First smoke in the rain

[thesmokingpenguin]

So, got the WSM on Monday and ran it in dry during the week, so today i'm going to try and actually cook something! I put up a gazebo and got up far too early, but i've now got in some "warhorse" ribs (cheers steve - http://www.bbbqs.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=1727) and a beer can chicken with a kansas city rub.

After a bit of temperature madness, it seems to have settled at around 257F, and the probe in chicken is at 129F after about an hour (is that too fast to rise up? - seems to be a bit quick if it's only got to get to 170 in 4hrs)

Here's some initial pics:


Also, i'm a little confused on when to foil the meats - do i need to for the chicken and the ribs?

[JEC]

Meat temps can rise quickly and slow down as you approach the "stall", evaporative cooling, based on your temperature you shouldn't have anything to worry about. Foiling is optional, personally I never foil chicken, ruins the crispy skin, ribs and other meats depends on my mood and who is eating it, for me I tend not to as I like a bit of bite to the meat, the rest of my family like backyard style ribs that fall off the bone so those usually get foiled to speed it up and prevent drying out. When it comes to BBQ just chill and enjoy it, don't worry and most stuff will come good in the end

Have fun, I loved my WSM

[thesmokingpenguin]

Well the chicken is out and it really succulent and tasty - managed to knock it over then have to stand it back up about half an hour before the end, which caused all sorts of temperature mayhem - but all good now and just keeping an eye on the beef-

[thesmokingpenguin]

All finished up and pretty pleased with the results - the chicken went down an absolute storm with Sunday lunch - the ribs have a lovely smoke ring to them and believe it or not we didn't eat them all before resting (we'd also oven slow cooked a 3kg lamb shoulder to the point of pulling, so after that and the chicken was demolished by 8 of us, we couldn't physically eat any more!). After having the ribs off for a good couple of hours, foiled and resting, they actually got a bit more suculent. I think I may have overcooked them a little - it was a bit confusing tbh - when i stuck the maverick in at first it rushed up to 190f over an hour or so, but i tested it with my food probe and it was about 168f, so i repositioned the maverick probe and the got it up to about 189f over a couple of hours, but then when i tested with the food probe, some were up to 125f!! I think it was probably a combination of different sizes of ribs and prehaps having the probe touching the bone at first - either way, I think a thermapen may well be needed!