on the weber site http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/seasoning.html but there must be further info out there.

Found it, his amazon review of a WSM

http://www.amazon.com/Weber-721001-Smokey-Mountain-Charcoal/dp/B001I8ZTJ0

unless you dismantle the Q how else do you restock the fire during cooking ? I have tried it and the burns and scalds could have made me do the swearing dance. I think the door on your WSM (not jealous at all) is there for a purpose, one of which is to carefully put new fuel on your fire using tongs or in my case a long handled garden trowel. As to whether you use lit or unlit coals, how brave or burn resistant are you? I have enough scars thanks, unless I'm all wrong.

Generally I find if you are using briquettes there's no need to restock the fuel on a 47cm WSM. In the early days of owning a WSM when I did add lumpwood to it to be honest I found the position of the door very awkward to work with especially if you have the water pan in there. In those days I used to use a pair of welders gloves and do the hot squat which I'll freely admit is not the safest manoeuvre in the world.

On his course Harry had a couple of WSM working from midnight to well past 2pm, a lot depends on what fuel you use, with heatbeads and a proper placement of lit and unlit coals, admittedly with a forced air system, both Harry & Toby were getting incredibly long burns. To date I've not had to top up my ProQ (so saying I've undoubtedly jinxed myself for the weekend ). A small coal shovel would work to dump unlit coals on the pyre though and the doors are smaller than on the WSM.

I can certainly get burn times of 14 - 16 hours in my 47 WSM with no forced draft system. Haven't tried for longer.

I am with Robin on this.
With two chimneys of unlit and one of lit, I can get 10-12hrs on my 57 WSM. This is ample for 8-10lb of brisket or pork.