Two More Pork Butts On The 18.5" Weber Smokey Mountain

I smoked another two pork butts on the 18.5" smoker today! I cut them in half and put the 8 lb butt in the middle rack and the 6 lb butt on the top rack.

The outside temp today was 6 degrees with wind chill making it feel like -9 degrees. My pit temp was adjusted and was holding strong at 256 degrees. The 18.5" WSM was wrapped with a welder's blanket.  The pit temp and meat temp were monitored indoors using the remote of the ThermoWorks Smoke thermometer. (Can't smoke without that thing!!)  I also used water in the water pan and had a pizza pan (wrapped in aluminum foil) on top of the water pan.

Eventually, the pit temp dropped to 228 degrees, so I opened up all of the lower vents on the WSM to get more air in.  That started to raise the temp to 240 degrees where it remained until I decided to put the meat into aluminum trays and wrap the top with aluminum foil.  The internal temp of the meat was at 150 degrees, but the pit temp had started to drop to 230 degrees.  I also added more charcoal to the charcoal grate in hopes to raise the pit temp and to keep the heat going.  It helped bring the pit temp up to 270 degrees.

Total cook time was 5 hours, 45 mins.  I took the meat out when it hit 198 degrees just to be sure both top and middle grate butts were done.  I was only monitoring the butt on the middle grate, but I confirmed that the top was finished by using my ThermoWorks RT-600C Pocket thermometer.  That temp was 199 degrees.

I decided not to pull the pork but to slice it instead.  There wasn't much rub left from previous rub containers, so I just used what I had.  Because of this, the pork isn't too salty (a good thing for me, really) and there wasn't much bark either.  It's ok.  Still tender enough!

Charcoal Grate Mod for the Weber Smokey Mountain

Here's a mod you can do to your Weber Smokey Mountain charcoal grates! I can't take credit for this one... thanks to Anthony Haden from the "Fans of the Smokey Mountain Smoker" Facebook Group for this idea. He also says that he can't take credit either since he got this idea this from someone else on the forum too!

I have two charcoal grates that are crisscrossed so that the used charcoal can't escape to the bottom of the WSM too quickly before they are truly burned up. But cleaning the bottom has always been a pain since I'd have to take out the charcoal ring and both grates separately which just made my hands all dirty.

Now, with this mod, I can just grab the eyebolts, shake the grate and all of the ash falls through leaving just the unburned charcoal behind!

I bought the hardware at Lowe's (no relation to me due to my last name being the same) and the cost for each smoker was only $3.06 for the two eyebolts (comes with two nuts), four washers and two more nuts. So for both smokers, the total cost was $6.12 before tax.

The second charcoal grate was bought through Amazon for $8.99 (here's a link if you want one for your 18.5" smoker: http://amzn.to/2CsPaLJ).  For the 22.5" smoker, I used this one: http://amzn.to/2Csjp5z. Cost was $10.99.

I used 6" eyebolts. For the 18.5" WSM, this makes the height of the eyebolt to the top of the charcoal ring, so it doesn't get in the way of your water pan.

The photos you see here are on my 18.5" WSM. I'm doing it for my 22.5" as well.

Overall, I'm very happy with this upgrade. If you do it, let me know in the comment section! Thanks again to Anthony and also to whoever it was that gave him the idea!

Why I Recommend The 18.5" Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker Over The 14.5" or 22.5"

I own all three Weber Smokey Mountain Cookers. Here are the reasons I recommend the 18.5" smoker for most beginners when asked which size smoker to get:

1. It has a larger capacity than you think. You can fit a lots of food in the top and middle grates. But for lot of ribs, you might have to cut them in half. For a family of 4 or 5, the 18.5" can do most of your family meals. There's enough space to put a lot of meat in there!

2. It's easier to move around. While the 14.5" is obviously the lightest in weight, you can still move the 18.5" relatively easily. The 22.5" is a monster when you have to remove the middle section. It's heavy and I've even tweaked my back lifting it. If water is in the pan as well, it's even heavier. But the 18.5" is manageable and is less heavy.

3. It uses less fuel than the 22.5", but has enough space for enough fuel for winter cooking. The 14.5" smoker seems to run out of fuel when doing long cooks in the winter. I tried doing a pork butt for pulled pork and the 14.5" needed more fuel than the charcoal ring could comfortably hold. Perhaps others can do it, but I just could not get enough smoke time without refueling twice. Once the bottom section filled up with ashes, I just could not put any more fuel in comfortably. The 22.5" obviously has the ability to hold more fuel, but it also uses up more. While others have said that charcoal is cheap, it may not be "cheap" for some folks. A few dollars here and there adds up over many cooks.

