ulc
is one Smokin' Farker
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2017
- Location
- atlanta, ga
I ordered the 18.5 WSM Vortex plate from Hunsaker. For $55 shipped, it's pretty good deal in my opinion. The metal is heavy and thick. I was pretty impressed with the weight and the build quality.
Fits perfect.
I cooked two racks of spare ribs for the initial cook. I followed my usual procedure of pouring small chimney full of lit coal on top of pile of unlit charcoal. I used piece of cherry wood for smoke and opened one bottom vent full while keeping the other two closed and fully opened the top vent. After waiting 15 minutes, I placed the spare ribs in the smoker.
I monitored the WSM temperature and it was pretty much stuck at around 230 F for the first hour with one bottom vent fully opened. I like to cook the ribs at around 275-300 F. At that temp, spares usually finish in about 4 hours. So I opened the second bottom vent full thinking it would get me up to 275 F pretty quick. But strange thing happened. The temperature actually dropped to 219 and was rapidly going back and forth between 219 to 229 F. It was really strange. At first I thought it was a problem with my Maverick temperature probe. But it wasn't. After checking the probe and the temp multiple times, I decided to open all three bottom vents full. The WSM temperature finally started to increase and after another hour, it settled at 270 F and wouldn't go higher. It cooked at 270 F for the next two hours. After the 4th hour into the cook, I started opening the lid lot more to check on the ribs. This caused the WSM temperature to shoot up to around 300 F. So I fully closed two of the bottom vents and only kept one bottom vent fully opened. That dropped the temperature to around 277 F until the ribs finished cooking at the 5 hour mark.
The finished ribs tasted great. It had just the right amount of smoke. Little more smoke than if I cooked with empty water pan on top of the charcoal ring but way less than if I cooked without any deflector and let the grease drippings drop straight into the burning charcoal. This was the charcoal smoke profile I was looking for.
So I guess going forward, I need to start with lot more lit charcoal if I want to start cooking at 275 F right away with only one bottom vent open. Maybe a large chimney full of lit charcoal. Or start with half chimney full but open all three bottom vents full. I'm sure after few cooks I'll get it dialed in so I don't have to monitor the temps.
Fits perfect.
I cooked two racks of spare ribs for the initial cook. I followed my usual procedure of pouring small chimney full of lit coal on top of pile of unlit charcoal. I used piece of cherry wood for smoke and opened one bottom vent full while keeping the other two closed and fully opened the top vent. After waiting 15 minutes, I placed the spare ribs in the smoker.
I monitored the WSM temperature and it was pretty much stuck at around 230 F for the first hour with one bottom vent fully opened. I like to cook the ribs at around 275-300 F. At that temp, spares usually finish in about 4 hours. So I opened the second bottom vent full thinking it would get me up to 275 F pretty quick. But strange thing happened. The temperature actually dropped to 219 and was rapidly going back and forth between 219 to 229 F. It was really strange. At first I thought it was a problem with my Maverick temperature probe. But it wasn't. After checking the probe and the temp multiple times, I decided to open all three bottom vents full. The WSM temperature finally started to increase and after another hour, it settled at 270 F and wouldn't go higher. It cooked at 270 F for the next two hours. After the 4th hour into the cook, I started opening the lid lot more to check on the ribs. This caused the WSM temperature to shoot up to around 300 F. So I fully closed two of the bottom vents and only kept one bottom vent fully opened. That dropped the temperature to around 277 F until the ribs finished cooking at the 5 hour mark.
The finished ribs tasted great. It had just the right amount of smoke. Little more smoke than if I cooked with empty water pan on top of the charcoal ring but way less than if I cooked without any deflector and let the grease drippings drop straight into the burning charcoal. This was the charcoal smoke profile I was looking for.
So I guess going forward, I need to start with lot more lit charcoal if I want to start cooking at 275 F right away with only one bottom vent open. Maybe a large chimney full of lit charcoal. Or start with half chimney full but open all three bottom vents full. I'm sure after few cooks I'll get it dialed in so I don't have to monitor the temps.