# Monday's Butt on today Saturday



## cleglue (May 6, 2006)

I decided to not leave the WSM unattended on Monday.  I just finishied putting the 7.4 pound boston butt on the smoker.  I'm using the WSM today.  The temp of the smoker is 264 and the but is 43. I  closed all of the draft vents for now to get the temp down below 250.  Exhaust vent is fully open.  I'm striving for 225 to 250.  It went on a few minutes before 6AM EDT.


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## Bill The Grill Guy (May 6, 2006)

Well?  How did it turn out?


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## Guest (May 6, 2006)

Bill The Grill Guy said:
			
		

> Well?  How did it turn out?


 :lmao: Anxious, aren't we!  :lmao:


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## Puff1 (May 6, 2006)

The Joker said:
			
		

> [quote="Bill The Grill Guy":xopb2ios]Well?  How did it turn out?


 :lmao: Anxious, aren't we!  :lmao:[/quote:xopb2ios]
Must have a microwave smoker


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## Larry D. (May 6, 2006)

Post some pics, and I'll do the same.  I have two butts going, I think they total about 15 pounds. They went on at about 7 am.  Currently, WSM is 227 and butts are 96 and 108.   Now I have to restock - butts were $1.08 (if I remember correctly) yesterday at Chef Smart in Winston Salem - I may have to go back and buy a few today.


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## cleglue (May 6, 2006)

I got the WSM too hot I believe to begin with.  The butt has been on since ^ AM it is at 147.  The temp got up to 297 while I was making jelly.  I thought all the dampers on the bottom was closed but one was still fully open.  I guess in the dark I turned it the wrong way.  Usually butts are forgiving (I hope).

The jelly I made is Pineapple Habranero.  I haven't ever made that kind of jelly.  I wanted it to glaze ribs.  I've bought it before from Texaspepperjelly but just felt like trying to make some.

The smoker temp is at 219 now.  It did drop to 197.  I really should be monitoring it more.


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## Larry D. (May 6, 2006)

I read a lot about people having trouble keeping temps down in the WSM, and running it with the bottom vents fully, or almost fully closed.  I have the opposite problem. Right now, mine has all the vents fully open and the temp is just 214, and hasn't been above 225 since I started this morning. I'm using Nature-Glo briquettes from a new bag I bought yesterday - started via the Minion method with a full chimney (not as big as a Weber chimney) of lit coals. Any ideas as to why the temp isn't coming up any faster?  There is a breeze, but not enough to be a real problem (at least, I don't think so).   :badgrin:

BTW, I am using water in the pan, the same as always.


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## cleglue (May 6, 2006)

The butt is at 154 temp at 233.  I put ribs on the bottom rack at 11AM.  We'll be eating ribs tonight and pulled pork on Monday.



 

 

 

Larry D.,

I used Nature Glo with Original charcoal my first time with the Weber smoker and had no problem.  Today, I filled the ring full of my own lump charcoal and added a few chucks of wood.  I used 15 lit kingsford briquettes on top of the unlit lump and that got the charcoal started.  In about 40 minutes it was at 264.  I closed the vents I thought but had left one fully open and the temp stayed up. It got to 297 once.  That is when I realized one vent was fully open.  I closed it and with in an hour it had dropped to 200.  It is finally setting down about 233 now.  I should have been watching it closer but I was making jelly.  I'm very new at the WSM so I can only share what I have done so far. This is the third burn on the WSM.


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## Guest (May 6, 2006)

Lookin' gooood!


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## Bruce B (May 6, 2006)

Craig, Everything looks great, I have a question though; did you foil your water pan prior to starting your cook, it's hard to tell but it looks a little rough in there.

If you didn't, get some extra-wide, heavy duty Reynolds Aluminim foil and double wrap the pan in a criss-cross pattern...makes clean-up so much easier.


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## LarryWolfe (May 6, 2006)

cleglue said:
			
		

> *I thought all the dampers on the bottom was closed but one was still fully open.  I guess in the dark I turned it the wrong way.*



Craig, 
      When you can't see the vents in the dark, remember if you turn any of the vents to the "right" you're closing them and to the left you're opening.


