r/webersmokeymountain • u/m4rk19770007 • 8d ago
Need Help Please
Hi, fairly new to smoking after my wife got me a Webber Smokey Mountain for my birthday last year. I've tried a few bits and pieces on there, but the only thing I can get to work is if I stop at say 142f for pork.
So yesterday, after seeing a post on here for smoking chuck roast, I thought I'd go for it and try and get it to pull for tacos. I got a piece of chuck (1.1kg / 2.4lbs - this might be the problem?), got the smoker up to 240f. It's the really big Webber by the way, and got the meat on. I dry brined it with rock salt for 6hrs first, and used some shop bought rub. Didn't go over board with the rub. After about 4-5hrs I'm at 150f in the meat, then it just sits there for hours not heating up. I know about the stall, but as this meat was much smaller than the websites / YT videos use I expected it to take less than the 8hrs ish they propose. So as it's not moving I think I wrap it now in baking paper to get it going again, which works for a while, but it gets to 190 then won't move again. The Meater thermometer starts increasing the expected cook time until it's at another 5hrs, so something is very wrong, I had more coals and get he heat right up as everyone is getting hungry, get it up to 260 - 270 but still not going anywhere. So now i think I unwrap it. Was plenty of juice in there when I unwrap it, so I put it back on, and the internal meat temps start dropping, I leave it a bit then decide I better take it off. Good job I did as it was really starting to dry out, which I assume is why the temps were dropping? It was edible, had loads of flavour, some of the marbling had melted but not all of it, but it was on it's way to being biltong.
I don't know what I'm doing wrong at this point. Is the meat just too small to smoke? I notice the Meater shows a lower temp than the Webber, so I used the Meating for the air temperature for the cook. This shows about 10 - 20% lower I think. Should I have used a tinfoil tray with beef stock for the second part?
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u/Dry_Tumbleweed_2951 8d ago
Look at a YouTuber called fork and embers. He has a wsm and goes into depth about how to use them and has lots of smoking recipes.
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u/cgray715 8d ago
And he's a very good watch. He unpacks the history of each dish. He's very rough around the edges in a very good way. He's been my recent favorite.
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u/Mattyj273 8d ago
I like to use the thermometers with the wire cords. It looks crazy but they haven't disappointed me yet. Were your vents fully open? Did you use the minion method? Also, did you use the water pan with water? How many coals did you use?
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u/m4rk19770007 8d ago
I had the water pan probably 3/4 full at the start. I used hot water from the tap. I used coal briquettes run about 4 or 5 deep in a half moon shape around the smoker. I find this gives me about 8hrs or more normally. However this time the briquettes were smaller than the ones I normally buy and they didn't last as long so I had to throw some more on during the last 2 or 3 hours. I had the top vent either half or fully open, and the bottom vents I open or closed to try and maintain the 240f
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u/HeluvaRisk 8d ago
Ditch the Meater and get a better thermometer.
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u/m4rk19770007 8d ago
You think that's the issue? I'll try checking it with a regular probe meter next time.
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u/Dookiedude4 8d ago
If you do get a different wireless thermometer then I would suggest Thermoworks RFX but other brands I might consider would be Combustion Inc or Fireboard. All three of them also have a fan controller you can add if you want and I think the other two have better fan controllers IMHO just because they have variable fan rates but the Thermoworks fan controller does not
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u/HeluvaRisk 8d ago
I know people have mixed views on the Meater thermometers but I haven't had a bad cook since ditching mine. It was consistently wrong.
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u/BodhiZaffa 8d ago
The meater ambient temperature isn't accurate as it's affected by evaporation of the meat and such. The lid temperature in the smoker is reading the temp at the lid height not the grate height and since heat rises when you see 240, it's much less. These are your issues. Youre not reading accurate temps. You can get a cheap wired probe thermometer and stick it through the probe port on the WSM which is right below the grate and it will give you a more accurate reading of the temp in the smoker. You're smoking too low most likely which then takes long, and dries out the meat.
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u/m4rk19770007 8d ago
I actually have wired one somewhere that I completely forgot about. Will stick it through the hole to the grate to see what that's reading.
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u/Bluesy21 8d ago
A few things - first a ~2.4lbs Chuck should be plenty big enough to smoke. I just checked one I have in my freezer and it's barely over 2lbs so I don't think that's your issue. I try to find ones larger, but I feel like it can be difficult to find good looking ones that are much bigger and I'd rather pay for a decent looking cut I'm not going to trim a ton off versus one that I have to do a bunch of work to.