4. It costs less than a 22.5". $100 may not be much of a savings, but you can buy a bunch more food with that!

5. Many people move up to a 22.5" and may sell the 18.5" used at a good price. Keep an eye out on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist.

I hope this list helps some thinking of getting a WSM but not sure which to get.

6 lb Pork Butt And One Rack of Pork Back Ribs Smoked During 11 Degree Weather

I decided to smoke a 6 lb pork butt and one rack of pork back ribs during 11 degree temperature.  The pork butt was butterflied open to get more surface area for the rub and to make it easier to cook.  Both were rubbed with Rufus Teague - Meat Rub.  I did not use any wood for this cook.  I used water in the water pan and also had a pizza pan (wrapped in aluminum foil) on top of the water pan.

Initially, I wrapped the smoker with a welder's blanket, but that brought the pit temperature to 315 degrees which is way too high for "low and slow" smoking.  Taking it off, the temp dropped to 257 degrees which is ideal.  I ended up putting the welder's blanket back on the smoker when the pit temp dropped to 250 degrees.  After the blanket was installed, the pit temp stabilized at 255 degrees.  It also started to snow lightly after 1.5 hours into the cook.

I did have to add perhaps 20 more briquets of charcoal to the fire pit towards the last hour of the cook. I didn't fill the charcoal ring initially, so it wasn't surprising that it needed a little more charcoal. I put Kingsford Original to start but the 20 additional were Kingsford professional. The temp of the pit went from 257 degrees to 272 degrees.

I smoked the ribs for 3.25 hours unwrapped and then another 2.25 more hours wrapped with aluminum foil. The pork butt remained unwrapped until the stall at an internal temp of 150 degrees and then it was wrapped. It happened to coincide with the time I wrapped the ribs. Apple juice was added in an aluminum pan before covering it with aluminum. The pork butt was cooked until it reaches an internal temp of 197 degrees. Total time for the butt was 6.5 hours.

Both items turned out great. No issues with either one!

Watch a video of the smoker here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJUYr31WFwM 

Watch a video of the smoker with a welder's blanket on:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbdIn47ubXU

Family Hot Pot Dinner

Family members on my wife's side gathered together for a Christmas dinner at my brother-in-law's home for a "Hot Pot" feast. The night before, my family hosted a Christmas Eve dinner where I got to smoke six full racks of ribs and two fillets of salmon.

For this dinner, everyone brought ingredients to share and hot pots to use.  Some were simple deep fryers used for the hot pot and others had burners made with pots specifically designed for hot pot cooking.

I brought my portable butane stove along with my vintage Lodge #9 griddle so that I could cook up anything that we didn't want to boil in the hot pot.  To me, this is more fun than just boiling up the food.  The problem though is that it's messy.  Oil splashes all over the table, on the burner and on you!  Still, I'd rather do that than just sit and boil food.

Overall, the dinner was a hit.  We all had a great time and I had fun just cooking up wontons,  shrimp, scallops, squid, Korean bulgogi seasoned pork (I'm not Korean), pork belly slices, and other ingredients.  Always fun to gather around for a family meal.

Six Racks of Baby Back Ribs and Salmon for Christmas Eve

I had six racks of baby back ribs on the 22.5" Weber Smokey Mountain smoker! It was the first time using a rib rack.  I had the ribs on the rack for about 2.75 hours smoked with Apple wood and then they were sauced and wrapped in aluminum foil for 2 hours.  Sweet Baby Rays barbecue sauce was inside the foil.  The rub was Rufus Teague - Meat Rub.

My ThermoWorks Smoke thermometer was in a Tupperware container to protect it from the snow. A hole was drilled in the bottom so that the probe wires can go through.  Monitoring was done with the remote. The Pit temp was hovering at 237 degrees so I decided to put the welder blanket on even though there wasn't much wind at all.  That brought the pit temp up to 253 degrees and it stayed there for the remainder of the cook.

Two salmon fillets were placed on the smoker for about 15 minutes and then finished off on my Weber Spirit E-310 propane grill.  Green onions, ginger slices, salt, pepper, brown sugar and soy sauce were used to season the fish.

Both items turned out great!

52 people were at our home today to enjoy the food.  LOTS OF OTHER FOOD were provided by our guests as well.  It was a huge feast!


Merry Christmas to everyone!

Blue Crabs On The Wok

Blue Crabs were on sale today at the Asian grocery store so I decided to get eight of them.  I put them into boiling water briefly to put them out and then cooled them down in cold water and cleaned them.  Afterwards I stir-fried them on the 22" wok.  I added green onions, ginger, soy sauce, salt and water/cornstarch.  Turned out great!