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## Guest (May 6, 2006)

But when it's in the back, righty is lefty...  8-[


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## LarryWolfe (May 6, 2006)

The Joker said:
			
		

> But when it's in the back, righty is lefty...  8-[



Only if you use your left hand........try it you'll see. I had to........ #-o


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## Guest (May 6, 2006)

Larry Wolfe said:
			
		

> [quote="The Joker":33ze1zlv]But when it's in the back, righty is lefty...  8-[



Only if you use your left hand........try it you'll see. I had to........ #-o[/quote:33ze1zlv] :lcry: No wait ...


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## john pen (May 6, 2006)

Larry D. said:
			
		

> I read a lot about people having trouble keeping temps down in the WSM, and running it with the bottom vents fully, or almost fully closed.  I have the opposite problem. Right now, mine has all the vents fully open and the temp is just 214, and hasn't been above 225 since I started this morning. I'm using Nature-Glo briquettes from a new bag I bought yesterday - started via the Minion method with a full chimney (not as big as a Weber chimney) of lit coals. Any ideas as to why the temp isn't coming up any faster?  There is a breeze, but not enough to be a real problem (at least, I don't think so).   :badgrin:
> 
> BTW, I am using water in the pan, the same as always.



Larry, how'd you make out. Did your temp come up ?


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## cleglue (May 6, 2006)

Larry,

I thought I knew that but I guess I must have been this morning.  Thanks for the reminder.

Bruce B,

I knew I needed to do something with that water pan.  I will next time.  I actually use foil all the time on my cookie sheet that I use while I BBQ just because I don't like to clean all the crude off.  Thanks.

I have had retaining wall water problems so I've been busy with that for a few weeks and today was the day to finish.  I didn't keep and eye on the WSM as I usually do when I smoke something so I'll need to practice with managing the fire another time.  So my fire was up and down today but not significantly.  With that said I put ribs on at 11 AM this morning.  I used mustard and rub.  Put them on and started spraying Apple juice on them when I would remember.  They were cooked a little too long.  Almost 8 hours.  They were on the lower rack and I didn't put a thermometer on that rack but I figured it would be lower than the rack that still have the butt on it ( 190 at 244 degrees 9:51PM) I'm waiting for 195.  Hey maybe it'll be ready by Monday.

Here are the ribs.  I put them on my gas grill to sauce them (left side) and glaze them with the pineapple habanero jelly I made this morning (right side).  Both tasted fine.  The bark was very tough but the inside was pretty much falling off the bone.  That burnt piece was that nice piece of rib to eat while we are BBQ.  I missed that opportunity today with that piece.  I should have eaten it when I ate the other tiny piece about 3 this afternoon.


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## cleglue (May 6, 2006)

Finally the butt is done.  It is double wrap in foil with a towel keeping it warm inside a dry cooler.  I put in the refrigerator later tonight/wee hours in the morning.  When I got upstair after wrapping it I had to unwrap it to take a taste.  It was falling off the bone and taste good.  Here are some pictures.  Also picture of the retaining wall I finally finished to keep water from seeping to the patio.  I started the WSM at 5:15AM today and had to reload it at 2:15PM.  It is still going strong after its second reload at 10:52PM tonight.


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## john pen (May 6, 2006)

looks good !! =D>


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## Larry D. (May 7, 2006)

john pen said:
			
		

> Larry, how'd you make out. Did your temp come up ?



Yes, it gradually came up to about 230 and I quit worrying about it.  Eventually I took the body of the WSM off, knocked off some of the ash (I was using briquettes after having used lump the last 5 or 6 times - I'd forgotten how much ash they can generate), added about a chimney full of unlit lump, and left the vents open.  After that, the temp got up to 250-260 so I partially closed the vents and let it ride that way until the butts were done, which was about 8:30 pm (13-1/2 hours altogether).  When I took them off, one was 190, the other about 193.  Rested them an hour in a small cooler, and they pulled just about perfectly.  All the meat is in the refrigerator, so tomorrow I'll feast at lunch, then vacuum seal what's left.

The only photo I took was of the finished pulled pork.  As food porn goes, it was definitely a PG rating so I didn't post it.   :badgrin:


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## Guest (May 7, 2006)

Oh yeaaaah!  =P~


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## Finney (May 7, 2006)

Larry Wolfe said:
			
		

> cleglue said:
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I just see if I can stick my finger in the hole.


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## Puff1 (May 7, 2006)

Finney said:
			
		

> Larry Wolfe said:
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Ummm...........I'll just leave that alone :!:


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## Finney (May 7, 2006)

Puff said:
			
		

> Finney said:
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It probably for the best.


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