Okay, so Steve Kirks has had a couple of bbq experiences at my house and now has posted about the Smokey Mountain Cooker on his blog. I think it’s a ploy to make me post more, well guess what Steve, it worked. I’ve been pondering what to post about this smoker for awhile, mainly during my blog hiatus.
I have been wanting a smoker for a long time, pretty much since we moved to Springfield. As the few regular readers I have left will know, I don’t think there is any good bbq in Springfield, MO. Last fall I finally decided I was going to get a smoker and started researching. What I came up with was spend a lot of money on a custom Klose smoker or get the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker. The WSM is a charcoal bullet smoker. For more information that you’ve ever wanted you can check out the Virtual Weber Bullet. Sarah’s parents gave me money towards a smoker this Christmas and I found the WSM for a mere $199.99 at the local Westlakes hardware store – cheaper than even Amazon.com which usually has a cheaper price.
I’ve fired the smoker up three times now – once for our day before New Year’s Eve party, for a bbq dinner party, and then a couple of weekends ago when Steve brought the brats to our house. So far I’ve smoked two pork shoulders, a brisket, three slabs of ribs, a chicken, salmon filets, and assorted sausages. I’ve yet to be disappointed with the smoker.
To make my life easier I use the Minion method for firing the smoker and have a Maverick remote probe thermomter. I’m able to get 6-8 hours uninterrupted cooking and usually 13-14 hours with only a couple of checks. I’m very comfortable firing the smoker up and going to bed and letting the thermometer alert me to any issues.
More on the smoker will come, I’m planning to start posting my cooking logs each time I fire it up.