I uploaded a video of it cooking. Focus was "breathing" because I did not lock it down on manual focus after pre-focusing! Click here for the video.  The steam from the cooking made the auto focus think it was out of focus, so the camera kept hunting for the focus throughout the video. I'll do better next time. Check out the flame on the wok! The wok gets really hot in a very short time due to the burner pumping out 65,000 BTU's! 

Click here for the video.

9 lb Pork Butt For Pulled Pork On The Weber 14.5" Smokey Mountain Smoker

Today's smoke on the 14.5" Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker... a 9 lb pork butt cut in half. Half on the top grate the other half on the bottom.  I'm going for pulled pork.

This time, I put the rub on the meat the night before the cook.  I decided to try out McCormick's Grill Mates Pork Rub.  The butt was cut in half so that more rub can be on the extra surface area and to help cut the smoke time.  Speaking of smoking... I did not use any wood this time, just charcoal.  Every hour, I spritzed the meat with apple juice.

I used a welder's blanket to keep the temperature up. The outdoor temperature today was ranging from 18 to 23 degrees. My pit temp had been hanging strong at 245 degrees but as the coals started to burn down, it had dropped to 226 degrees.  Stirring up the coals helped bring that temp back up, but after a while, I decided I needed to add some more.  Instead of the Kingsford Original, I put in some Kingsford Professional this time which burns a little hotter.

I decided to wrap after 3 hours.  I put the meat in two aluminum pans, added some apple juice for moisture and closed them up with aluminum foil.  The internal meat temperature was at 151 degrees and not moving, so I guessed this is where it was stalling.  After some time, the pit temperature kept dropping.  I tried to replenish the charcoal two extra times, but I could not get the pit temp to rise high enough to get the internal temp of the meat to go past 185 degrees.  Eventually, the internal temp of the meat started to drop to 175 degrees!

I decided something needed to be done at that point, so I took the two portions out of the smoker and finished it in the oven.  I preheated the oven to 325 degrees and put the meat in there.  The plan was to get the internal temp to rise to the required 195 degrees which is needed to break down the collagen for pulled pork.  It worked!

While the small 14.5" smoker seems fine for some foods even in cold weather, to keep it going at a temperature that is needed to bring the internal temp of pulled pork to 195 degrees, a lot of charcoal is required to sustain a long amount of time.  The smaller charcoal ring on this smoker just filled up with ash too quickly after multiple replenishments.  I don't see a problem using the small smoker for doing ribs or chicken which doesn't require a very long cook time, but not for pulled pork in the winter!  It can't sustain that long of time without lots of charcoal, and that can't fit in the coal ring!  It's probably fine to do pulled pork in the 14.5" smoker in nice weather, but I don't think it cuts it for long time cooks in cold weather.

The total cook time for the smoker and the oven combined was at bit over 7 hours.

Regardless, the end result turned out great!  Very easy to pull the pork after finishing in the oven.  I cooked it until the internal temperature reached 198 degrees.  Plenty moist, the bone came out totally clean and the taste was great too!  The McCormick rub seemed less salty to me and not spicy.  Very mild actually, but that's fine because those who might want to put some BBQ sauce on the pork would get that flavor more and not worry about saltiness.  Overall, I'm happy with this cook!

FYI:  The images on this post were taken with the current entry-level Nikon DSLR - the Nikon D3400 and the18-55mm f3.5 - 5.6 kit lens.  Who says cameras under $550 can't take a great photo?!  (I got this one for only $395.95 during the holiday sales!) While I have taken most of the photos here on this food blog with an iPhone 6s+ due to ease of use, the richness of colors and clarity even with this inexpensive DSLR camera is far better.  I typically shoot my critical photos with a Nikon D4 and a Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 lens but it's hard to beat this D3400 combo for its image quality to cost ratio!  All images too can be custom white balanced for color accuracy and consistency... something I can't do with the iPhone!

Mark Weins - Migrationology

Without doubt, my favorite "YouTuber" is Mark Weins.  Mark's food videos are fun to watch and to imagine what the food he eats tastes like.

I started watching Mark several years ago when I first started going on a diet.  Strangely, while I can't eat the food due to dieting, I have no problems watching someone else eating it!  I started watching a bunch of videos on food and stumbled onto Mark Weins.  His famous "head tilt" makes me laugh all the time, but it's his signature move.  He does this whenever he eats something he really likes.

Check out his YouTube channel: Mark Weins

He has two other channels as well: Mark Weins Abroad and Mark Weins Vlogs

And finally, his website, Migrationology.com

Besides the food, I get to see the world as he travels throughout Asia and other places!