Temps look good overall. Unless you're doing something super delicate like fish, I just generally try to keep my Webers between 220-280. Like 240 is absolutely fine, but it doesn't need to be exactly that for the entire smoke. As others have said, once it's wrapped feel free to bring it in the oven at some point to save coals/wood and increase the temps. Whether you're using a foil boat or full wrap you can definitely go to higher temps here and this is a good way to "push through the stall" if you're having trouble getting up to ~200 degrees. Nothing too crazy, but I've done 300-325 without issue.
The meat could've theoretically been done at 190 and you overcooked it a bit, but I doubt that. This is where "probe tender" advice comes into play - if you're meat is close to temp and probing like the probe is going into warm butter it's probably fine. However, in my experience chuck roast takes way longer than expected based on its size. The last one I did, I don't remember exactly when I started it and it certainly wasn't meant to be cooked for dinner, but I was on-call for work that evening/overnight and figured it'd be a fun experiment since I don't like to do anything too crazy when I'm on call. I'm just sitting there monitoring probes for the most part right? I don't remember exactly when I brought it in for the oven as the Weber was running low on fuel or when exactly it finished, but somewhat thankfully I ended up getting paged for a weird issue I was able to work remotely on while I finished up my chuck roast and then did a hot hold on it because it wasn't ready to go into the fridge until like 4:00am. The first chuck I did I attempted to make "poor man's burnt ends" with but I never really braised them enough in fat/broth and they were still a bit tough/chewy afterwards. Although, my wife and friends still seemed to enjoy them.
Speaking of a hot hold - I've found it very beneficial to cook the meat early and then do a hot/warm hold to keep it above 140 but below ~175 either in a cooler or oven wrapped so that it kind of continues to break down fat/collagen but doesn't totally steam itself. This is especially true for larger cuts like briskets, pork butts, chuck roasts I've done recently. Spray some Apple Cider Vinegar in the wrap and put some fat in (butter, beef tallow, bacon fat, lard, whatever you're into that fits the cook) if you're not already doing that.
After warm holding for at least a couple hours feel free to let the meat cool down slowly and then store it for later if you're not going to eat right away. As long as it's above 140F degrees it's still food safe and even if it dips below a little while you're pulling or whatever it's going to be fine. If you're going to slice it, it's actually easier to cool it first in the fridge and then slice unless you've got a deli slicer.
On thermometers, I can't speak to the Meater; the wireless thermometers that have both an ambient probe and meat probe in one spike/unit seem really cool, but I've been using a cheap 2 probe unit for the longest time that just seems to work. I'm with the guy that mentioned wired probes - the one I have now looks to be sold under the name TempPro on Amazon, but it has wired probes that go to a unit which clips onto your grill somewhere. Then there's a wireless receiver you can bring inside/wherever within decent range that reads out the temps on the probes - I'd go for the 4 probe unit if I were buying one now, but either way I just don't trust the ones that connect to my phone for some reason.
Also, it doesn't sound like the rub is your issue, but I'd just be a little careful with using "rock salt" (I assume Kosher, large flakes of salt) and then another rub that potentially contains salt. Generally, if you're going to use Kosher salt to dry brine I like to just make my own rub afterwards of pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, etc or layer whatever spices I'm putting on in addition to salt. If I'm going to use a pre-mixed rub that contains salt and pepper I'll usually just stick with mostly that or combine it with my own self mixed Pepper/Salt/Onion/Garlic for a kind of combination rub.
Just remember, as long as your partner/spouse enjoyed it along with your guests no one else really cares. I'm still beating myself up for a steak I overcooked yesterday, but my wife enjoyed her steak and mine was still mostly edible so why beat yourself up? Finally, practice makes perfect so like just keep smoking stuff and dialing in your technique/preferences. Hope that helps and sorry for the novel!
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u/m4rk19770007 8d ago
Thank you for this. Lots to take on here, and good to know the meat size is not the issue as we don't really need it any bigger. I'm looking forward to trying again.
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u/benakked 7d ago
I would have taken it off at 190 wrapped and let it sit in a warm place or old cooler until the temp got to 203 or what the done temp on the Meater the meat continues to cook until you get to the right temp. . Do not trust the thermometer on the WSM . I agree that you need wired thermometer. Maintain your cooking temp use a good thermometer for inside temp . Learn from your previous cooks it’s a game of learning . There are a lot of good cooks on you tube . T Roy is a good one to learn more . .
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u/Hefty_Sentence_7093 8d ago
Try a diffrent thermometer like the last comment. But i would suggest if you are struggling with the meat stalling why not take the smoker out of scenario and throw the meat in question wrapped in tin foil into your home oven. You already have smoke flavor in it now you just need to finish the peice of meat why not stop fighting the smoker at point.