Kyle Serlington
Full Fledged Farker
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2014
- Location
- Binghamt...
I decided to cook some ribs and wings today, which is what i've cooked the most of, so i have a good technique down. I usually get Wegmans brand lump charcoal but they were out, so I went to Lowes and i found a kind I haven't used before, Cowboy brand Southern Style, made of hickory and oak. I've used their regular kind before and I don't remember having any issues. last time i used it there were huge pieces in there, but this was a little more broken down, which i prefer. I filled my charcoal chimney about 3/4 full and lit it off, and then i poured a good amount into the charcoal ring in my WSM, leaving a little less than a quarter of a bag left. Once the coal was ready to dump over the unlit stuff for the minion method, it had burned down to under half way full. I thought i was going to have a problem getting it lit. boy was i wrong!! i dumped it, let things get lit up for a few minutes, and then I assembled the smoker and went inside while the coals burn off and get to temp.
So i come out maybe 15 minutes or so later to check the temp. it was 300, which is normally when I put the food on because my WSM usually ends up settling at 275 after I put the food on. Now I always start off with just straight charcoal, I know some people bury wood chunks in with it, but I don't, I wait for all the white smoke to burn off and then I add a chunk or two at a time for clear blue smoke, only this time i was getting a lot of clear blue smoke before I put any wood on! i figured it must be the type of charcoal, so I went ahead and put my meat on
Now I always start with a full water pan. I know most people don't and I'm in the minority here, but I've never had any issues with it so as of now I don't have a reason not to fill it. I checked my smoker out about a half hour into the cook. temp was at 325 and the water had already gone down a bit, so i filled another pitcher of water and dumped it in, hoping that the temp would go down a little. the vents were fully open too, but I decided to choke them down half way the next time I went out to my smoker, which was an hour into the cook and the WSM was at 350!! I was planning on the wings taking 2 hours, but they were pretty much done after 1 hour. A few wings that were at the very outer edge of the rack were already pretty crisp on the one side, so I flipped them to try and even up the other side, even though they were already technically done. so about 20 minutes later i come back to check and the smoker is back down to 300 and the wings were ready for sauce. I usually sauce my wings and then put them on the gas grill for a high heat finish, but that was totally not needed, so I sauced em and put em back on the WSM for about another 15 minutes. some of them came out fine but some were too charred. I did the majority of them with a honey chipotle BBQ glaze i whipped up today, and then the rest of them i did in a mix of honey, mustard, cayenne hot sauce, and a little bit of habanero hot sauce. They obviously weren't my best but the majority of them weren't too bad. I shouldn't have tried to crowd everything onto one rack, lesson learned.
so after i took the chicken off I decided to check the ribs before I ate my lunch. I planned on the ribs taking about 5 hours, but now at 2.5 hours in they were passing the bend test. :doh: so i put even more water in the pan and choked the vents down even more. i checked in after i ate my wings and the temp was down to 275 and then i probed the ribs and they were at 187 i think.
So I decided to sauce em and choke the vents down so they were just open a crack, and then i closed the top vent down half way, which i never do. in a half hour i checked and the temp was 250 in the smoker. I knew the ribs were totally done, and i knew the risk of leaving them on, but instead of taking them out and putting them in the oven set to warm, i just closed the vents all the way and let em ride. when i was ready to eat dinner I checked and the smoker was under 200, and i was gunna try the bend test again but when i went to pick em up i felt like they were going to split, so i didn't lift em. I plated them, took some pics, and dug in
as expected, they were a bit too tender, but aside from the ends they weren't too charred or anything and they weren't dry at all, they were still very good eating ribs! it's weird, one end of the rack was very pink from the smoke, but in the middle where i cut to show off the ring it was pretty mild in color, just a little pink near the top of the meat, but the smoke flavor was definitely there.
Now when i was in the store I didn't see the regular Cowboy brand, maybe this actually is the regular brand and they just repackaged it, but i've never had this experience before. If it's always like this then I will use it in the future for brisket and chicken half cooks, but for pork i will stick to another brands. i know this is a long post, so if you've made it this far, thanks!
So i come out maybe 15 minutes or so later to check the temp. it was 300, which is normally when I put the food on because my WSM usually ends up settling at 275 after I put the food on. Now I always start off with just straight charcoal, I know some people bury wood chunks in with it, but I don't, I wait for all the white smoke to burn off and then I add a chunk or two at a time for clear blue smoke, only this time i was getting a lot of clear blue smoke before I put any wood on! i figured it must be the type of charcoal, so I went ahead and put my meat on
Now I always start with a full water pan. I know most people don't and I'm in the minority here, but I've never had any issues with it so as of now I don't have a reason not to fill it. I checked my smoker out about a half hour into the cook. temp was at 325 and the water had already gone down a bit, so i filled another pitcher of water and dumped it in, hoping that the temp would go down a little. the vents were fully open too, but I decided to choke them down half way the next time I went out to my smoker, which was an hour into the cook and the WSM was at 350!! I was planning on the wings taking 2 hours, but they were pretty much done after 1 hour. A few wings that were at the very outer edge of the rack were already pretty crisp on the one side, so I flipped them to try and even up the other side, even though they were already technically done. so about 20 minutes later i come back to check and the smoker is back down to 300 and the wings were ready for sauce. I usually sauce my wings and then put them on the gas grill for a high heat finish, but that was totally not needed, so I sauced em and put em back on the WSM for about another 15 minutes. some of them came out fine but some were too charred. I did the majority of them with a honey chipotle BBQ glaze i whipped up today, and then the rest of them i did in a mix of honey, mustard, cayenne hot sauce, and a little bit of habanero hot sauce. They obviously weren't my best but the majority of them weren't too bad. I shouldn't have tried to crowd everything onto one rack, lesson learned.
so after i took the chicken off I decided to check the ribs before I ate my lunch. I planned on the ribs taking about 5 hours, but now at 2.5 hours in they were passing the bend test. :doh: so i put even more water in the pan and choked the vents down even more. i checked in after i ate my wings and the temp was down to 275 and then i probed the ribs and they were at 187 i think.
So I decided to sauce em and choke the vents down so they were just open a crack, and then i closed the top vent down half way, which i never do. in a half hour i checked and the temp was 250 in the smoker. I knew the ribs were totally done, and i knew the risk of leaving them on, but instead of taking them out and putting them in the oven set to warm, i just closed the vents all the way and let em ride. when i was ready to eat dinner I checked and the smoker was under 200, and i was gunna try the bend test again but when i went to pick em up i felt like they were going to split, so i didn't lift em. I plated them, took some pics, and dug in
as expected, they were a bit too tender, but aside from the ends they weren't too charred or anything and they weren't dry at all, they were still very good eating ribs! it's weird, one end of the rack was very pink from the smoke, but in the middle where i cut to show off the ring it was pretty mild in color, just a little pink near the top of the meat, but the smoke flavor was definitely there.
Now when i was in the store I didn't see the regular Cowboy brand, maybe this actually is the regular brand and they just repackaged it, but i've never had this experience before. If it's always like this then I will use it in the future for brisket and chicken half cooks, but for pork i will stick to another brands. i know this is a long post, so if you've made it this far, thanks!