His friendly demeanor and upbeat descriptions of the food he eats makes the videos interesting to watch.  Typically, he uploads two videos per week.  With well over 1 million followers on YouTube, he's one of the most popular YouTubers in the food genres.  His wife Ying does most of the camera work, although at times, Mark will hold the camera himself (usually while he's walking and talking).  And let's not forget his new baby, Micah!  That kid's going to be traveling the world!

Check out Mark Weins on his YouTube channels!

(Image borrowed from the internet)

First Smoke On The 14.5" Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker Smoker - Chicken Drumsticks

I decided to smoke 20 chicken drumsticks and 4 chicken thighs on the 14.5" smoker! It is PACKED! This was the first run on this smoker with food (although I did run one batch of charcoal through the smoker without any food on it a couple of days ago), so I thought I'd do chicken since it requires a higher temp to cook.  New smokers tend to run hot until a "coating" of grease and smoke get on the inside of the walls of the smoker.  I filled the entire charcoal rack and did not put water in the pan (although I did wrap the pan with aluminum and put the pan in the smoker). I put two chunks of Apple wood for the smoke.

The outside temperature was 31 degrees. The initial pit temp was at 294 degrees. I loosely wrapped the smoker with a 4'x6' welder's blanket that I purchased on Amazon.com.

Throughout the cook, the smoker stayed around 282-284 degrees.  I smoked the chicken until it hit 166 degrees.  Total cook time was 2.5 hours.  While I used a full charcoal ring of fuel, I was surprised how much un-burned charcoal was actually left over after the cook!  I'll be re-using this for another future cook.

The chicken came out tasting really smoky and the skin was less "rubbery" than in the past.  I think had the smoker been able to hit 350 degrees (or in that area), the skin would have been more crisp than rubbery.  Maybe I'll use lump charcoal for chicken in the future.  Still, it was better than my past chicken attempts.  Had the smoker not been loaded down so much and had there been a warmer temperature outdoors, perhaps it could have been higher even with the standard Kingsford charcoal.

I do believe however, that the welding blanket helped keep the temperature higher.  Before I installed it on the smoker, temps were hanging around the 230 degree mark.  I'll be doing more cooks on the small 14.5" WSM in the future and through the winter, the blanket will be on!

Why I Like Smoking So Much

The reason I like smoking so much is that it's easy!  I like the challenge of cooking, but I'm basically lazy when I cook. While other smokers might be easier (pellet smokers, etc) and others are harder to work with, the Weber Smokey Mountain Cookers are (to me) relatively easy to use.

Sure, I have to pour in the charcoal and light it. I have to put rub on the meat. I have to insert thermometer probes into the meat and on top of the grill grate. But that's basically it! While the smoker does its thing, I sit back and watch TV, work on my computer... anything other than cooking. 

I have a Thermoworks Smoke thermometer too to make my job even easier. Because of the remote, I never have to go and check on the temperature by lifting the lid... I just look at the remote while I'm watching TV.

I'll go every now and then and spray the meat with some liquid (usually apple juice) but I let the smoker do the rest of the work. Sometimes, I have to wrap the meat in foil, sometimes not. Then after many hours, I take the meat out, let it rest and then serve it!

There is a little bit of challenge in having to "dial in" the right temp by adjusting the bottom vents, but that's part of the charm of this smoker.

Why do I need three smokers? Various sizes for various amounts of food!

Makes sense to me...

New Addition To The Smoker Family - Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker - 14.5"

I figured, "Why not?"  I added the 14.5" version of the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker smoker to my other two smokers!  Now I have all three versions... 14.5", 18.5" and 22.5"

I am debating if I will upgrade the door to another Cajon Bandit door and latch, but I really would prefer to leave it if possible.  However, reports from others have said that it could leak and if it does, I'll likely upgrade it.  I will try it as is first to see.

I was able to get this "new" smoker on Facebook Marketplace for only $120.  It was used, but never "used"!  It was stored, but never cooked in.  Too hard to pass up.

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Edit Update:  I "seasoned" the small smoker today.  Didn't cook anything in it, but I put in one chimney starter worth of coals.  I put in the water pan with water as well (after foiling the pan).  It ran up to 310 degrees at its highest but stayed mostly around 285 degrees.  The smoker ran for 4 hours easily at that temperature range before starting to drop in temperature.  Seasoning these smokers isn't necessary, but I do know from experience that if you don't, you can expect the first smoking will have higher temperatures than you might like.  Running it a couple of times before committing it to food will mean you have a better chance of a more stable temperature during a cook.